AnyQuestions by Kay Mercer

Real time … real person … real help with your schoolwork …

AnyQuestions offers free online schoolwork help to New Zealand school students.

You can log on to the AnyQuestions website from 1pm to 6pm weekdays during the school year and chat online with a friendly librarian about a schoolwork question. The librarians are specially trained to help you find the answers you need, without giving you the answers of course! They will guide you to quality information sources and help you gain the skills to do future searches yourself.

The site is backed by the Ministry of Education and is staffed by librarians from Dunedin Public Libraries and other libraries around New Zealand.

Rozz, one of Dunedin Public Libraries staff members who works as an Anyquestions operator, was interviewed during lockdown for NB.

Q: What made you decide to become an AnyQuestions operator?

A: I think that helping young people to develop their digital literacy and find and recognise relevant reliable digital information is a really useful thing to do

Q: What is the most difficult question you have ever been asked? And why?

A: Um…. Probably the hardest are the really narrow specific questions like “What did Captain Cook eat on the last night before he got to Aotearoa.”

Q: What is the best thing about being about being an operator?

A: When you and your student have worked together to find really good resources that they need, and they are really happy with their results.

Q: Which websites/databases do you enjoy using?

A: Many Answers is a site produced by AnyQuestions which has popular topics for New Zealand students with summaries and suggested reliable websites where students can look for information. It saves reinventing the wheel on many inquiries.

Q: It can be difficult sometimes being an operator, what do you find the most challenging?

A: I find it really frustrating when we do not get to help the student find any information before they have to leave the chat. Of course they can always try again at another time but it feels like a wasted opportunity for us.

Q: If you weren't a Library Assistant what would you like to be?

A: During lockdown our family was rewatching the ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ film series, so……. a Pirate!

AnyQuestions logo — Image by: anyquestions.co.nz