This statewide reference chat service is free and can be accessed 24/7 by anyone old enough to use the internet. The librarians answering your questions will help you to find your answers using the unlimited amount of sources and information on the internet. Pennsylvania residents can access this from anywhere at anytime and will help connect you to a librarian who can help answer your questions one-on-one.
You can follow these directions to talk to a librarian using Ask Here PA:
1. Go to AskHerePA.org
2. After sending your question a librarian will respond with an answer quickly and show you relevant sites pertaining to the answer
3. Logging in is simple and anonymous! You can create a private screen name and you only need a phone number and zip code to get your answers!
With most questions being answered within 5-15 minutes by professional library staff, students can get help with anything from research questions to proper writing formats to resources helping them figure out math problems. Parents can also use AskHerePA.org to assist their children during school projects or to help themselves locate resources from anything to work related information to taxes to home maintenance.
Here is a picture of what it will look like when you are chatting with the library staff at AskHerePA:
Having access to professional library staff when you cannot go in and ask your librarian face-to-face gives PA residents piece of mind with this easy to use site. All you need is access to the internet!
Here are a few helpful tips when using Ask Here PA to get your questions answered quickly and fully:
- Make sure questions are effective and efficient. Be specific and concise in your wording.
- Don’t ask the same question twice because it took too long for someone to answer you the first time.
- Tell the Ask Here Librarian if you have already “checked” out some sites. This is useful as they don’t spend time doing the same or similar search.
- Give an email address so that librarians can email articles or follow up to you. Ask Here librarians sometimes have access to subscription databases that aren’t available to you and persistent links don’t work. (Good opportunity to explain the difference between a session cookie and a persistent link)
- Be patient as research can take time
- Support for projects is there 24 X 7 by a trained researcher who knows how to judge authoritative sites
- True homework questions like solve for X or reading comprehension questions like “What wouldn’t Daniel Webster do that the Devil asked?” should be discouraged.
- Be polite, when the service gives you the answer you need, please indicate that. Don’t just cut the connection.
- Give the reference librarian an idea of how much information you need. If it is only a definition, this is different than asking for help on a 3-5 page paper or a debate topic. ("A Good Question")
Check out the link on our library website or come on in and one of our friendly librarians can walk you through the site and help you with any problems you may come across when creating your account. That way everything will be ready to go when you need our help after hours!
"Ask Here PA - Live Answers to Your Questions, 24/7." Ask Here PA - Live Answers to
Your Questions, 24/7. Ask Here PA, Web. 24 July 2013.
"A Good Question Gets a Good Answer." A Good Question Gets a Good Answer. Ask Here PA, Web. 24 July 2013.
