I think we really need to define what an enquiry is & why we are
counting it. There are many ways of measuring internet use in the
library & use is for many different reasons. The use of the internet
should be measured so that we can show our stakeholders that the
investment fulfils it's purpose but counting the public using a search
engine is meaningless to enquiry statistics. In Leeds the public use
of the internet is counted via a booking system but when we count
enquiries we distinguish those relating to the internet into proper
enquiries & basically equipment enquiries, The former involving
advice, possibly doing searches for them & enquiries which we select
the internet as the way to answer, while the latter is how do I get
on, how do I save/print,etc. (CIPFA & non-CIPFA?).
A separate issue is the accessing of library information remotely, on
the Leeds site we have a list of local organisations which is
searchable in a variety of ways - are all accesses to the search
legitimate enquiries?, should they be added to our statistics. We
don't at present but if we did it raises the question of which other
library pages being accessed should also count (all of which our
webmaster has software to provide figures).
Lionel Aldridge
Performance Manager
Leeds Library & Information Services
______________________________ Reply Separator
_________________________________
Subject: Counting electronic enquiries
Author: "Westlake; Duncan" <[log in to unmask]> at
Internet
Date: 20/09/00 17:04
Is anyone starting to think about how to count information enquiries
your public make using the Internet? We are currently required to
provide figures for enquiries handled by staff, but increasingly
these will not represent the whole picture. However, how you actually
count Internet use in any meaningful way is something of a challenge
... unless someone's already doing it.
Duncan Westlake (London Borough of Hillingdon)
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