AskAway in British Columbia to close (and other updates from the VR coordinators)

Submitted by Julie on 4 June 2010 - 1:52pm
in
AskAway bookmarks in the recycling bin

 

 
AskAway bookmarks in the bin.
(click image for larger version)

The VR coordinators around the world get together once a month to talk shop, share ideas, and help each other solve problems. This month was less a sharing of ideas than of condolences.

Kay, coordinator for the public side of AskAway in British Columbia, Canada announced to the group that as of June 30th, AskAway will close for public library patrons on June 30, 2010 at 5 p.m. As you can read in the full press release, the "public library service was funded by the B.C. Ministry of Education, and this funding ended on March 31, 2010. Public libraries have been able to continue the service until June with existing funds by making staffing adjustments and reducing service hours."

There is emphasis on the "public library patrons" piece because AskAway is split into two groups- the public side and the academic side. The academic side remains open.

Following this sad announcement we had a discussion about how virtual reference can be further integrated into the "core" of library services so that it is no longer precieved as an "extra." Some of the reasoning being that if it more integrated, it would be harder to splice out and cut.

Other updates included similar but less tragic stories of reorganizations:

Kris with AskColorado mentioned that their host agency, BCR, (like BCPL is for AskUsNow!) is closing. The building is being sold and so servers need to be moved and another fiscal agent needs to be lined up.

Likewise, Beth said that QandANJ (New Jersey)'s host agency is being switched as all but one of the library cooperatives in NJ are being closed. The South Jersey Regional Library Cooperative is being dissolved and all QandANJ operations are being moved to InfoLink, the last remaining NJ co-op.

News is less depressing in other areas:

Diana in Florida, Caleb in Oregon, and Ahniwa in Washington State are all starting / looking to start texting.

Ahniwa is also working on a volunteer project with 7 students from the iSchool of UW- getting them on chat.

Here in Maryland, we're doing texting, starting a volunteer program, streamlining processes due to lack of staff, and are gearing up for our 3000,000th question celebration.