Ask a Librarian

Instant message a Zief reference librarian during reference hours for help with basic legal reference questions:

Our IM Service Policy

Instant message reference assistance is a service for USF faculty, students, and staff. We give members of the USF Law community using this IM message service priority over USF non-law patrons. If time permits, we will assist USF Law alumni who submit questions via IM.

In accordance with our existing policies, Zief librarians cannot provide IM reference services to the public. Instead, we will refer public patrons to publicly-funded law libraries. Please refer to our reference service policy for more detailed information about our reference services and the patrons that we serve.

Zief librarians are monitoring the IM reference service while we sit at the reference desk, so we may need to step away from an IM session to assist patrons who approach us in person or telephone us at the reference desk.

We will try to let patrons know when we need to step away from an IM reference session. If Meebo displays the message "not available -- please leave a message" please remember to include an email address in your message so that one of our librarians can respond to you.

We encourage USF students, faculty, and staff to add "ZiefLibrarian" as a friend in their IM clients. That way, if you navigate away from this page or contact us when we’re not staffing IM reference, we will be able to get back in touch with you. The Zief librarians have the following accounts:

When are the Zief reference librarians available via instant message?

We monitor our IM service during our regular fall and spring semester reference desk hours (holiday and summer hours may be different):

• Monday – Wednesday: 9:00 am - 7:00 pm
• Thursday: 9:00 am - 5 pm
• Friday: 9:00 am - 4:30 pm
• Saturday: 10:00 am - 4:00 pm
• Sunday: 1:30 pm - 6:00 pm

Have a more complicated legal research question? There are lots of ways to get the research help that you need:

• Call the reference desk at 415-422-6773,
• Drop by the reference desk during our reference desk hours, or
• Contact any of the reference librarians to make a one-on-one appointment for research assistance:

If I’m not affiliated with USF, where can I find help with legal research?

One of California’s many public law libraries might be able to help you with your legal research. The Council of California County Law Libraries maintains a live chat service called AskNow.