QandANJ.org was the brainchild
of the South Jersey Regional Library Cooperative, a multi-type library
cooperative that served over 560 libraries in the southern seven
counties of New Jersey.
In the fall of 2000, SJRLC funded the startup costs of a pilot virtual
reference project with 10 participating libraries, or service providers
-- six public libraries, two college libraries, and one special library
from South Jersey.
As part of its mission to support cooperative opportunities among its
member libraries, SJRLC was looking for, and found in virtual reference, a
service that would "go where the people are", enhance the
marketability of libraries, and help develop and recruit library staff.
QandANJ.org wasn't a South Jersey-only project for long. Even as the
planning team was selecting a vendor and laying down group norms, libraries from outside the
cooperative were expressing interest in joining the project.
In the spring of 2001, nine new libraries from South and Central Jersey
came aboard. The broader participation qualified the project for
Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) grant funding through the
State Library.
The grant application was successful and included a full-time Project
Coordinator, a critical resource to a purposely growing project.
On October 1, 2001, QandANJ went "live" to the New Jersey
public, open 44 hours per week: 1 - 11 PM Monday through Thursday and 1
- 5 PM on Friday.
On January 28, 2002, four months old and seven additional libraries
stronger, QandANJ.org expanded its hours to 24/7.
(Overnights and weekend hours were outsourced to professional
librarians. Today, a combination of freelancers, QuestionPoint's
24/7 nationwide Coverage Cooperative, and participating libraries cover these
"hard-to-staff" hours.) Usage grew by 600% during its
first month of 24/7 service. Surprisingly, most of the growth was
during the hours the service was already open. Usage increased and steadily climbed with spreading
awareness and repeat visitors.
Today, over 50 libraries and library systems from all over New Jersey staff the service for the entire
state. Three to five librarians are online at any time, fielding
as many as 20-25 calls per hour, during peak times.
In September 2004, six new academic libraries joined the QandANJ service to help staff a specialized
queue for college and university
students.
Due to state budget cuts, SJRLC ceased operations in August 2010, and
management of the service was transferred to LibraryLinkNJ.
QandANJ.org is in its tenth year of LSTA funding and is currently funded
through June 2011.
For more project background,
see Computers in Libraries: "Managing a Statewide Virtual
Reference Service: How Q and A NJ Works" by Peter Bromberg (April
2003, Volume 23 Issue 4, p26, 6p ). Full Text is available through
EBSCOhost.
