In Fall 2015, librarians answered 6,735 reference questions.
The number of reference questions answered has continued to drop from Fall 2014 (8,522) and Fall 2013 (11,259). Fewer librarians to staff the desk has impacted our ability to serve our students.
In previous semesters, desk substitutes would be assigned to cover a librarian's desk if they were scheduled to teach a library instruction class during their normal desk time. But with fewer librarians, we no longer have the luxury of assigning "desk subs." This means that during several peak reference shifts during the semester there was only one librarian available to assist students.
Tuesday was our overall busiest day. Our busiest days/time (anything over 250) for Fall 2015:
Tuesday: 10-11am & 12-1pm
Thursday: 12-1pm
Our patrons prefer to ask for help In person by a whopping 89%. Patrons contacting us through other means (phone calls, texting, email, and Ask a Librarian form) were only 11%.
Technical questions (database access, database searching, GoPrint) were steady from Spring 2015 at 49%, but both Spring 2015 and Fall 2015 were significantly higher than Fall 2014 (38%). Ongoing issues with the GoPrint system are well documented in the Footprints request system.
Reference and Directional went down from the previous two semesters (26%) and (24%). Fewer librarians to staff the desk coupled with GoPrint system issues has impacted our ability to serve the Reference needs of our students.
Now let's look at the type of question asked and how long it took us to answer each question:
Reference: 66% took 2-10min
Technical: 75% took 2-10min
Directional: 73% took less than 1min