A Most Excellent Resource

Q and A NJ: http://www.qandanj.com/

It's a chat service where you can chat live with a librarian. It's staffed by a cooperative effort of Our Fair State's libraries. Per their web site:

"QandANJ is a service for New Jersey residents and students.QandANJ.org is designed to provide fast answers to your questions, using information found on the Internet and in proprietary databases funded by libraries. In most cases, QandANJ.org Librarians will provide an answer online in 15 minutes or less! If your question involves lengthy research, we'll get you started and/or provide a referral for you or your question. "

This is a most AWESOME tool, which I think libraries don't advertise enough. Librarians love to be asked questions, really they do, and this is a great way to get help writing your paper in the middle of the night, or getting the information in your blog post verified before you hit "publish" and make a fool of yourself, or myriad other uses.

National Library Workers Day

That's right! Today is National Library Workers Day, "a day for library staff, users, administrators and Friends groups to recognize the valuable contributions made by all library workers."

So, thank a library staffer today for all the work they do for you. Just remember to say it quietly.

Libraries are the places to be

Hat tip: Librarian.net

We need our libraries more than ever

Folks are flocking to the library, a cozy place to find a job:

A few years ago, public libraries were being written off as goners. The Internet had made them irrelevant, the argument went. But libraries across the country are reporting jumps in attendance of as much as 65% over the past year, as newly unemployed people flock to branches to fill out résumés and scan ads for job listings.
Other recession-weary patrons are turning to libraries for cheap entertainment -- killing time with the free computers, video rentals and, of course, books.

Free internet. Free/cheap DVD borrowing. Free book borrowing. Free help from librarians who really want to help. What's not to love?