the Internet Public Library

Reference Staff Recruitment

• to answer reference questions for our "Ask a Question Service".

About Our Reference Service:
The IPL Reference Center provides experienced, professional reference assistance to any member of the Internet community. It is also an experimental laboratory where librarians and library students can develop skills using the Internet in the provision of reference service.

We seek librarians, library paraprofessionals who have experience working on reference desks, and students studying to become librarians, to help us serve our patrons by answering reference questions. One of the nice features of our reference service is that our volunteers get to choose which questions they want to answer. Our questions come from all over the world, and range over a wide variety of subject areas.

If you are a faculty member at an LIS school and are interested in learning how you and/or your students can work with the IPL, please read our Invitation to the Library School Community.

Why We Need You:
We value the contributions of as many librarians from as many different backgrounds and areas of subject expertise as possible. Input from volunteers helps us to refine and improve our services. Also, the more volunteers we have, the less likely it is that we will need to turn away patrons who ask us for help.

If you're interested in volunteering, we'd like to know a few things about you. Please send us an email message at ref-recruit@ipl.org letting us know that you are willing to volunteer your time and describing:

1. Your background in traditional reference librarianship.
2. Your experience with the Internet.
3. How you heard about our volunteer program.
4. Any subject areas in which you are particularly knowledgeable.
5. Where you are working or attending library school now (and if it is okay to list it on our Reference Staff page).

(Please do not send your information as an attachment - our mail software cannot handle them).

What You Need:

• An Internet email account
• Time to answer at least one or two questions per week. (More or less is okay, too. We are always in need of more volunteers!).
• Access to a World Wide Web browser with forms capabilities, such as Netscape or Internet Explorer, Mosaic 2.0 or later, or Lynx 2.0 or later.

Send your responses to ref-recruit@ipl.org

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