Saskatchewan Virtual Reference Working Group

Saskatchewan Libraries: Ask Us! Pilot Project Evaluation

Saskatchewan Libraries: Ask Us! Pilot Project Evaluation Report and Recommendations EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The Saskatchewan Libraries: Ask Us! Pilot Project has operated successfully from the time it was launched, January 10, 2000, to the present. Library staff have found that the service is not onerous and that, in fact, more promotion is needed to increase the number of Saskatchewan residents using the service. The most challenging problems have been achieving consistency in turnaround times and developing mechanisms to handle the large number of genealogy questions sent to the service. Library staff like the cooperative set-up for the project and find that the database management system is easy to use. Patrons have sent positive feedback indicating that they love the service and are impressed. The service is not yet highly used, but this is in part due to lack of promotion and a cautious approach taken by the pilot project. RECOMMENDATIONS Establish Ask Us as a permanent library service. Implement the service province-wide in the next year. Develop a promotion strategy that increases usage by Saskatchewan residents by marketing the service as a "one stop online library reference service for Saskatchewan" and one service in a suite of library service options. Enhance the Ask Us web page by developing resources such as tutorials and FAQS based on the question & answer transactions conducted during the pilot project. Continue to monitor turnaround times, trace sources of turnaround problems and work on solutions and improvement targets. Develop a process to allow libraries to evaluate the quality of their responses to patrons and, out of this process, develop core competencies, benchmarks, and performance targets. Develop expertise at Provincial Library to more effectively monitor operation of the QRC server, to take over technical support on a permanent basis, and to contribute to future upgrades to the QRC software. Continue to establish partnerships with subject-experts. Explore potential future developments: a) developing relationships with other types of libraries in Saskatchewan; b) participating in a Multitype electronic document delivery pilot project; c) planning and implementing a pilot project to offer real-time reference; and d) monitoring opportunities to participate in national and international initiatives such as the Library of Congress and National Library of Canada’s 24/7 Collaborative Digital Reference Service (CDRS) initiative. Saskatchewan Libraries: Ask Us! Pilot Project Evaluation Report and Recommendations BACKGROUND Saskatchewan Libraries: Ask Us! is a pilot project in which seven public library systems and the Provincial Library have collaborated to offer an online library reference service to the public. Ask Us! was launched January 10, 2000 as a six month pilot project. In June, Public Library Directors agreed to extend the pilot project until a recommendation could be provided at the December 2000 Directors’ meeting. Libraries participating are: Lakeland Library Region, Pahkisimon Nuye?ah Library System, Palliser Regional Library, Parkland Regional Library, Regina Public Library, Saskatoon Public Library, and Southeast Regional Library. The role of the library systems is to provide staff and collection resources to answer the questions. The Provincial Library coordinates the project and provides technical support and policy development. The database management system (QRC) for the service was provided by the Internet Public Library and customized to meet Saskatchewan’s requirements. Ask Us is advertised on the web sites of participating libraries and the PLEIS web site. When patrons click on the hyperlink to the service they are sent to an introductory web page for the service (http://www.lib.sk.ca/pleis/askus/), that in turn takes them to a detailed reference question form through which they submit their question. All questions sent to Ask Us are sorted based on the patron’s postal code. Each participating library system has a file folder in the database and questions from patrons who live in their region are deposited into their folder. Questions from outside of the province are deposited into a separate folder where libraries cooperate in answering them. This method of sorting the questions ensures that each library system is primarily responsible for answering questions from their patrons. PILOT PROJECT FINDINGS RESPONSE OF USERS Number of Questions Submitted to the Service Patrons have submitted 658 questions to Ask Us during January – October 31, 2000. The service receives an average of 66 questions per month, with the highest number received in October (79) and the lowest number received in July (48). Table 1 – Questions by Month MONTH # QUESTIONS January 74 February 59 March 77 April 72 May 63 June 62 July 48 August 55 September 69 October 79 User Groups Table 2 – User Groups USER GROUP # QUESTIONS % OF TOTAL QUESTIONS Non Sask Residents 288 44% Saskatoon Residents 158 24% Palliser Residents 47 7% Shared Sask * 44 7% Regina Residents 42 6% Southeast Residents 32 5% Parkland Residents 23 3% Lakeland Residents 19 3% PNLS Residents 5 1% *Shared Sask is Chinook, Wapiti, and Wheatland Residents combined. Usage in