ABSTRACT
The Winter Park Public Library began Chat Live/Ask a Librarian (Chat Live), a live online reference service, on February 1, 2002. We first chose LiveAssistance as our library’s service provider but later switched to QuestionPoint, sponsored by OCLC. This paper outlines our experiences with both chat services and includes the following:312 our reasoning behind initiating a chat reference service; the selection process; how we trained and implemented the service into our daily routine; marketing the service to patrons; our day-to-day experiences (including a chat session transcript); the importance of script writing; some brief statistics on usage; and our overall thoughts on the process. [Article copies available for a fee from The Haworth Document Delivery Service: 1-800-HAWORTH. E-mail address: <docdelivery@hawonhpress.com> Website: <https://www.HaworthPress.com> © 2002/2003 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.]
