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Keeping a Gimlet Eye on Reference Data. Ken Simon Reference and Instruction Technologies Librarian Loyola Marymount University Los Angeles, California Twitter: @ ksimon Email: kenneth.simon@lmu.edu. READ scale Dr. Bella Karr Gerlich. http :// readscale.org /. Librarian Training.
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Keeping a Gimlet Eye on Reference Data Ken Simon Reference and Instruction Technologies Librarian Loyola Marymount University Los Angeles, California Twitter: @ksimon Email: kenneth.simon@lmu.edu
READ scaleDr. Bella Karr Gerlich http://readscale.org/
Librarian Training • Where is “The Sun Also Rises?” Directional or Reference? • It depends! • How do I request a book from storage? Policy or Reference? • It depends! • How do I access a database from off-campus? Technical or policy? • [Well, you get it by now.] • Difficulty of non-reference questions on the READ scale: • Policy = always 2 • Directional = usually 1 • Referrals: how long you spend, not difficulty of question
Student Training and Evaluation • Blackboard training module + exercises • Guides to Gimlet, READ Scale, tagging • Easy evaluation of students: search by initials • Flag or email questions for follow-up
Gimlet LibGuide for LMU http://libguides.lmu.edu/gimlet
DATA DUMP 2 years = 29,000 records
Crunch all you want… • Excel: sort and filter by fixed fields • Content analysis using Simple Concordance Program: • Directional: led to signage improvements • Technology: Fixes, training, State of Technology in the Library report for campus I.T. • Next up: coding the data
Reference Tags Note: these tags differ from the ones used in Gimlet 1 = Catalog Use & Lookup 2 = Database Help & Use 3 = External Web page 4 = Internal Web page 5 = Reference Book (print) 6 = Referral 7 = Reserves 8 = Retrieval 9 = Other 99 = empty / unknown
Conclusions • To assess and improve, you need data! • It takes work to get the data into shape. • You can’t escape subjectivity……but you can help to manage it. • Experiment with tools for analysis: • Excel, concordance software, codebook/SPSS • Why? • To better fulfill our mission • Potential cost savings, better use of staff time
Credit where credit is due: • Alexander Justice • Susan Gardner • Shannon Billimore • Courtney Hoffner • Jason Campos • Meg Gregory • Bonnie Rainey
Keeping a Gimlet Eye on Reference Data Ken Simon Reference and Instruction Technologies Librarian Loyola Marymount University Los Angeles, California Twitter: @ksimon Email: kenneth.simon@lmu.edu