Between answering queries Wednesday, reference librarian Bill McHugh said a program offered to students via the University Library Web site makes the reference desk more accessible.

“More and more people are using the library remotely and we’d like to be accessible to them,” McHugh said.

The program, Reference Librarian Online, allows students to ask questions and receive answers from library staff in real time by filling out a form with name, e-mail address, phone number and question on the library’s Reference Department Web site. Students have mostly used the service to ask questions concerning electronic databases, McHugh said.

Before the library began increasing publicity for the program in an e-mail Wednesday, average usership was less than one person per day, McHugh said, adding that he hoped more people will use the service.

Librarians purchased new software for the program in December, but delayed publicizing the service until they could be sure of its reliability, he said. The program has been active for more than a year, but problems with the previous software prevented wide use.

The program is available at http://www.library.northwestern.edu/reference/virtual_reference/ from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. Monday to Thursday and 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. Fridays. Students need no software to access the program except a recent version of either Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator, McHugh said.