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    Project History

QandANJ.org is the brainchild of the South Jersey Regional Library Cooperative, a multi-type library cooperative that serves 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 always open.  (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 never declined from that burst and has steadily climbed with spreading awareness and repeat visitors.

Today, 47 libraries and library systems from all four library regional cooperatives staff the service for the entire state.  Three to five librarians are online at any time, fielding as many as 25-30 calls per hour, on average, during peak times.  QandANJ.org has also offered online author/expert chats and live tutoring help.

In September 2004, six new academic libraries joined the QandANJ service to help staff a specialized service for college and university students.

QandANJ.org is in its seventh year of LSTA funding and will be joined by more libraries in 2007-2008.  

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.

   

 QandANJ.org is administered by the South Jersey Regional Library Cooperative, a state tax-funded service of the New Jersey Library Network, and supported by Federal Library Services and Technology Act funds administered by the New Jersey State Library.