The software also ensures that no library is asked to respond to more than 10 questions a week. Ms. Kresh estimates that libraries have answered as many as 4,000 questions since the service began, usually within two days. Cornell University, one of the first to join the service, says Cornell librarians are answering more questions from other libraries than they are sending out from their own patrons, but they have directed some questions to the service as well. To help a time-pressed graduate student find a list of prisons in Scotland in 1750, for example, librarians at Cornell relied on the service for the answer. They also used it to help a faculty member with a question about a scholarly journal, says Paul J. Constantine, head of reference services for humanities and social-sciences libraries.
Academic libraries make up about one-third of the current membership.
Other participating libraries include the national libraries of Australia, Britain, and Canada, and at least 10 other libraries abroad. Participants do not pay to take part. The Library of Congress developed the software that runs the service. The service plans to make a big push for new participants at the American Library Association's meeting next month. O.C.L.C., a library-service organization, is managing some of that marketing, as well as developing an accessible archive of all the questions and answers that have already been processed.