Hi all,

I was asked by several librarians if I could collate all the responses I got in relation to a query I sent out a week or two ago. I do so below. I divide the answers by ************. I had intended to summarise the results but illness intervened, so rather than wait, I'll send the responses as I received them (there's not that many) and will summarise later.

 

Thanks to everyone who replied, the information is very useful. 

 

My original request: 

I have been asked to conduct a 'straw poll' into how libraries keep enquiry statistics with a view to improving our records. At the moment we record enquiries at the desk (in person or by phone and email) in broad categories such as 'Subject/Resource'; 'Directional/Procedural'; 'Technical', and have a space for enquiries over five minutes or under five minutes. Complex enquiries that could be 6 minutes or forty get the same one tick in a box, and we wondered how other libraries try and differentiate between them. Sometimes we do make records of enquiries and how we dealt with them if we think the information might be useful for future purposes, but crucially it depends on time available (if there are queues or ringing phones we may not get time).

 

Does anyone use a different way of recording enquiries to reflect their nature and help build a truer picture of Enquiry desk activity? Any suggestions gratefully received.

 

Thank You,

 

Alan Beard

Liaison Librarian, Enquiry Services

Birmingham City University

 

The answers (in reverse chronological order):

 

Hi Alan,

You list request has been forwarded to me to deal with. If anything interesting comes of it, could you forward the results to me?

 

At Lboro, we have enquiry desks on all three levels of the Library. During the summer our circulation team merged with our enquiry desk staff to form a combined customer service team due to the introduction of RFID. We split our enquiry desk sheets into the following sections:

subject enquiries/IT enquiries/passwords/sales (print & photocopier credit)/issue desk enquiries/ procedural & directional

 

We used to split the subject enquiries into less than/more than 5 minutes but felt that if an enquiry took longer than 5 minutes to answer, it shouldn't be done at the desk, but should be referred onto an academic librarian. They then monitor separately how many queries get referred onto them.

We don't analyse the types of subject enquiry other than in these categories.

 

Regards,

Matt

 

--------------------------

Matt Cunningham

Customer Services Manager

Pilkington Library

Loughborough University

 

 

******************************************************************************************************************

 

Dear Alan,

 

We record ours like you do on a form. However if a query lasts 15 minutes or more, the subject librarian records this in their information skills spreadsheet as will be collated under the user education sessions delivered at the end of the year. We are also in the process of implementing QuestionPoint and we we manually record this as well.

 

Simone Ngozi Okolo

Academic Services & Skills Manager

University of East London

 

 

*****************************************************************************************************************

 

Dear Alan,

 

We keep quite detailed enquiry statistics.  We record enquiries under the following categories: 

 

Using catalogue

Reading lists

Resources for teaching

Online sources

Journals

General ref. enquiry

Referencing

Ad-hoc induction

Finding books

School Experience collection

Short loan

Fines/loan queries

Computer use

Other libraries

Refer other dept

Other

 

If an enquiry covers more than one area, we record it under more than one heading (most common for journals enquiries which turn into online sources enquiries).  However, recent discussion within the team has revealed that we don't all interpret the headings in the same way!  Athens password enquiries are being recorded in several different ways, for example.

 

We have a spreadsheet where each day is split into time slots which reflect our enquiry desk staffing (9-11, 11-1, 1-3, 3-5, 5-9) so statistics are recorded against the appropriate date and time.  We also record whether the enquiry is under 5 mins, 5-15 mins or over 15 mins.  Like you, we used to just record under 5 or over 5 but added the over 15 option to reflect the fact that some enquiries are lengthy.

 

I do not claim that our method of recording enquiry statistics is brilliant, but I hope the information is useful to you.

 

Regards,

Jane 

 

Jane Faux BSc(Hons) MSc MCLIP

Liaison Librarian

Newman University College

 

 

*******************************************************************************************************************

 

Hi Alan

 

We only answer enquiries face-to-face or written down (email, fax or letter). This allows us to prioritise those who come in person and makes the system fairer as those who phoned in tended to "jump the queue". 

 

We do not compile statistics for in person enquiries but we do for the others. We sort and count the enquiries into these categories: Collections based enquires, Freedom of Information enquiries, enquiries concerning other museum functions, non collections based enquiries. We use this information to help us prioritise help sheets, guides etc. 

 

We have a policy of not spending longer than 30 mins per enquiry. If the enquiry takes longer we recommend they make a personal visit to our library and archive centre or enlist a paid researcher (£20 a day). 

 

All our enquiries are entered onto a database, so we can track them and ensure that they are answered within 20 days, and who is dealing with which enquiry. This database also allows us to go back to an enquiry, so we're not always having to start from scratch for similar enquiries.

 

Our emphasis is on guiding people to finding out the answers to questions, rather than simply answering their question. So we tell people what resources there are, where else to look etc. All this helps us to manage staff time and get a picture of our enquiry service.

 

Kind regards

 

 

Karen Baker

 

Librarian

National Railway Museum

 

 

*******************************************************************************************************************

 

We've started using roughly the same procedure as you but ask staff to notes time taken if over 5 minutes - depending on the busy-ness of the individual site (we have 12) typically people either do a total of 5-15 mins etc and/or note any especially lengthy/complex ones.  I think a distinction needs to be made as to the purpose of the stats - our are currently mainly for quality improvement so we want to get an idea of whether e.g. poor signage, promotion of resources, training etc impacts on 'basic' enquiries, and how much need there is generally for staffed desks.  Stats for workload assessment need more attention paid to time taken though work diaries etc look to be better for this for us.

 

Chloe Stewart

Library Manager

Stobhill Hospital

 

This next answer came via another route (not LISLINK):

 

 

Hi Alan

 

An audit was carried out across all sites with the attached criteria. We have been aiming to do a number of things;

*	Utilise senior staff time more effectively - so take faculty librarians and team leaders off the Enquiry Desk (this has been achieved) 
*	Look at the hours of opening and staffing requirements for our main Frenchay Library (still to be actioned) 
*	To look at the centralisation of email and telephone enquiries to best utilise staff resources, particularly at smaller sites (this work will start this academic year. I'm hoping we will end up with a product like Questionpoint to log and audit enquiries). 
*	To look at future staffing resource (i.e. we may need to lose money from our staffing budget in the next year or so) and how the service can operate 
*	To look at what level of staff need to man the enquiry points (the data showed many enquiries were routine and basic, lots were IT focused) - at smaller sites Senior Library Assistants have already started being on enquiry desks. 

Once the audit was carried out all the data was collated and presented with some recommendations which were taken to all teams and campuses to give feedback on. This was a useful tool. As a result of the audit we have ended up with a full-time post whose main role is to run the Frenchay Campus Enquiry Services and start to look at the centralisation of email and telephone enquiries. Previously this has been a number of people doing different elements.

 

Ellie

 

Ellie Clark-Webster

Library Customer Services Manager

0117 32 82399


Library Services

Frenchay Campus

 

 



Birmingham City University is the new name unveiled for the former University of Central England in Birmingham
For more information about the name change go to http://www.bcu.ac.uk/namechange/official_announcement.html