In addition to serving Congress, the Library of Congress provides reference service to the public in its 21 reading rooms and through its Web site. During the year, the Library's staff handled more than 715,000 direct reference requests that were received in-person, on the telephone, and through written and electronic correspondence. Nearly 1.3 million items were circulated for use within the Library.
Digital Reference. The Library has been a leader in providing Web-based reference and information services. Initiated in 1999 as the Collaborative Digital Reference Service, its successor, QuestionPoint, has grown to a membership of more than 800 libraries around the world, providing reference service to patrons, any time of day or night, through their local libraries' Web sites. This service, which is available to libraries by subscription, is free for library patrons.
The Library continued to operate the "Ask a Librarian" service, by which a question can be submitted and answered within five business days via an interactive form on the Library's Web site. The service, which is supported by the QuestionPoint software, includes a live chat feature that allows researchers to consult a reference librarian in real-time via e-mail.