Saskatchewan 56% of users are from Saskatchewan. The greatest uptake has been Saskatoon (24% of the total). Although these statistics are satisfactory for the pilot project, they indicate fairly low usage in several library systems. Reasons for under-utilization include: Lack of awareness of both traditional and online library services. Lack of promotion, reflecting the cautious approach libraries needed to feel comfortable with the project. Lack of access to online services. Lack of prominence on library web pages. Lack of Internet style marketing, such as submitting the site to search engines. In Pahkisimon Nuye?ah Library System, northern residents have difficulties accessing the PLEIS network through satellite Internet access; this may be a cause for under-utilization in this library system. Recommendation 1 -- Establish Ask Us as a permanent library service. Recommendation 2 – Implement the service province-wide in the next year. Recommendation 3 -- Develop a promotion strategy that increases usage by Saskatchewan residents by marketing the service as a "one stop online library reference service for Saskatchewan" and one service in a suite of library service options. The promotional strategy may also include the following strategies: Give prominence to Ask Us on the main pages of library web sites. Submit the Ask Us web site address to search engines. Promote branch library usage of Ask Us because of the good administrative application for routing requests in regions. Other non-Internet promotion, such as brochures, media event with Information Technology Office, etc. Usage Outside of Saskatchewan 44% of users are non-Saskatchewan residents. In most cases, questions from this user group are requests for Saskatchewan related information, particularly genealogy. Some questions pertain to information about our public library system. Genealogy questions have been the biggest challenge for Ask Us staff. Strategies have been adopted to deal with the large number of genealogy questions: Provincial Library organized an introductory genealogy workshop, facilitated by the Saskatchewan Genealogy Society, for Ask Us staff. A genealogy policy has been developed and posted on the web site. A list of referral agencies has been adopted and provided to Ask Us staff. A genealogy pathfinder for the Ask Us page is under development. A summary of genealogy resources and their locations around the province is under development. An informal partnership has been established with the Saskatchewan Genealogy Society to share information about genealogy resources and to use them as a referral agency along with other agencies on the referral list. Ask Us staff considered and rejected the option of not serving non-Saskatchewan residents primarily because most questions submitted from this group pertain in some manner to Saskatchewan information. Staff believe that Ask Us has a role in providing Saskatchewan-related information. Recommendation 4 – Enhance the Ask Us service web page by developing resources such as tutorials and FAQS based on the question & answer transactions conducted during the pilot project. Patron Satisfaction 6% of patrons have provided feedback on the Ask Us service. Of the 39 feedback messages sent to the service, 34 have been positive and 5 have related to difficulty transmitting to the service (all 5 pertained to a temporary technical difficulty). Patrons’ feedback messages say they like the service because it is fast, provides quality information and is relevant to their needs. The following is a sampling of patron feedback: "People like myself who require info but live so far away are thankful for any help they can get. I hope our province does the same." "Your service is just fantastic!! I have been surfing the net for the better part of the winter to get the information you sent in two days … I can’t thank you enough!" "You are providing a wonderful service. I’m so happy you are ‘online’." "Great service. Prompt. Helpful. I wish all libraries were like this one." "More communities should follow your lead." "I had tried a couple of search engines that usually are helpful but no luck. Your info was just what I wanted." "Thanks for the speedy reply. You give me more confidence in the Civil Service. Wish all Civil Servants were as Quick." "Ask a question and received a detailed reply within 24 hours. Thank you, Sask Libraries, I am very impressed." IMPACT ON LIBRARIES Staff Response Library staff working on the Ask Us project say they like it. The QRC software used to manage the questions is functional, easy to use, keeps the questions neatly organized, and makes it easy to collaborate on questions when necessary. Several staff have indicated that they like the cooperative set-up because it enables them to see reference transaction trends on a province-wide scale. Staff have adapted to handling reference transactions via e-mail without difficulty. Question Volume When the pilot project started, staff had some fear of being overwhelmed with questions, but this has not happened. Question intake has been manageable and, in some cases, library staff would like to receive more questions from patrons. Staff from all participating library systems have shared answering questions from non-Saskatchewan residents and from Saskatchewan residents living in library regions that are not part of the pilot