Ask the experts live, via computer: Two innovations this year enable people to get real-time help by “chatting” with experts via the web.

• PaLibrarian Live* makes immediate on-line reference help available Monday through Thursday from 2:00 to 8:00 p.m., through the Library web site. Answers are provided by experienced reference staff from the Free Library, the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, and the State Library of Pennsylvania. The new service is an adjunct to Ask a Librarian, the Free Library’s own on-line librarian-reference service, which is available at any time and provides answers by e-mail within 24 hours.
  
• LEAP Online allows students in the Library’s after school program to get live help from tutors on line. The service is described in “Services to Children and Teens.”
  
  * For State budgetary reasons, PaLibrarian Live was suspended October 1, 2003.
  

Many databases, 1 Search: The Library provides 160 special electronic resources - encyclopedias, collections of magazine articles, health information, business information, etc. - for access by library users. Now a cutting-edge service - identified as “1 Search” on our Electronic Resources page - enables card-holders to search up to 86 of these resources at the same time.

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