All Personal Librarians should be friendly, patient and encouraging, whether writing an email message or meeting with a student in person. Try to put yourself in their shoes. Remember that this is a big and complicated place, and that expectations for academic work are usually very high - certainly higher than high school.

Respond to messages promptly. Generally, you should be able to get back to a student within one business day, but this doesn't mean you have to check your email in the evening, or on weekends, or while you're on vacation. (If you respond late at night, your students will begin to assume you must be available 24/7/365, and will contact you accordingly. Manage their expectations. Their professors aren't usually available then, either.)

If you're going to be away for more than 2-3 days, or if you need to devote your energy to a time-sensitive work project, please add a line to your "away" message directing students to another resource, such as Ask Yale. (Hint: Send out a message on the YCPL list and ask for a volunteer to sub for you while you're unavailable.)