Closure of the AskNow chat service

Due to declining demand and the changing ways that people are using libraries, the AskNow chat reference service will close on 17th of December 2010. This decision was made following an 18-month review by the National Libraries of Australia and New Zealand, and the State and Territory libraries across Australia.

One of the key reasons for the closure is the change in the information landscape since the launch of Ask Now in 2002. With the dominance of Google and social networking sites, there are many new ways people can engage with libraries.

While AskNow had many satisfied customers over the years, chat is a resource intensive service to offer and AskNow has seen a substantial decline in usage in the past 5 years. Users have high expectations, often forgetting they are talking to a person and not a search engine. The collaborative approach to staffing the service, with operators from across the country and New Zealand taking shifts, was confusing to some users who expected to be chatting with a librarian at their local library.

To keep pace with rapidly changing technology, last year the National Library of Australia launched a new, free, Australian discovery service called Trove, and similarly the National Library of New Zealand launched FIND; Trove and FIND make it easier for people to find, use and engage with resources held in library collections and cultural institutions around Australasia.

Given the decline in AskNow usage and the development of Trove and FIND, the National Libraries of Australia and New Zealand, and the State and Territory libraries across Australia (NSLA), plan to discontinue the AskNow service at the end of this year.

As new technologies take centre stage, AskNow partners (NSLA) are exploring how libraries can embrace social networking and find new ways to expose library collections and promote user engagement. More information on these new initiatives can be found on the NSLA Re-imagining Libraries website.

Enquiries can be directed to:

Roger Swanson
Manager, Research Services
Alexander Turnbull Library
National Library of New Zealand
roger.swanson@natlib.govt.nz