The American Library Association has teamed up with Mosio to better accommodate attendees of its annual conference in Chicago by providing them with information via text messaging.

An estimated 25,000 attendees are expected at the conference. "Text an ALA Ambassador" will provide attendees with a helpful guide and information resource during the proceedings.

"The Text a Librarian service will enable attendees to get all the information they need, extending the reach beyond the traditional information booth," said Jamieson Chandler, marketing and PR manager at Mosio and Text a Librarian, San Francisco, CA. "Attendees will be able to ask questions and get real-time answers from 250 conference information specialists."

The American Library Association is the oldest and largest library association in the world, with more than 64,000 members.

Mosio is a mobile technologies company that provides mobile and one-to-many communications services to business.

The text message program will help the ALA save money.

Over the course of the seven day conference, 250 volunteer ALA Ambassadors will use Mosio's Text a Librarian technology to answer the questions of attendees, wherever they are.

The service lets attendees text questions from their mobile phones to the ALA Ambassadors, using the short code 66746 (MOSIO), who will then respond to them using a Web interface.

"Mosio's system is accessible to every attendee with a mobile phone who can send a text message," Mr. Chandler said.

Users will also be able to follow updates and developments on Text a Librarian through Twitter and Facebook.

Text a Librarian was launched at the ALA Midwinter conference in Denver, CO in January.

The service lets libraries field questions from patrons through SMS messaging. There will be no advertising supporting these messages.

Patrons text their questions to libraries, who then respond by typing answers on a private Web site.

The service is accessible by more than 250 million U.S. mobile phones, and is now being used in a number of public and academic libraries across the country, including Yale University, UC Berkeley, Cornell, Free Library of Philadelphia and UNLV.

For college and public libraries, the service allows students, professors and researchers to track down necessary resources and periodicals quickly.

Text a Librarian will support most mobile carriers, including AT&T, Alltel Wireless, Virgin Mobile, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless.

"We provide a messaging system that increases the amount of attendees that can access conference information anywhere, without having to increase the staffing levels providing service to attendees," Mr. Chandler said.