Students, faculty can soon Whatsapp librarians for help

Posted On 10 Feb 2016

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by Quah Jia Ling

After a successful trial, NTU Libraries is planning to allow students and faculty to WhatsApp a libarian for help. GRAPHIC: LIM PEIYI

Getting help from a librarian will soon be as quick and easy as sending a WhatsApp message.

After a successful trial from 11 Jan to 5 Feb, NTU Libraries is planning to allow students and faculty to seek immediate assistance from an NTU librarian via the mobile messaging app.

Currently, students can email, call or visit any of the eight libraries across campus to ask librarians for help.

The text messaging service was introduced to provide students with a variety of avenues for assistance to suit different needs, said Ms Er Bee Eng, Head of Access Services Division at NTU Libraries.

“For example, a quick or focused question may be well-suited to using WhatsApp, but more complicated or multi-part questions might be easier to answer via email or in person,” Ms Er added.

With the app, students and faculty can send photos of books or journal articles to accompany their queries.

Ms Er added that WhatsApp was the natural choice for the pilot programme, as many students were already using the mobile messaging app.

Tam Si Man, 19, a first-year student from the School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, was impressed with the efficiency of the service.

“I had to find references for my laboratory report and I was curious about the new program so I decided to give it a try,” Tam said. “The librarians were very responsive and I had my query answered within half an hour.”

Heeran Kumaresan, 22, a second-year student from the School of Materials Science and Engineering also said, “It is so much more convenient for me to find out whether certain textbooks are available by a simple WhatsApp message rather than having to walk all the way to the library.”

The library will be making an official announcement about the new service “soon”, said Ms Er, who declined to give additional details.