Get Answers From Kansas

The state of Kansas has started KANAnswer, an online reference service for the residents of Kansas and for non-residents who have questions about Kansas. It's accessible at http://skyways.lib.ks.us/KSL/KLNB/KANAnswerWeb/index.htm .

The service operates during bank hours basically -- M-F 9-5, with some weekend and evening hours. It's not available during national and state holidays. Down at the bottom of the front page there's a "LiveHelp" button which will indicate whether anyone's available or not.

There are a few pages here you'll want to browse before getting in touch with a librarian. There's the directory of expertise, which shows the librarians involved in the project, their areas of expertise, and their contact preferences (strangely, I didn't see any actual contact information for any of them.) There's a list of participating institutions, as well as a plan for administration of the project. Remember, only residents of Kansas may ask general reference questions; non-residents are restricted to questions about Kansas itself. It'll be interesting to see how this goes.

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