Library Reference Service Policy

Questions? Email the librarians 7 days a week at asc-thevirtuallibrarian@post.edu. You will receive an answer within hours at the email address you send your message from.

• an auto-response acknowledging that your email request has been received
• 7 days per week email reference service, including statutory holidays
• a response to your email question from an American Sentinel College of Nursing & Health Sciences  Virtual Librarian within one business day
• included in the response may be instructions for accessing and/or searching recommended American Sentinel College of Nursing & Health Sciences  library databases or other information to answer your query
• attachments may include library pages, screenshots, videos, permalinks, and webpages.

Please describe your question or research topic with as much information as possible.

The Virtual Librarian respects the privacy of all users such as students and faculty. 

Copies of all emails are retained. Survey responses are retained.

Shortly after your final reference service an email will go to you with a link to a survey about our library resources and service. Please take the time to let us know how we did.

Statistics and excerpts generated from emails may be used for reports or publications. Data included in reports will have identifying information redacted (e.g. email, names, phone numbers, signature etc.)

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 will be identified in the data analysis and the information is not collected for marketing or commercial purposes.

The information collected by the Virtual Librarian is accessible to librarians and staff associated with the American Sentinel College of Nursing & Health Sciences  Virtual Library. Internal referrals to Student Services or faculty to further assist a student will retain identifying information. Such internal referrals are allowable under FOIP guidelines.

The Virtual Librarian has a policy of mutual respect. American Sentinel College of Nursing & Health Sciences virtual librarians will treat users such as students and faculty with courtesy and respect. They expect the same respect in return from all users. 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. 

As a student you will be doing research in the library and using copyrighted works. The American Sentinel College of Nursing & Health Sciences  Virtual 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 American Sentinel College of Nursing & Health Sciences 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

The American Sentinel College of Nursing & Health Sciences  Virtual Librarians cannot accept invitations to social networking sites such as X (aka Twitter), Metta (aka Facebook), LinkedIn or invitations to join chat contact lists. Students are requested to please remove asc-thevirtuallibrarian@post.edu from their contact list for 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.

While reference service is delivered by email, to book a personal research consult, the librarians invite you to email the reference desk at asc-thevirtuallibrarian@post.edu. When requesting a personal research consult, please provide your time zone and a minimum of two different dates and times to meet in Zoom. Also, provide the nature of your question to be explored in the consult. Most reference questions can be dealt with quickly and sufficiently over email. The librarians are adept at delivering reference services via email.  Our policy is to find amenable times for you and the librarian to meet.