I'd love to see Slate give equal attention to the Internet Public Library at www.ipl.org. At the IPL, searchers can submit a question to a group of librarians and library students and receive a complete response, all for free, via email. Take a look at this recent review of the IPL from Philadelphia Weekly for an objective commentary on the quality of IPL responses.

It's yet another service offered by intrepid librarians, who sleep easily, untroubled by nightmares. We put people and reliable information together, wherever we need to and with whatever tools we have at our disposal.