Looking for information?

Folks who read blogs are a select group of computer-savvy people (wink wink), but even computer-savvy people sometimes need help finding information. That's what the little "L-net" icon is for on our homepage: access to reference expertise, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, from the comfort of your own computer.

L-net is the "Oregon Libraries Network", an online reference service intended mainly for Oregon residents. Librarians from all over the state, including Newport, answer questions via online chat or email. According to the guidelines, you're welcome to ask any 'genuine' question. We can't just chat for fun, we need information to seek! If you're a student, we won't DO your homework for you, but we can probably help you if you're stuck on a problem or if you need help finding good sources of information for a report. We get all kinds of questions on all kinds of topics, from adults and children, and we're happy to try and answer them all. (Note: the actual reference librarian in the real-world library will also do this. Crazy, huh?) On the rare occasion when we can't find an answer for you right away, we'll keep looking, consult with others, and email you the information as soon as we can.

One caveat: L-net librarians can't help you with renewing books or with questions about fines on your account; for those types of issues, you will need someone at your own library to help you. When you go through L-net, you could be chatting with someone in Portland or Newberg or Eugene or Southern Oregon. There are even Ohio librarians who help out nights and weekends.

Check out L-net by clicking on the icon on our homepage, or go to http://www.oregonlibraries.net/ and choose Chat or Email. To see examples of reference chats, go to http://www.oregonlibraries.net/archive, and to find out more, try http://www.oregonlibraries.net/about_lnet.