Click here to book your Tech Help appointment.
The Liverpool Public Library offers one-on-one appointments with staff and volunteers for patrons who need help with technology and personal devices.
Our staff at the Information Desk can help you with quick pointers, direct you to library services or apps, and provide helpful flyers. However, for issues that take longer than 15 minutes or so to address, we ask that you please book an appointment with a specialist.
We provide in-person assistance with:
- Setting up and troubleshooting laptops, phones, and attached devices like cameras, scanners, or CD Drives.
- Filling out online forms and applications
- Word processing and spreadsheets
- Writing resumes, cover letters, and job searching
- Organizing and transferring documents and photos
- Cleaning up storage space
- Managing device settings, contacts, and apps
- Scanning, faxing, copying, and e-mail
- Locating reviews and information for products that fit your needs.
Tech Help Appointment Guidelines
With most projects, we aim to teach you what you need to get started and provide directions to instructional resources for further learning. However, we do not have the capacity to effectively provide ongoing help on a project that involves multiple sessions of repetitive work on the same task.
To ensure that all patrons get a chance to take advantage of our services, we limit the frequency of appointments to no more than...
- 1 Appointment per day
- 2 Appointments per week
- 4 Appointments per month
- 20 Appointments per year
This means, for example, that while you could make 4 appointments in a single given month, we cannot host 4 appointments for you every month. These limits are subject to change based on demand and staff/volunteer availability.
We do not provide help with...
- Professionally Restricted Expertise - Topics such as law, medicine, taxes, business administration, tutoring, or anything that requires a specialized license to practice.
- Cybersecurity Emergencies - We can dispense advice and instruct on best practices, but if you are the victim of an active fraud or hack, you should contact law enforcement or a representative of the service where the emergency is taking place. We can never guarantee that your device is not compromised, or that a specific anti-virus will keep your computer safe.
- Remote assistance - Except for issues with library-related apps or our website and catalog, we do not provide troubleshooting over the phone for devices that we cannot observe.
- Large devices - If you have a printer or scanner that cannot reasonably be brought into the library, we can only guess at what might be wrong. A precise model number may allow us to help guide you through an instruction manual, but every device is different. We are also limited in our ability to assist in cases where devices depend on an open home Wi-fi network to connect to each other.
- Equipment Repair - If the device is broken or needs replacement parts, please contact a professional computer repair shop.
- Advanced programs - Some topics like web development, database management, or graphic design are beyond the scope of LPL's tech help appointments.
Bring Your Login Details
We recommend you bring your own devices to the appointment, as well as all logins and passwords you may need. For your protection, we strive to avoid learning your login details or typing in your passwords whenever possible, so please be ready to record any newly created or reset logins somewhere you will remember.
