10. Have your students think about what they want to know before they log into CWAL. They’re more likely to get useful answers quickly if they ask good questions from the start!
9. Remind your students early and often – the operator on the other end is a real librarian, not a bot, so they should communicate accordingly. Cursing and hate speech are a “hard no.”
8. If you are using CWAL as part of a formal lesson, stagger your students a bit so that an entire class isn’t logging in simultaneously – it’s super confusing for the librarians when they’re inundated by 25 students all asking the same question(s) at once. We want to ensure all your students get thorough, correct answers and have a great user experience.
7. If you’ll be having an entire class log on (see #8), give CWAL coordinator Ed Wolf a heads up a day or two prior – he can ensure there are sufficient PA operators available for all your students.
6. Inform your students that colorful screen names fall under the umbrella of #9 – “Bxttface2022” is not an acceptable CWAL alias. 🤣🤣
5. Spamming the operators is another hard no. Resubmitting the same silly questions or nonquestions repeatedly within seconds of each other is the fastest way to NOT get help.
4. Point out to students that we have IP recognition on our end, so we know from which school the chats are originating, regardless of school name they provided, and have no issue making the librarian and even the principal aware of inappropriate behavior.
3. While CWAL’s librarians are very skilled at finding information, it may take a few minutes or more for the librarian to complete their search. Remind students to allow enough time for the librarian to find the best answer for them.
2. Even though we can identify what school a student is from, we do protect their privacy – unless a student indicates self-harm and/or violent behaviors or refuses to honor the behavioral expectations, we won’t tell anyone about their legitimately posed questions.
1. …and the number one way you can ensure your students have a great Chat with a Librarian experience is to assure them that we are here to help them 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. 😁💯
