Happy 300,000 questions, AskUsNow!

On July 15th, AskUsNow! marked our 300,000th question answered with a press event at the North Point branch of Baltimore County Public Library. The festivities started at 11am and in attendance were Irene Padilla, State Librarian; Jim Fish, BCPL Director; Audra Caplan, Harford County PL Director; Mary Hastler, Harford County PL Assistant Director; Emily Ferren, Charles County PL Director; Alison Sherwell, Charles County AskUsNow! Liaison, Sue Tinanoff, Liaison to BCPL; Paula Isett, DLDS; Julie Strange, AskUsNow! and more.

Among the invitees was special guest of honor, Edward Landa, an AskUsNow! customer and Montgomery County Public Library customer. Ed had hand-written a letter to DLDS in appreciation and support of AskUsNow! and we were honored to have him represent our customers for our 300,000th question celebration.

Interviewed by Jim Fish, Ed tells the tale of his question- trying to figure out what "E.R.A" meant in Great Depression era language - a question that The Great Search Engine was no help with. It was a pleasure to have Ed join us that morning and a delight to hear him speak about how wonderful AskUsNow! is. (He also sung the praises of Pratt's former Night Owl service.)

Reporters from both the Baltimore Sun and the Dundalk Eagle were present for our event and a story ran in both papers within a week:

State libraries answer 300,000 questions online,  The Baltimore Sun, July 16, 2010 (view as pdf)

MD libraries create “virtual reference desk” online, The Dundalk Eagle, July 23, 2010 (view as pdf)

The Southern Maryland Independent also covered the story (link, pdf)

Did you celebrate the event?

Add your photos to the AskUsNow! 300,000 question celebration pool on Flickr!

Thanks to Worcester, AACPL, and Cecil for letting us know how you celebrated!

Not on Flickr? send your photos to Julie and she'll add them to the AskUsNow! account!

We didn't celebrate yet! Did we miss it?

No! There's still time to celebrate AskUsNow!'s 300,000 questions as this is a marketing opporunity for the next few months! Please do use it to our/your advantage and remind your customers how awesome you are and how much work you've put into the service over the years!

How can we celebrate?

Head over to our marketing area and check out the Celebration Toolkit for cool ideas on things you can do- the list isn't exhaustive so use your imagination! Kudos to AACPL for their creative ideas!