LIANZA

Posted by: thewhaanga | Posted on: 06 Dec 11

Kia ora folks,

With Christmas and the summer break quickly approaching its time to announce that AnyQuestions.co.nz last day of operation for 2011 will be December 9th. We will be reopening again for business when school returns in February (date to be confirmed).

Thank you to all of you who have engaged with the service over the year.

From our point of view 2011 has been a very successful year. At the beginning of the year we moved to a better and much more reliable chat product and then half way through the year we moved to a new improved website (read the LIANZA feature article) We also have made a number of significant changes to ManyAnswers.co.nz, which has resulted in an improved website with a rapidly expanding number of entries.

We have also experienced our first increase in numbers using the service since our first year of operation in 2005. I’m delighted with this result as it is a testimony to the hard work of the AnyQuestions.co.nz team in providing a quality reference service to New Zealand school students.

One of the key enhancements to AnyQuestions.co.nz that I am most proud of (and hope more schools take up next year) is the implementation of our new school visit programme. Basically a teacher or librarian come on to AnyQuestions.co.nz, go to our Contact Us page and let us know when they will be coming on and what they will be asking. I then let the AnyQuestions team know.

At the allotted time the class logs on to the site using a datashow to display the transaction and the entire class engages with the AnyQuestions operator. We unpack the question with the students, guide them to appropriate online resources and even show them things like how to use the EPIC resources. This has the twofold benefit of demonstrating information literacy to the students AND demonstrating AnyQuestions.

We have done these class visits with a number of schools (primary, intermediate and secondary) and they have proven very successful. One school had seven class visits with students from Year 2 through to Year 8 and in the three months since, we have had over 200 engagements with their students!

In 2012 I hope more schools take up this offering, perhaps as part of an introduction to the school library and the resources they have on offer.

If you are also looking for appropriate online resources to give to students and teachers (or if you work in a public library, even just your customers!) keep in mind that you can submit topics to ManyAnswers.co.nz through our Request for Information form. If you submit a request (or requests) through this form our team of ManyAnswers operators will create entries suited to your needs. When students come in looking for info around their questions you can direct them to your physical resources in the library and then also direct them to our ManyAnswers.co.nz entry where there will be appropriate online material for them to access.

Once again, thanks for your engagement with us throughout the year. I hope you all have a merry Christmas, a happy new year and awesome holidays! We look forward to working with you all in 2012!

Rob

Robert Baigent
AnyQuestions/UiaNgāPatai Service Manager
National Digital Library
National Library of New Zealand Te Puna Mātauranga O Aotearoa
The Department of Internal Affairs Te Tari Taiwhenua

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