GMILCS, Inc., a local consortium of 12 public and academic libraries has contracted with 24/7 Reference to provide online and after-hours reference service to its thousands of clients. The new service, called Answers Here and Now, will allow library patrons to ask questions and get answers, in real time, on the Internet, from a live reference librarian by clicking on the blue and yellow icon from the library's home page. This means that a library patron with access to the Internet can link to a real librarian no matter what day of the week or time of day.

Beginning October 25, 2004, users can link to the service at www.gmilcs.org or through any member library. GMILCS, Inc. libraries will be scheduling their librarians to staff the service for 10 hours a week. For the remainder of the time, librarians from all over the country will be putting their time in to work for the service as well. In addition, 24/7 Reference employs professional librarians who cover the hours no one else has scheduled, such as overnight and early morning hours across different time zones.

Not only can people ask questions of a reference librarian on duty and get answers, but they can get a virtual tour of an online database that can help them with their research or an escort to demonstrate a search tool like Google or AltaVista. If a librarian is unable to answer a question because it is really a local question, it is referred to another librarian in the patron's own area. For years librarians have been using the Internet as a reference tool and now that service will be extended remotely to patrons in their own homes at any time.

The libraries that make up GMILCS, Inc. are the Manchester City Library and the West Community Branch, Southern New Hampshire University, the New Hampshire Art Institute, Amherst Town Library, Bedford Public Library, Derry Public Library, Goffstown Public Library, Hooksett Public Library, Merrimack Public Library, New England College, the Wadleigh Library in Milford, and the Kelley Library in Salem. Patrons from these service areas will be able to access the service through their home library's web site. GMILCS, Inc.'s presence in southern New Hampshire gives one quarter of the state's residents access to this valuble, cutting edge service.

Some of the libraries and consortiums across the country that are members of 24/7 Reference include the California State Universities, the colleges and universities in Utah, the Boston Library Consortium, the public libraries in California, Maryland, Connecticut, Massachusetts and many others. Funding for this service has been made possible by a Rebecca Lee Spitz Library Grant from the Saul O Sidore Memorial Foundation.