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What should I do if a patron disconnects or stops responding before I'm able to answer their question?

59 views   |   1 Vote this question as useful.   0 Vote this question as not useful.   |   Last updated on Feb 02, 2026    Ending Session Scripts Tags

 

It's not uncommon for patrons to stop responding before you're able to complete a reference interview with them. There are many reasons this can happen - for example, they may have experienced a technical issue and disconnected, they may have discovered the answer to their question independently, or they may have become frustrated that no immediate answers were forthcoming. In general, you should interact with patrons assuming best intentions, and answer their questions to the best of your ability rather than assuming they have abandoned the interaction.

If a patron isn't immediately responding to your messages or requests for clarification, it's best to assume that they're also working to try and answer their question. Give the patron a reasonable amount of time to notice and respond before assuming they have left (five minutes is a good rule of thumb). LibraryH3lp shows that a patron has disconnected if they navigate away from the AskAway chat, but patrons are able to reconnect if they return to the chat window, so remember that the patron's LibraryH3lp status or disconnection messages may be misleading. For issues where a patron is frequent disconnecting and reconnecting, see this FAQ.

After enough time has passed that you suspect a patron has left the chat and may not return, use the following steps:

  1. Use the "Are you still there?" canned message ("Are you still there? I haven't heard from you in a while... I hope we haven't lost our connection. If I don't hear from you soon, I'm going to close our session but please come back if you have any more questions.") to confirm that the patron has left.
  2. After sending the "Are you still there?" canned message, tag the message and minimize the chat window to the sidebar.
  3. After giving the patron at least 5-10 more minutes to respond, you can add the "Disconnected" tag and close the chat, or leave it open and close it at the end of your shift at your discretion.