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MyWebLibrarian Offers Free Online Reference
Assistance 24/7
NEWS RELEASE
April 4, 2003
For further information contact:
Judy Hoffman, 847/353-7137
You have questions. Illinois
librarians have answers. Illinois residents now have access to a unique
and valuable Internet resource - MyWebLibrarian.com. The Web site is
a free service that allows anyone to interact online and in real time
with a professional librarian, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The
service will be available beginning on April 7.
MyWebLibrarian is the name of
the new service created by combining Answers Unlimited , the
North Suburban Library System's virtual reference service, and Ready
for Reference , the Alliance Library System's equivalent virtual
service for central Illinois.
"If you think about it, librarians
are human search engines, using their expertise and knowledge to point
people in the right direction. There's no need to check out 20 different
Web sites. With MyWebLibrarian , professional librarians meet
customers at their point of need - right here, right now - and just
a click away," said Sarah Long, director of the North Suburban Library
System. "The beauty of MyWebLibrarian is that it's fast, easy
and a credible source for information."
Once a user reaches the MyWebLibrarian
Web site, he/she just types in a question and an Illinois librarian
responds to the query. The librarian may ask further questions to clarify
the type of information requested. An e-mail transcript of the online
conversation is available once the visit is completed.
MyWebLibrarian is
staffed by librarians from various Illinois libraries on a rotating
basis, including academic, public, and special libraries. This includes
the following public libraries in the North Suburban Library System:
Arlington Heights, Barrington, Cary, Cook (Libertyville), Crystal Lake,
Des Plaines, Ela (Lake Zurich), Elk Grove Village, Evanston, Gail Borden
(Elgin), Glenview, Prospect Heights, Schaumburg, Skokie, Waukegan, Warren-Newport
(Gurnee), Winnetka-Northfield. Funding for the project was provided
by the Illinois State Library, a Division of the Office of Secretary
of State, using federal LSTA monies.
Any Illinois resident can access
the free 24/7 reference service at www.MyWebLibrarian.com
.
Headquartered in Wheeling,
the North Suburban Library System is an organization of over 650 academic,
public, school and special libraries in the north suburban area of Cook
County and communities in Kane, Lake and McHenry counties.