project. Staff have also assisted one another with questions when necessary. The total number of questions handled by each library system is as follows. Table 3 – Questions Handled by Library Systems, Jan – Oct 31 LIBRARY SYSTEM # QUESTIONS HANDLED Lakeland 58 PNLS 22 Palliser 93 Parkland 36 Regina 141 Saskatoon 243 Southeast 71 These totals include questions answered for their library system residents as well as questions they answer for non-Saskatchewan residents, the Shared Saskatchewan residents category and assistance they provide to other library systems. Turnaround Time When Ask Us was launched in January, it advertised a turnaround time of 24 hours. This was extended to 48 hours because the 24-hour period was difficult to achieve on all questions. The table below shows turnaround times for 647 of the 658 questions received. Table 4 – Turnaround Time TURNAROUND TIME # OF QUESTIONS % OF QUESTIONS Under 12 hours 125 19% 24 hours 257 40% 48 hours 131 20% 3 days 61 9% 4 days 37 6% 5 days 14 2% 6 days 9 1% 7 days 4 8 days 1 9 days 1 10 days 2 11 days 1 12 days 1 14 days 2 25 days 1 79% of questions have been answered within the turnaround time. The remaining 21% of questions were not answered within the 48-hour period. Reasons for delays in turnaround time include: Patron indicated that they could wait longer for the answer to their question; Question required the assistance of another library or subject expert; and/or Questions have been backlogged. Patron-specified Deadline The Ask Us question form includes a space for the patron to indicate their deadline for receiving an answer. Ask Us staff say that the patron-specified deadline is a strong factor in how they prioritize questions, although they strive to achieve 48-hour turnaround in most cases. 93% of questions that took 4 days or longer were answered by the patron’s specified deadline. As a consequence, the Virtual Reference Working Group recently decided to revise the turnaround policy to state that questions will be answered within 48 hours, but if the patron specifies a longer turnaround time then librarians may use the extra time provided. Ask Us staff will still attempt to provide a first reply within the 48 hour period stating that the question has been received and is "in progress". Ask Us Turnaround Time Compared to Similar Services Edmonton Public Library offers a 3-day turnaround time on their Internet-based reference service. Although they believe that ideally the turnaround period should be shorter, the 3-day period is more realistic. Vancouver Public Library does not offer any guarantee on turnaround time for their Internet-based reference service. Their internal policy is to strive for 48 - 72 hour turnaround for quick reference service. In-depth questions may take longer, as all of these are transferred to VPL subject divisions, at which point the Internet-based service no longer monitors them. Alberta’s cooperative post-secondary libraries Ask A Question service provides 48-hour turnaround. They achieve this turnaround on 89% of questions. 11% of question have surpassed the turnaround, taking between 3-6 days. Recommendation 5: Continue to monitor turnaround times, trace sources of turnaround problems and work on solutions and improvement targets. Costs Participating library staff say that costs of staffing the service have not been onerous. Several participating libraries believe that time spent staffing Ask Us is offset by the decreasing volume of questions received at their library reference desks. It will be important to include Ask Us statistics in the overall statistics compiled on library services so that the numbers do not show a decline in library services that is inaccurate. Length of time staff have spent answering each question is as follows: Table 5 – Staff Time Spent Per Question LENGTH OF STAFF TIME PER QUESTION % OF QUESTIONS SHORT Under 15 minutes 73% MEDIUM 15 – 30 minutes 19% LONG Over 30 minutes 8% Based on a sampling of 420 questions sent Jan – Oct 31st. Finding suitable agencies to which in-depth subject specific questions can be referred is crucial to managing the time library staff spend on each question. More work is being done in this area and a number of expert sources have indicated an interest in partnering with libraries on this service; e.g. Public Legal Education Association (PLEA), Saskatchewan Genealogical Society (SGS), and the Western Development Museum. Types of Questions Submitted Questions have been submitted on a wide range of topics. The overwhelming majority of questions submitted by non-Saskatchewan patrons concern genealogy. Many questions submitted from Saskatchewan residents are requests for books and requests for assistance using the online library catalogue. There have been many requests for in-depth research and, in these cases, staff have advised patrons that Ask Us cannot provide an in-depth research service and patrons may be given suggestions on how to start their research including visiting the library. While there have been some instances of questions that do not make sense, there have been no hoax or prank messages sent to the service and there have been no problem patrons. Ask Us staff are working on a simplified subject heading scheme that can be used to apply subject headings to questions in Ask Us. Currently subjects are described in uncontrolled vocabulary that is useful for keyword searching but not for organizing subjects and tracking subject trends. Ask Us staff will be working on subject analysis in the new year. Subject analysis will also be useful for developing a database of answers that can easily be applied to frequently asked questions. Library Material Formats Used to Answer Questions 84% of questions are answered through the use of web sites and printed library materials. 