Celebrating 15 years of the AnyQuestions online reference service!

You may have heard of AnyQuestions, the online reference service for primary and secondary school students. Using interactive software and an information literacy approach, librarians from all around the country help students identify the information they need and guide them to appropriate online resources.

The service receives funding and support from the Ministry of Education and public libraries around New Zealand. It is managed by the National Library of New Zealand and staffed by friendly, police-vetted librarians.

This free service is available to all school students, from 1 pm – 6 pm Monday - Friday.

It’s sister site ManyAnswers helps students find information when AnyQuestions isn’t available. Using questions that have been asked on AnyQuestions, librarians research and write up topics, using quality resources and websites.

This service launched in February 2005. Dunedin Public Library joined the service in November 2005, with 7 librarians taking part as operators. Doing one hour shifts each week, they engage with students from across NZ, to support the school curriculum, and provide an additional resource which works alongside and complements existing school and public library services. During the 15 years the service has been in operation, there have been a core group of library staff who have volunteered to be trained to work in a challenging but rewarding online reference environment.

  • Usage of AnyQuestions increases each year with total chats for 2019 recorded at 7381
  • Tuesdays are the busiest day, between 2pm-3pm so more operators have been added to accommodate the increase of students at that time.
  • The average length of a chat in 2019 was 19.54 minutes.
  • During busy times students wait on average 3.89 minutes before being “picked up” by an operator. Students are willing to wait on average 6.25 minutes which shows they know it is a worthwhile experience.
  • Students from 556 schools in the country, approximately one fifth of schools out of a total of 2534 have logged on to chat on AnyQuestions in 2019. 


For more information about the AnyQuestions service visit: www.anyquestions.govt.nz