Loretta Righter saw the question flash on her computer screen at the Montgomery County Public Library in Norristown: What percentage of eligible voters voted in the last presidential election?
Righter, a reference librarian, messaged back to the unseen library patron: "I am going to change your screen to show you a Web site that may help."
After a short pause, his reply popped up: "Those facts will work perfectly."
Righter was able to help the questioner through Ask Here PA, a new technology tool that turns reference librarians into a 24-hour online resource.
Ninety-two libraries across the state have volunteered staff to field online reference questions, allowing Pennsylvania to join scores of other states, including New Jersey, that have expanded the reach of the reference library to include a virtual chat service.
Staff from 28 of the libraries are already participating. The others are still being trained, coordinator Vince Mariner said.
Previously, library patrons came to the reference desk or asked questions by phone. Some libraries added an e-mail service, but response wasn't fast enough, experts said.
Ask Here PA, funded with $125,000 from the state Department of Education, satisfies the desire, especially among younger users, to receive a quick response.
The online librarian has about 15 minutes to find the answer to any question, using Internet Web sites, databases, and books or periodicals. If more time is needed, the librarian gets back to the questioner later.
With Righter's help, a questioner figured out recently that she could write a term paper on Pennsylvania's vanishing farmlands using four Web-based sources. The question: What percent of Pennsylvania farmlands have disappeared over the last 10 years?
"The Internet with all the resources that are on it is a wonderful thing," Righter said. "But you need to know your way around."
As Righter helped one questioner, other queries were being fielded by online reference librarians elsewhere.
For example: What is the life cycle of an elk? How many species of parrot are there? What is the deepest point in the ocean? How many U.S. soldiers have died in Iraq this year? How do you do a bibliography for Internet sources? Why is Pluto not a planet? Name the famous used-book store in Philadelphia that went out of business in the late 1960s?
So far, traffic on Ask Here PA is unpredictable. Mark Draper, a Free Library of Philadelphia manager who demonstrated the system recently, took two questions in as many hours. Other times, he's swamped.
Once Pennsylvania librarians log off, those from Western states pick up the slack overnight, Mariner said. The libraries are linked to Online Computer Library Center, a worldwide library cooperative based in Dublin, Ohio.
During a trial period from July 17 to Sept. 5, when the service was available noon to 5 p.m., librarians fielded 962 questions.
Q and A NJ, New Jersey's online reference service, started up in October 2001, covering 50 hours a week with staff from 18 libraries.
That service answered 451 questions in its first month, but now handles more than 7,000 per month, said Karen Hyman, executive director of the South Jersey Regional Library Cooperative.
Patrons like the convenience, the professional help in finding the answer, and the fact that a live person is on the other end.
"This public service lets them stay at their office desks, is open at 2 a.m., and [if at home] doesn't require changing to street wear from pajamas," Hyman e-mailed.
On one recent day, Loretta Righter heard from a policeman in search of a study guide and a nursing student seeking online nursing journals.
As far as the question about turnout in the 2004 election, that was an easy one, Righter said: "120 million, or 60 percent of all eligible voters.
Righter found the answer on Web sites specializing in voter statistics. Mariner, who was watching, beamed.
"It's so nice to get closure," he said.
Asked and Answered
Answers to questions posed to Ask Here PA on Page B1.
1.An elk walks its first day, runs its first week, and lives up to 12 years.
2. 350
3. The Challenger Deep at 35,802 feet. It's off the coast of Guam in the Marianas Trench.
4. 538
5. Pluto is only about 1,600 miles in diameter, smaller than the Moon. Its elongated orbit is tilted, compared to the other planets, and it goes inside the orbit of Neptune.
6. Leary's Book Store
7. Instead of assuming that our ideas, to be true, must conform to an external reality independent of our knowing, Kant proposed that objective reality is known only insofar as it conforms to the essential structure of the knowing mind.
8. 60 percent
9. One Liberty Place
10. Philadelphia Museum of Art
11. 1682