The reference staff experimented this past spring with a survey that solicited comments from our users. The word cloud on the right shows their reactions. We found that the word "helpful" appeared most often!

We selected two weeks in the early part of the semester and two weeks toward the end when we thought reference service would be most in demand. Our librarians kept careful track of all questions in a log, which included information such as tools used, method of contact, librarian who helped, whether questions were related to an assignment, and more. We also recorded emails for all users who asked indepth questions.

One of the aims was to glean information about our users. It will serve to guide decisions about future reference service. We found that 75% of our interactions were in person and the rest mainly virtual (via chat). We found that the library catalog and our research databases were the tools used most often to answer questions. There are many more findings! We'll be publishing more information in future blog postings.