This is a good review Chris. Very well written! 🙂
I agree with what others have said that being proactive and anticipating users’ needs are important parts of being a librarian. You kind of always have to be one step ahead of them! 😀 I do agree as well though that they may have had a lot on their plate. If it’s anything like other “virtual librarian” services I’m familiar with, it was probably one person or not very many people, at least, answering all the questions. Especially in the case of public librarians, where the one thing you never have enough of is staff.
I like that they gave you an email transcript of the conversation. I’ve had a few times where I’ve used customer support services (don’t let me go into a diatribe about the parallels between customer support services and librarians!) like this where you get put in a two-person chatroom with a customer support rep and they work through your problem with you, and while some of them sent off an email transcript after the conversation ended, not all of them did, and it always felt like a glaring oversight – especially if they’ve already got my email address.
All in all, well written, and it might encourage me to use these virtual services myself when I need to! (Though I usually find getting out of the house and doing it in person is much better for my social life and mental health. :P)