9% are answered through the use of electronic resources purchased by or subscribed to by the library. An additional 3% are answered by a combination of web sites, print library materials, and electronic library resources. Table 6 – Format of Materials Used to Answer Questions FORMAT # OF QUESTIONS % OF QUESTIONS Web sites 87 36% Print library materials 80 33% Print & Web sites 30 12% Electronic resources purchased or subscribed to by libraries (e.g. InfoTrac, CBCA) 22 9% Print, Web sites & electronic 8 3% Web sites & electronic 4 2% Audio-visual library materials 3 1% Print, Web sites & audio-visual 2 1% Print & audio-visual 2 1% Print & electronic 2 1% * Based on sampling of 240 questions. Method of Delivering Answer to Patron As expected the majority of questions – 96% -- are answered by sending an e-mail to the patron with the answer typed into the message and resources listed in the message. However, some questions are answered by phoning the patron, faxing or mailing them material, or a combination of these methods. Delivery methods for a sampling of questions are as follows: Table 7 – Method of Delivery DELIVERY METHOD # OF QUESTIONS E-mail 251 Phone/TD> 6 Fax 5 Mail 6 In-library visit 2 * Based on a sampling of 267 questions with several delivery methods possible for each question. Further Evaluation & Analysis In-depth evaluations of the quality of service provided to patrons are targeted for the upcoming year. Ask Us staff see this process as an important step in improving the service. Recommendation 6 – Develop a process to allow libraries to evaluate the quality of their responses to questions and, out of this process, develop core competencies, benchmarks, and performance targets. STRENGTHS Participant Roles Ask Us has developed roles that work well for all participants. The service has encouraged the development and enhancement of reference service expertise at the library system level. It has also shown that Provincial Library’s most effective role is as facilitator and coordinator. Ask Us fosters active roles for both the regional and provincial level in areas of expertise that are appropriate for these levels. Cooperation Pilot project participants believe that the cooperative structure of Ask Us is superior to each library offering its own separate service. The cooperative set up enables library staff to: collaborate in answering questions when they need assistance; pool their best thinking to develop details such as the question intake form and standard replies to patrons that streamline the question-answering process; track the types of questions received province-wide and jointly develop frequently asked questions, digitization projects, and collection policies that base their focus on province-wide question trends; cooperate with one another to problem-solve take advantage of a software system (QRC) designed especially for reference transaction. Other advantages of cooperation are: Positions libraries to easily cooperate with one another to problem solve Better ability to answer questions correctly because staff can draw on one another’s resources and address chronic problems such as lack of resources for specific subject areas. Staff do not need to use their personal email to answer questions because there is a generic email address for the entire service. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. "One Library System for the Province Concept" Approach Pilot project participants believe that the province-wide nature of Ask Us has many benefits: Patrons receive equitable service regardless of where they live in the province. Easier for patrons because they do not have to determine to which library they should direct their question. Reference service problems are identified on a province-wide scale and Ask Us staff can collaborate to find solutions that will benefit them all. This reduces duplication of problem solving work and pools problem solving ability. Promotional materials should emphasize that all Saskatchewan residents may use the service regardless of where they live in the province. It should be noted that Ask Us promotes a province-wide concept while simultaneously highlighting the involvement of each library system. For example, when a response is sent to a user, an automated signature is automatically tagged to each question. Each signature is customized according to the library system sending the response. The signature says: Saskatchewan Libraries: Ask Us! A Cooperative Pilot Project Service of Saskatchewan Public Libraries Serving you through: Name of Library or Library System Library address, phone, and web site address Similarly, the web page for the service highlights all participating libraries and makes links to their web sites. Successes Ask Us has already received commendations within the library community nationally and internationally. In August, Ask Us received a "Best Practice" award from