{"id":182,"date":"2022-03-09T11:28:27","date_gmt":"2022-03-09T17:28:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/library\/?page_id=182"},"modified":"2026-02-09T15:54:31","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T21:54:31","slug":"email-reference-service-policy","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/library\/about\/library-policies\/email-reference-service-policy\/","title":{"rendered":"Email Reference Service Policy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Adopted February, 2013<\/em><\/p>\n<h2>About the Service<\/h2>\n<p>The A. C. Clark Library&rsquo;s Email Reference Service is provided by ÐßÐßÂþ»­ Library faculty to serve the informational needs of ÐßÐßÂþ»­ students, faculty, staff and members of the surrounding community. Priority will be given to questions from current BSU students, faculty and staff.<\/p>\n<h2>Service Guidelines<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The email reference service gives starting points for research, as well as advice on search strategies. It does not give in-depth research assistance or homework advice.<\/li>\n<li>Users will be referred when possible to print, electronic or other resources and services of the A. C. Clark Library.<\/li>\n<li>If you need in-depth research assistance, please visit the library during our Reference Desk&rsquo;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/library\/about\/hours\/\">service hours<\/a> or call the Information Desk at 218-755-3345, and ask for a Reference Librarian.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Hours of Operation and Turn-around Time<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Users of the service can submit questions at any time, except during extended break periods when the A. C. Clark Library is closed.<\/li>\n<li>Librarians respond to email requests only during normal weekday business hours&ndash; Monday through Friday, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.<\/li>\n<li>The Library will try to respond to email requests within 24 hours during a typical work week.<\/li>\n<li>The service is not staffed on weekday nights, weekends, holidays or during other periods when the campus or Library may be closed; however, users may still submit questions during these times (except extended break periods).<\/li>\n<li>Questions received during the weekend or holidays will be treated as if received on the first weekday that the Library re-opens for service. Questions received on a weeknight are answered the following morning.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Types of Questions Answered by the Service<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Questions on where to begin research on a topic, as well as advice on search strategies<\/li>\n<li>Questions about A. C. Clark Library services and facilities<\/li>\n<li>Questions about the Library home page<\/li>\n<li>Questions regarding off-campus access to the Library&rsquo;s electronic resources<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Types of Questions not Answered by the Service<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Requests for homework assistance, or interpretation of course assignments<\/li>\n<li>Requests for medical or legal advice<\/li>\n<li>Questions requiring in-depth research assistance may be directed to the Reference Desk during our Reference Desk&rsquo;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/library\/about\/hours\/\">service hours<\/a> or call the Information Desk at 218-755-3345, and ask for a Reference Librarian.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Service Referrals<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Questions regarding other units of the A. C. Clark Library will be routed as appropriate. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/library\/about\/staff-and-faculty\/\">Contact information for units within the Library.<\/a><\/li>\n<li>If you have questions about Interlibrary Loan services, your questions may be answered on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/library\/borrow-request\/interlibrary-loan\/\">Interlibrary Loan page<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>If you have questions about the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/library\/whats-in-the-library\/university-archives\/\">University Archives<\/a>, please email <a href=\"mailto:libraryreference@bemidjistate.edu\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">libraryreference@bemidjistate.edu.<\/a><\/li>\n<li>If you have questions about ÐßÐßÂþ»­, your questions may be answered by the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/\">ÐßÐßÂþ»­ home page<\/a>. Questions about the A. C. Clark Library may be answered by the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/library\/\">Library home page<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>Questions about the status of your borrowing privileges and\/or fines\/blocks on your Library account can be called in to the Circulation Desk at (218) 755-3345, during regular business hours (7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., M-F).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>If you Need more Information<\/h2>\n<p>Please call the Information Desk at 218-755-3345.<\/p>\n<p><strong>To submit your question via email, go to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/library\/research-support\/ask-a-question\/\">Ask a Question<\/a> page.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>Note: Adapted in part from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.smc.edu\/student-support\/academic-support\/library\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Santa Monica College Library&rsquo;s<i title=\"External link\" class=\"bsu-icon bsu-icon-external-link small ms-1\"><\/i><\/a><\/em> Email<em> Reference Service Policy page.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Adopted February, 2013 About the Service The A. C. Clark Library&rsquo;s Email Reference Service is provided by ÐßÐßÂþ»­ Library faculty to serve the informational needs of ÐßÐßÂþ»­ students, faculty, staff and members of the surrounding community. Priority will be given to questions from current BSU students, faculty and staff. Service Guidelines [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"parent":165,"menu_order":8,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"class_list":["post-182","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=182"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/182\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1276,"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/182\/revisions\/1276"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}