This June will mark the end of our thrilling experience of providing Reference On Call to the NMRLS membership. We embarked upon this three-year journey with NMRLS, the other regional reference centers and the residents and librarians of the fifty-four towns in the northeast region in August 2000. Due to budget cuts (heard that much lately?), Reference On Call will cease to exist in its current form. However, 24/7 Reference will continue through the statewide

Regional Reference Centers Memorial Hall Library (Andover) Phone: 978-623-8401 x31 or 32 Fax: 978-623-8407 http://www.mhl.org/region/reference/form.htm Lawrence Law Library Phone: (978) 687-7608 Fax: (978) 688-2346 http://www.lawlib.state.ma.us/ Reference On Call Phone: 866-733-6622 info@referenceoncall.org http://www.referenceoncall.org

MASSAnswers program. In addition, we redeveloped the website to serve users remotely, focusing on the reference databases, 24/7 Reference and links to local libraries. We have a new name too, to reflect this new incarnation. It is "Answers...To Go". I may be biased, but I think it looks really great. If you would like to take a peek yourself, just go to www.nmrls.org/answers and check out your @ Home Library for yourself!

Note: Toll-free telephone service (866-733-6622) will ending on June 30, 2003. The web site, www.referenceoncall.org, will be moving to http://www.nmrls.org/answers on June 30, 2003.

Now I would like to take a few minutes to get nostalgic and remind you all of some of the highlights of Reference On Call (or ROC as we affectionately call it) over the past three years. We launched the service in August 2000, receiving 44 questions in the first month of service. Compare this to the 144 that we handled this last March! We worked hard at promoting the service in new and attention-grabbing ways. We bought advertising space during the summer of 2001 at the Liberty Tree Mall with our "You've Got Questions--We've Got Answers" slide show. Then in the fall of the same year, we designed a Val-Pak ad to insert into their normal set of coupons and sent them to the people of Saugus, Georgetown, Middleton, Beverly and Billerica. However, one of our favorite ideas was the "We will, we will ROC(k) you" poster designed for students, with a built in bookmark they could tear off the posters. People loved them so much we had to print more! Then in April 2002, we jumped into real 24/7 reference. In cooperation with the 24/7 Reference group in California, we now provided our patrons with online access to real librarians around the clock.

It is too bad that we have to say goodbye to ROC, but we have had a great time along the way. Thank you all for your support in letting your communities know about us. We always appreciated hearing from ROC users that they found out about us by a link to our website from your own, or from promotional literature set out in your library.

And don't forget "Answers...To Go" for all your remote user needs. It has all the same great databases, 24/7 Reference and regional library information!