New Jersey’s Virtual Reference Service Reduced to a Glimmer

By Bob Warburton

More than a month after watching New Jersey’s popular virtual reference website go offline following a decade of operation, leading members of the Garden State’s library community are gaining momentum toward finding a replacement.

Still, it will be early summer at the earliest before a proposed successor to QandANJ.org, a Web-based collaborative considered quite innovative when first launched in 2001, can be unveiled, officials told Library Journal this week. QandANJ shut down on December 31, 2011, and a current visit to that Web address offers just a terse glimpse into its future: “Discussions are ongoing regarding future plans for a new service.”

Those discussions have evolved into two-pronged strategy, New Jersey Library Association President Susan O’Neal said, revealing that her goal is to settle on a blueprint for QandANJ’s replacement and have a viable funding plan identified in time to announce both facets at the NJLA’s annual conference in June.

This work will follow up on months of effort by a 17-member task force charged with studying new online formats and thinking outside the box to solve perhaps the most difficult problem: how to fund the project.

“There is a strong enough interest in virtual reference for us to proceed,” O’Neal said. “I think there’s a clear feeling that we don’t have to reinvent the wheel.”

One thing that will stay the same, at least for a year or so, is the name “QandANJ.” The NJLA has taken steps to keep possession of that Internet domain name. But whatever the site’s future incarnation, there will be an important change: It will no longer be funded and operated by the New Jersey State Library.

State Librarian Norma Blake, in a statement to LJ, said, “We look forward to a time in New Jersey when there will be an updated version of virtual reference. Unfortunately, by nation-wide formula, New Jersey has lost 14 percent of (federal) LSTA funding in the past two years, totaling $568,000.”

Patricia Tumulty, the NJLA’s executive director, said, “I believe it’s an NJLA initiative at this point.”

Peter Bromberg, an outspoken advocate of the virtual reference service and a past critic of the state library’s funding decisions, said, “I think we can definitely put something in place that will improve on what QandANJ was. There is actually some energy being directed on this now.” Bromberg is assistant director of the Princeton Public Library and served on the task force.

Despite its much-copied format and a roster of some 50 partner libraries, QandANJ’s survival was abruptly cast into question last April, when Blake announced plans to sever funding for the site. Citing declining usage and a critical shortage of state funds, a June 30 shutdown date was announced. QandANJ cost about $300,000 a year to maintain.

Librarians from around New Jersey, many of whom criticized the state’s decision as unilateral and short-sighted, quickly rallied to save QandANJ. The NJLA, at its May 13 Reference Section meeting, announced the formation of the Virtual Reference Task Force. The group met five times through October and delivered its report and recommendations on November 8.

“This whole series of events really was a great example of some grass-roots movement,” Bromberg said.

Two months later, O’Neal said she is mostly finished forming a four- or five-person committee to meet soon (with her as chairperson) to choose which of the country’s existing virtual reference websites to use as the model for the new QandANJ. The larger task force vetted and studied a total of six.

“Pick one, then give us a cost model,” said O’Neal. “This committee is charged with getting down to the nuts and bolts of how much it will cost.” On Tuesday, O’Neal said she hopes this group can meet “within the next 10 days. I’m hoping there’s no more than a 30-day turnaround.”

The larger task force studied six prominent virtual references spread out from coast to coast: NCKnows, AskColorado, RefChatter, LNet, LibAnswers and Ask a Librarian. Each site allows users, as QandANJ did, to submit reference or other questions, with real-time assistance provided quickly.

“From the beginning, the Virtual Reference Task Force has been committed to finding more cost-efficient alternatives, while at the same time offer an improved or continually excellent service,” said Michael Maziekien, head of adult services/IT at Rockaway Township Public Library who chaired the task force.

In its November 8 report to the NJLA, Maziekien’s task force offered three steps:

1. Selection of a team to “move forward with the implementation” of a new service.
2. Choosing a model and a funding structure.
3. Reaching out to organizations with requests for funding.

O’Neal’s smaller task force will handle at least the first part of those recommendations.

“We knew this service was going to be reconfigured anyway,” said the NJLA’s Tumulty. “We did a lot of good work on this up to December 31. That won’t go away.”

After the state library’s April announcement, Blake did find an additional $50,000 to keep QandANJ running through the summer. Another last-ditch infusion of funding kept QandANJ alive for another three months, although it wasn’t enough to keep the site in operation 24 hours a day, seven days a week during that time.

LibraryLinkNJ, the state library cooperative that operated QandANJ, agreed to donate $40,000 to keep the site in business from September 30 to December 31. The funds covered software costs and some paid freelance employees.

“My board approved it because it was a request from the state library,” said Cheryl O’Connor, LibraryLinkNJ’s executive director. “With school in session, we didn’t want to blindside the teachers and the students. We didn’t want to cut the kids off without any notice.”

Of current funding needs, knowing the state will likely contribute little if anything, the task force wrote in its report: “Libraries both academic and public are tapped out from government sources.  It’s time to think outside government and think about the private sector.”