Industry Canada’s LibraryNet for innovative use of the Internet in public libraries. Ask Us was also profiled at a workshop during the "Facets of Digital Reference" conference in Seattle in October as an example of a collaborative project that uses the QRC software developed by the Internet Public Library. Staff from the National Library of Canada were at this session and were impressed with the progress achieved in Saskatchewan. CHALLENGES Several challenges have been overcome during the pilot project phase. Server "re-start" functionality not working. Shortly after the launch, Provincial Library identified that the server supporting database management system for the service would not re-start itself following a power outage. Provincial Library purchased a new computer to house the Linux server for the service. The new server will start up automatically after a power outage. This demonstrates Provincial Library’s commitment to ensuring appropriate, effective technical support. Email temporarily dysfunctional. For a short period of time, it was determined that e-mail was not transmitting to the server. Changes to the configuration of the e-mail server at Provincial Library fixed this problem. Provincial Library needs to develop expertise in PERL scripting to be able to monitor the service on a regular basis. Recommendation 7 – Develop expertise at Provincial Library to more effectively monitor operation of the QRC server, to take over technical support on a permanent basis, and to contribute to future upgrades to the QRC software. Difficulty meeting the stated turnaround time. Ask Us staff have changed the turnaround policy from 24 hours to 48 hours in order to achieve a more manageable turnaround time. They have also revised the turnaround policy to state that questions will be answered within 48 hours, but if the patron specifies a longer turnaround time then librarians may use the extra time provided. Ask Us staff will still attempt to provide a first reply within the 48 hour period stating that the questions has been received and is "in progress." The Virtual Reference Working Group will continue to monitor the service’s performance on turnaround time, trace sources for problems and work for solutions and targets for improvements. Recommendation – see recommendation 5. Overwhelming number of genealogy questions. The way in which Ask Us staff have collaborated to deal with genealogy questions is an example of how working together helps all participating libraries increase their expertise and resources. Collective strategies are as follows: Ask Us staff have developed a policy on genealogy questions that is now installed on the web site. More time is required to determine if the policy helps reduce the amount of in-depth genealogy reference requests. A genealogy pathfinder for the Ask Us web page is under development. It is hoped that this pathfinder will provide assistance to patrons and will reduce the number of questions submitted as well as improve the quality of those submitted. A special genealogy question form is under development. It is hoped that designing a reference interview form specifically for genealogy will improve the quality and quantity of information provided by patrons. Adoption of a list of referral agencies for genealogy questions. A summary of genealogy resources and where they are located in the province (in libraries, archives, Genealogy Society, etc.) is under development. Cooperation with Saskatchewan Genealogy Society to answer questions for a fee. Recommendation 8 – Continue to establish partnerships with subject-experts. See also recommendation 4. Lack of electronic document delivery options Since most of the answers are emailed to patrons, Ask Us staff have experienced an increased need for digitized materials that can be delivered to patrons electronically. The QRC system currently has some lack of functionality in this regard because it does not allow staff to attach documents onto email replies to patrons. Developing attachment functionality in the software is highly desirable and has been directed to the QRC software developer at the Internet Public Library. The Internet Public Library is working on a new version of QRC that will include attachment functionality. Acquiring public library access to electronic document delivery products would also help solve this problem. The Multitype Library Board is interested in pursuing an electronic document delivery pilot project and the new position at the Provincial Library can be delegated to work on developing this service; particularly if public libraries see this as a priority. In the meantime, staff continue to transcribe information from printed materials or cut and paste material from electronic resources. Many patrons are also faxed or mailed photocopies of materials. Some patrons have suggested that electronic payment for faxed or mailed materials be developed so that the process is easier. Recommendation 9 – Explore potential future developments regarding participation in a Multitype electronic document delivery pilot project. COMPARISON WITH OTHER INTERNET-BASED LIBRARY REFERENCE SERVICES Statistics from three other Canadian Internet-based library reference services have been obtained in order to compare our Internet-based reference experiences with those of other libraries. Alberta post-secondary