The Young Americans College of the Performing Arts Reference Service Policy
Email reference assistance is available while classes are in session. Email is monitored 7 days a week. You will receive an answer within hours at the email address you provided
What can you expect?
- a response from a Young Americans Virtual Librarian within minutes or hours but most certainly within twenty-four hours.
- instructions for accessing and/or searching recommended Young Americans library databases or trusted websites
- the tools to assist in your research including attachments to your reply with sample articles, search strategies, demonstration videos, subject research guides, hyper-links and webpages, if available, and as needed.
Please describe your question or research topic with as much information as possible.
Scope
The Young Americans Virtual Librarians want to help. However, the scope of reference service does not extend to librarians doing the research for your paper for you, but rather in assisting you in the manner outlined above.
Privacy
The Virtual Librarian respects the privacy of students and faculty.
What information is collected?
Copies of all emails are retained. Survey responses are retained.
How is this information used?
The information is aggregated for the purpose of assessment and reporting to support continuous improvement of the Virtual Librarian services and resources. The questions are analyzed to see the amount and types of questions the librarians are asked. This helps to determine the appropriate staffing levels; appropriate response times; and utilization of databases. No person can be identified in the data analysis and the information is not collected for marketing or commercial purposes.
Who has access to this information?
The information collected by the Virtual Librarian is only accessible to librarians and staff associated with The Young Americans Virtual Librarian service.
Who does the library share the information with?
Statistics and excerpts generated from emails may be used for reports or publications. However, information about specific individuals (e.g. e-mails, names, phone numbers, etc.) that might be included will never be shared outside The Young Americans Virtual Librarian Service.
Usage Guidelines
The Virtual Librarian has a policy of mutual respect. The Young Americans College of Performing Arts virtual librarians will treat students and faculty with courtesy and respect, and they expect the same respect in return from the user. There are several types of behavior that are unacceptable and may cause you to lose the privilege to ask questions again in the future. Deliberately wasting the librarian's time or using language that is offensive, obscene or harassing will not be tolerated.
Copyright
As a student you will be doing research in the library and using copyrighted works. The Young Americans Library has written permission through licenses with publishers or holders of copyright and others for the lawful use of their copyrighted works in an educational setting. Copyright provisions do not allow the use of copyrighted works to be infringed upon fraudulently and students and instructors must adhere to the copyright laws of the United States. Authorized Users must be currently enrolled or employed at Young Americans and use is restricted to personal use. Secure access cannot be shared nor copyrighted works distributed, used for profit, amended or changed, For more information on copyright go to
http://copyright.gov or
http://creativecommons.org
We care about the quality of our reference service
At some time after your final reference service reply, we will send a link to a 4 question survey for you to rate our library resources and services. Please take the time to let us know how we did.
Social Networks
The Young Americans Virtual Librarians cannot accept invitations to social networking sites such as X (aka Twitter), Metta (aka Facebook), LinkedIn nor invitations to join chat contact lists. If a student wishes to have a research consult with the librarian for the purpose of legitimate reference assistance, rather than use email, we invite the student first to contact us via email at
virtuallibrarians@yacollege.edu to set up a time to have a research consult regarding their research needs.
Students are requested to please remove
virtuallibrarians@yacollege.edu from their contact list for the purposes of spam and automatic invitations. If they do not do this they may find their email to the virtual librarian will be routed automatically into a spam list, which may restrict their access to the virtual librarian for legitimate research questions.
