By Mitchel Olszak
Cyberspace is a treasure trove of information.
Just type a word or two into a search engine and you can access hundreds — maybe even thousands — of potential sites with the data you are looking for.
But the World Wide Web is so vast, so complex and so haphazard that the quest for information is not always easy. You may not know precisely what you are looking for, or you may not be able to trust the information certain sites provide.
Wouldn’t it be nice to have someone — a living, breathing human being — available to help guide you through the maze and morass that is the Internet? Wouldn’t it be wonderful to be able to ask someone for assistance in uncovering those nuggets of reliable information when a simple search fails to do the job?
Actually, such people do exist. Better yet, they are trained reference librarians, skilled in tracking down what you need to know.
It’s a service that comes courtesy of the Web site askherepa.org. Administered by the Pennsylvania Department of Education, in cooperation with public and college libraries in the commonwealth, Ask Here PA helps find answers to your questions 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Basically, this is how it works: If you connect to the Web site and log into the system, you can ask a question. An available librarian will respond and work with you to locate the necessary information.
The benefits are obvious. Reference librarians know many of the tricks of tracking down obscure information and which sites are best in terms of accuracy. What’s more, a real person can interact with you to help pin down the precise details you are looking for, rather than leave you at the mercy of some massive, impersonal search engine.
Among the reference librarians involved with Ask Here PA are two who work at the New Castle Public Library — Jennifer Joseph, who is also a government documents librarian, and Mike Orwell.
They spend most of their time assisting library users in person or on the phone. But for a few hours each week, they log into askherepa.org and do Web work.
According to Joseph, most of the Ask Here PA users are students, looking for help on class projects. For this reason, participating librarians are trained to assist — but not too much.
“We’re supposed to guide them,” Joseph said, “not do their homework.”
This doesn’t stop some students from trying to palm off their responsibilities on others. Joseph recalled fielding an Internet question from a student who wanted to know if she had ever read the book “Enrique’s Journey.” Unfamiliar with the book, Joseph looked it up and read a synopsis.
She asked the questioner what he wanted to know and he replied he needed details about what happens from pages one to 200 “by tomorrow.”
He was out of luck.
Orwell noted a few students have trouble with the Web site’s concept. “I’m sometimes asked ‘Are you a real person?’” he said. At other times, instead of reference-type questions, he’s greeted with more personal ones, from people looking to chat.
The librarians are trained to cut off communications at that point.
Orwell added that librarians aren’t allowed to give specific legal or medical advice. But they can direct people to other sources.
One of more interesting aspects of Ask Here PA is the ability of librarians to control what goes on to the computer screens of questioners. In a technique called “pushing the page,” Joseph said the librarian can cause Web sites with information to pop up on the screens of those seeking help.
That way, they need not go searching for it. Another miracle of modern technology — with a decidedly personal touch.
