The Reference Department distinguishes between reference service and research support. Reference service encompasses short-answer factual information and guidance about strategies or sources of information. Research support, on the other hand, is more appropriately the business of information brokers and research assistants who are paid to make reliable evaluative judgments for their patrons regarding the content of the information provided.

The electronic reference service is intended to respond to short-answer factual queries, with a limit of three such questions per person per day.

Questions which require intensive research or extensive answers cannot be answered using the electronic reference service.

Every effort will be made to respond within 24 hours of the receipt of the question (except for weekends and holidays).

Answers may be determined by the affiliation of the correspondent. Non-affiliates requesting e-mail assistance will be subject to the same restrictions applied to personal and telephone reference service. Site-licensing restrictions on databases and software limits their use to e-mail questions from currently enrolled students, faculty and staff.

If user affiliation prevents us from providing an answer, we will explain this in our response, and provide (if possible) suggestions for other resources and recourses which may be available to the questioner.