Our brand new Live chat reference service  Ask a Librarian allows patrons to chat with the Sabah State Library Headquarters reference staff in real time chat. Chatting with a librarian is very similar to instant messaging.

This service is available as follows:

Monday to Friday: 9.00am until 9.00pm
Saturday and Sunday: 9.00am until 2.00 pm

Initiating a Live Chat Session

At the bottom right of your browser screen, there is our 'live chat' widget icon. Kindly click on the widget icon to begin your live chat session with our staff.
Before you submit your initial inquiry to the chat form, please provide your correct personal information as the “Ask a Librarian” form requires.
It will be helpful to the librarian to know this supplemental information as it enables us to provide you with the best possible service.

Offline Following Up:

The Reference Staff will send any follow-up information via email to the address you provided when you initiated the chat session or via the phone number that you have provided.

Technical Support

If you have technical problems using our live chat service, please submit your inquiry through email to our Webmaster and receive response within three working days.

Communication Problems: Digital and Verbal

Afternoons tend to be a busy time on the Internet in general, and at the Library in particular, and during the course of your chat, you may occasionally notice some lag-time in a librarian's response to your question. Sometimes this is due to the high traffic on the Internet; while at other times, it may be that the librarian is helping several patrons at once (the librarian generally tries to let the patrons know when this is the case).

During slow response time, do not open multiple chat sessions at once; it is usually more effective to wait a moment and see if the problem clears. In case you have opened multiple chat sessions, please try to pick one session to focus on and close out the others if possible.