Transcript Libstats @ Brockport

Moving to Online Reference Statistics: Brockport's LibStats
Experience
Charles Cowling and Mary Jo Orzech
For general questions contact Charlie Cowling,
[email protected]. For questions regarding
installation and setup, contact Logan Rath,
[email protected].
 We used a clipboard & tally sheet to record our
reference desk stats, and total the responses.
 This had certain advantages:
 It would have been hard to run online stats software
before we had PCs at the reference desk ;-)
 It was easy and convenient.
 Why? Management wanted ready access to stats, and
was interested in the “difficulty” of questions…
 There was a desire to assess not only the amount but
the nature of traffic and staff needed to serve patrons.
 Also, non-reference librarians worked the reference
desk infrequently in the past, but some were now
working the desk once a week and interested in a
better way to share information.
 It was hoped that an online system for stats would
allow recording of enhanced stats and permit
recording of questions and answers as a sort of
“knowledge base.”
 Footprints is commercial IT helpdesk software.
 It has it’s points, but is aimed more at tracking and
following up on questions than may be needed or
helpful at a reference desk.
 It seemed clunky to use for librarians.
 It was worth a try though, and helped us think more
clearly about what we wanted.
 For better communication of issues we shifted from a
paper desk log, and relocated that log to WordPress.
 The DrakeRef Blog is at drakeref.wordpress.com.
 It serves as a bulletin board for reference desk staff,
and continues as a helpful complement to our LibStats
application.
 We surveyed our SUNY colleagues, and the literature,
and LibStats sounded good.
 It was implemented at the beginning of Fall 2009, so
we have had a year of experience with it.
 We are pleased with it, and would recommend it to
others looking for such software.
 LibStats is open source software available at
code.google.com.
 It was designed by two librarians at the University of
Wisconsin, Eric Larsen & Nate Vack.
 The Google site has links to download it, and details of
server needed, etc. It was not difficult to install or
maintain.
 It is easy to modify LibStats categories etc.
 We were able to set up different dashboards, e.g., one
that the reference librarian sees and one that the
reference student assistant sees.
 It allows for entry of narrative recording of Q&A,
which we do as time permits and as seems helpful.
 Overall, our experience with LibStats has been a
positive one and worth the effort to transition to it.
 To address assessment, how much are librarians
needed at the desk etc., we devised a simple 1-3 scale.
 1 is easiest, 3 is hardest. It’s subjective, all such scales
are, but we tried to keep it simple:
 1 is for no brainer questions, where’s the restroom,
printer needs paper, do you have a certain book…
 2 is more involved – if the book is out, what are the
options, explaining a database in more depth.
 3 is most complex, explanation of multiple resources ,
extensive use of reference interview etc.
 LibStats allows reporting by time of day, weekday,
initials of person, types of question, etc.
 For example, 25% of our questions still concern finding
books.
 We receive more IM’s now than phone calls, 13% to 8%.
 The scale of difficulty shows only 7-8% of the
questions are #3, the hardest, but they are scattered
randomly, it would be hard to say, “this is a time where
a librarian is not needed.”