More progress in the area of classes I wish they'd taught when I was in library school. This time it's the University of Maryland's Virtual Reference Librarianship 1.0 course, "the first class expressly designed by and for virtual reference librarians and those who aspire to become one."

"The class will focus on the nitty-gritty of what it is actually like to do reference live and online --- when the patron is waiting and you're the one in the hot seat.  You'll learn practical facts and techniques like how long is too long to make a patron wait, how to carry-on an effective conversation in chat while you are desperately looking for an answer, alternative means of sharing information when co-browsing just won't work, useful scripts to have in your arsenal and those you can do without, how to judge when either you or the patron have had enough and it is time to get back to them later, and much more.  You'll find out what we know about the kinds of questions that are best answered live and real time, and those that are not, and you'll learn about the most common mistakes virtual librarians make, and how to avoid them at least some of the time. You'll learn how to deal with some of the problems of virtual reference like patron disconnects, and the occasional abusive or harassing caller.  And everyone will get a chance to try his or her skill at the Holy Grail of virtual reference, handling more than one patron at a time." [via WEB4LIB]

Ironically, it's not an online course, although they expect that little detail to change this Fall. See, librarians do rule.