education libraries service (http://www.lrc.gmcc.ab.ca/research/ask/) One of the few other cooperative services in Canada that we are aware of is a cooperative post-secondary education library "Ask a Question" service in Alberta. Partner libraries are Grant MacEwan College Learning Resources Centre, The Northern Alberta Institute of Technology Library, Red Deer College Library Information Commons, University of Lethbridge Library, Medicine Hat College Vera Bracken Library, and Augustana Library. Service is provided to students of these institutions only. The project began with 2 institutions and grew to 7 institutions. In 1999, the average number of questions received per month was 15. In 2000, the average number of questions received per month was 20. Table 8 – Alberta post-secondary education library project – Total Questions MONTH / YEAR # OF QUESTIONS MONTH / YEAR # OF QUESTIONS Aug 1999 1 Apr 2000 13 Sep 1999 7 May 2000 15 Oct 1999 49 Jun 2000 15 Nov 1999 17 Jul 2000 5 Dec 1999 3 Aug 2000 5 Jan 2000 7 Sep 2000 39 Feb 2000 12 Oct 2000 60 March 2000 26 Nov 2000 19 Since this service is limited to students and others associated with the post-secondary institutions involved, it does not deal with inquiries from a non-mandated user group. The Alberta project has kept track of time library staff spend working on questions received. Their time spent in comparison to time spent by Ask Us staff is as follows: Table 9 – Comparison of Time Spent   Alberta post-sec libraries coop project Saskatchewan Libraries: Ask Us! TIME SPENT % OF QUESTIONS % OF QUESTIONS 15 min 49% 73% 15 - 30 min 29% 19% Over 30 min 22% 8% Edmonton Public Library Edmonton Public Library began their electronic reference service February 21, 1999. They provide the service to "our customers and others with questions about our community." The number of questions received is as follows: Table 10 – Edmonton Public Library Total Questions TIME FRAME # OF QUESTIONS AVERAGE PER MONTH Mar 1999 – Dec 31, 1999 163 16 Jan 2000 – Apr 2000 89 22 During the first six months of the service, 13% of questions were submitted by non-Edmonton residents. Vancouver Public Library Vancouver Public Library launched their Ask a Question service in July 1998. Since the launch date, usage of the service has increased by 232%. VPL believes part of this increased usage is due to making a link to the service on the main page of their web site in 1999. Table 11 – Sampling of monthly question totals MONTH # OF QUESTIONS January 1999 123 December 1999 200 January 2000 292 October 2000 324 VPL restricts their service to B.C. residents and questions from non-B.C. residents that pertain to local information. They have not had a problem with genealogy questions. VPL believes this may be in part because the British Columbia Government web site makes available a database through which users can search and retrieve historical vital statistics information such as birth, death, and marriage certificates. How Does Ask Us Compare to Other Services? Table 12 shows a comparison of the average monthly questions received by Saskatchewan Libraries: Ask Us!, Edmonton Public Library, and Vancouver Public Library in the context of the population of the mandated user group. Alberta’s post-secondary education library is not included in the comparison because the population of its mandated user group is not known at this time. Table 12 – Comparison of Services by Average Monthly Questions & Size of Mandated User Group SERVICE AVERAGE QUESTIONS PER MONTH POP OF MANDATED USER GROUP Saskatchewan Libraries: Ask Us! 66 56% or 37 questions from Sk residents 44% or 29 questions from non-SK 1 million people (SK pop) Edmonton Public Library 22 87% or 19 questions -- Edmonton residents 13% or 3 questions -- non-mandated 900 thousand (Edmonton pop) Vancouver Public Library 308 ratio of questions from B.C. residents versus non-user groups not available 4 million (B.C. pop) FUTURE DIRECTIONS Ask Us staff emphasize that this is just the beginning! Ask Us has given Saskatchewan libraries an important online library reference service presence. Project participants are eager to establish Ask Us as a permanent service and proceed with enhancing service delivery. Involvement of all public library systems is a high priority so that all Saskatchewan residents regardless of where they live can continue to be served. The Virtual Reference Working Group strongly advises that Ask Us be used as a model of how a province-wide "Saskatchewan Libraries" concept can be used to promote a sense of collective strength and service while simultaneously highlighting and promoting each library system involved in the service. Ask Us has shown that we can strongly support the province-wide concept, while maintaining visibility and customizability for library systems. Respectively submitted by Melissa Bennett Provincial Library With thanks to Virtual Reference Working Group members who provided input: Anne Craggs André Gionet Michael Keaschuk Rosemary Loeffler Tony Neal Allan Neufeld Christopher Pepin Harriet Roy Greg Salmers Karon Selzer Jannay Thiessen Gwen Thomson And thanks to Ask Us staff of the participating library systems: Lakeland Library Region Pahkisimon Nuye?áh Library System Palliser Regional Library Parkland Regional Library Regina Public Library Saskatoon Public Library Southeast Regional Library