The internet has a wealth of information for jobseekers, however knowing where to look for quality information, and then making sense of it, is sometimes difficult. Wouldn’t it be great to have a helping hand to guide you though the information maze?
ASK (Adult Skills and Knowledge) is an innovative chat service being piloted by the State Library of Queensland. The service is for adults looking for information about careers, jobs, resumes, job applications, interview technique, apprenticeships, study, volunteer work and more.
Log on to www.slq.qld.gov.au/ask and click on the big ASK logo, and a special chat window will open in a new screen. Simply enter your name, email address and a question, and a librarian from the State Library will answer your request. If you are not familiar with ‘chatting’ on the internet, it is very similar to having a conversation with someone face-to-face. As the librarians type in an answer, it appears on your screen. You can then respond with a comment or another question, and the conversation or chat goes back and forth until your question is answered. The really smart thing about the ASK service is that they can ‘push’ webpages to your screen. For example, if you need information about what study courses are available in a certain trade, the librarian can do some internet searching for you, and then ‘push’ a suitable webpage that may answer your question, to your screen. You can then read and navigate through that screen, and ask further questions using the chat section.
Finally, once the chat session is complete, the ASK program produces a list of all the websites that the librarian ‘pushed’ to your screen during the session. This is invaluable as it provides a ready list of websites to visit later, without having to search for them all over again. If you supply an email address when you log into the service, you will receive a transcript of the entire conversation you had with the librarian.
If your question really stumps the librarian, they will get back to you within five working days.
Need some help searching the Web? Contact us and we'll do our best to help. Anything useful or interesting will be included in future articles (Confidentiality and your privacy are assured).
Thuringowa Library Services - Information Desk
Ph: 4773 8601
Email: infodesk@thuringowa.qld.gov.au
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Searchlight is a weekly column written by CityLibraries Townsville. It is published in the Townsville Bulletin newspaper and on this 'blog every Monday. Searchlight aims to make your internet searching more effective, efficient and fun by reviewing search tools, providing searching hints and tips, and helping with tricky search topics.
