What happened to this resource from the former Ask a Librarian site?

The Library of Congress Ask a Librarian Service has migrated to this new platform. As part of that migration, a decision was made to retire the Virtual Reference Shelf web resource.

It is still possible to access an archived version of the site (as part of the Library of Congress Web Archive) where you will find this resource as well as an archive of the Library of Congress's entire website going back many years.

The Library's reference staff and curators have developed hundreds of new and updated subject-oriented guides to support your research needs, and the needs of researchers at all levels. These guides provide subject and format-oriented information on resources in the Library's onsite collections, research strategies for further exploration, and links to many freely-accessible resources available online.

As always, please feel free to contact us through Ask a Librarian if we can help you with your research, or if you have ideas for future guides that might be helpful to you and other researchers like you.

You may also find it helpful to consult the following websites for general information on a variety of topics: