L-net, an online information service provided through Oregon public, state and university libraries, announced last month that it is providing a free online chat service to answer questions to help Oregonians find information. The chat service is operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

"Even with Google, accurate information is still sometimes hard to find," said Jim Scheppke, state librarian of Oregon. "We developed L-net so that every Oregonian would be able to tap the expertise of some of our best, most knowledgeable librarians in finding the best source of authoritative information."

Currently, 18 libraries from across the state -- including university, public and school libraries -- are participating. The state has also contracted with Librarians by Request, a librarian staffing service from Tutor.com to help provide coverage throughout the night. The librarians hold MLS or MLIS degrees.
Through e-mail and L-net's online chat Government Technology interviewed Caleb Tucker-Raymond, statewide digital reference project coordinator, about the service.

Why did your library decide to do the chat service? How does it fit into the services a library provides?

Chat reference is an extension of the traditional reference services that libraries have provided throughout this century. The impetus for this particular service came from the Oregon Library Association's Vision 2010 task force.

What if someone from another state uses this service by putting in an Oregon ZIP code?

As far as I know, it hasn't been a major problem. People from out of state use our e-mail service because sometimes only an Oregon library can answer a question, especially if it's a question about one of our newspapers. We try to answer questions about Oregon as best as we can. If the person called long-distance, the library would certainly try to help -- same on the Internet."

Why do you limit your service to only Oregon?

We are funded through the Oregon State Library and staffed by librarians in Oregon. The funding comes from the Library Services and Technology Act, a federal grant program that gives funds to each state for library technology. So we are using funds for Oregon to provide service for Oregonians. We are also using volunteered staff time from Oregon libraries, and staff time is a pretty precious commodity these days. I don't think we would have the resources to market a national service.

So limiting to Oregonians ensures the best use of our funds and resources. But as you noticed before, anyone can enter an Oregon ZIP code, and it hasn't been a problem. Several libraries in Oregon that are near the Washington, California or Idaho borders have agreements to serve out-of-state patrons. From what I can tell, the out-of-state questions are usually genealogical research. If you were a high school student from Maryland asking for help on Lewis and Clark, I would probably refer you to your local library.

How much time and money would it require for another library system to install a similar chat capability?

Systems and licenses vary, depending on what features you want and the number of participants in your collaborative service. Some libraries can get away with using AOL Instant Messenger, and some are using an open-source based Java program called RAKIM.

A typical system with lots of bells and whistles will cost $10,000-$30,000. We're constantly rethinking what we need the software to