TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- The University of Alabama Libraries are participating in a program designed to give students, faculty and the general public expanded online access to university librarians.

The “Ask-A-Librarian” live virtual reference service, which began on the UA campus in September 2002, allows anyone with access to a personal computer to communicate with a librarian one-on-one using an interface similar to Instant Messaging. With many of the Libraries’ resources now available online, the service permits librarians to extend the same reference service to virtual users as they have traditionally offered to patrons at the reference desk.

The Libraries are now expanding the “Ask-A-Librarian” program by partnering with ten other members of the Association of Southeastern Libraries (ASERL) in a consortium to provide group coverage for virtual reference. By fielding questions for each other, the consortium libraries can provide more timely and cost-effective information than any one library alone could offer. UA, which initially offered the service only on selected weekday afternoons, can now provide 84 hour of consortium-staffed service per week, including evening and weekend hours. The expanded program, which began on Feb. 2, is open to the public as well as to affiliates of the participating universities.

ASERL is a group of state and research libraries committed to furthering resource sharing and collaborative efforts. The “Ask-A-Librarian” service is the first virtual reference service cooperatively staffed by research libraries across a region. In addition to UA, participating libraries include the College of William and Mary, Florida State University, University of Central Florida, University of Kentucky, University of Louisville, University of Memphis, University of Miami, University of North Carolina-Charlotte, Virginia Commonwealth University and Wake Forest University.

For more information about this program, contact Jennifer McClure at 205/348-2806 or visit the project’s web site at http://www.ask-a-librarian.org/. To access the service, click on the “Ask-A-Librarian” link on the University Libraries’ web site at http://www.lib.ua.edu/.