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A friend sent this to me the other day. Another commercial venture into what reference librarians do!
About a question-answering service in UK.

Relevant also to virtual reference efforts (where librarians answer reference enquiries via chat or IM etc.), since in this case they use SMS - which of course makes sense as the technology of choice to many people nowadays. Are some libraries using this yet? (In societies where SMS is prevalent). I bet Singapore, if any.

One difference between these answers and reference is the reference interview - in this case, they would just answer the question that is submitted without the benefit of the interview. Then again, this is how often email reference is done.

And of course, reference is FOC! (most of the time, anyway. Not necessarily in special libraries which charge-back). People are paying for a fast and convenient service, but you can also walk into/email/chat with a reference librarian at a public library and get it free of charge. (But probably not 24/7. There was a 24/7 virtual reference effort... wonder how that's doing).