The New York Public Library’s ASK NYPL reference service is introducing two enhancements that will improve and expand the service. The Library recently launched 917-ASK-NYPL, a new easier to remember telephone number for Library information and for asking reference questions. In addition, for the first time the ASK NYPL service is now available 24 hours a day, 7 days per week. Library users can ask reference questions in Spanish and English and seek help at anytime through online chat via the Library’s website at www.nypl.org. Through participation in an international cooperative, the Library receives support answering questions outside regular hours and also contributes to answering questions for other library systems. The hours of the telephone reference service will continue to be Monday through Saturday, 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.

About ASK NYPL
Since 1968 Telephone Reference has been an integral part of The New York Public Library’s reference services. Now known as ASK NYPL, the service provides answers by phone and online via chat and e-mail. The service fulfilled nearly 70,000 requests for information in 2007. Inquiries range from the serious and life-changing (a New Orleans resident who lost his birth certificate in Katrina needing to know how to obtain a copy; turns out he was born in Brooklyn), to the fun or even off-the-wall (a short-story writer researching the history of Gorgonzola cheese). In 1992 a selection of unusual and entertaining questions and answers from ASK NYPL was the source for Book of Answers: The New York Public Library Telephone Reference Service’s Most Unusual and Entertaining Questions a popular volume published by Fireside Books. National and international questioners have included scores of newspaper reporters, authors, celebrities, professors, secretaries, CEOs, and everyone in between.

About The New York Public Library
The New York Public Library was created in 1895 with the consolidation of the private libraries of John Jacob Astor and James Lenox with Samuel Jones Tilden Trust. The Library provides free open access to its physical and electronic collections and information, as well as to its services. It comprises four research centers – the Humanities and Social Science Library; The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts; the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture; and the Science, Industry and Business Library – and 87 Branch Libraries in Manhattan, Staten Island, and the Bronx. Research and circulating collections combined total more than 50 million items, including materials for the visually impaired. In addition, each year the Library presents thousands of exhibitions and public programs, which include classes in technology, literacy, and English as a second language. The Library serves some 16 million patrons who come through its doors annually and another 25 million users internationally, who access collections and services through the NYPL website, www.nypl.org.

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Contact: Jonathan Pace| 212.592.7700 | Jonathan_Pace@nypl.org
jp: 7.16.08:nypl024