Making Decisions: Using Electronic Data Collection to Re-Envision Reference Services at the USF Tampa Libraries

Lily Todorinova, Andy Huse, Barbara Lewis, Matt Torrence

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Declining reference statistics, diminishing human resources, and the desire to be more proactive and embedded in academic departments, prompted the University of South Florida Library to create a taskforce for re-envisioning reference services. The taskforce was charged with examining the staffing patterns at the desk and developing recommendations to give librarians greater flexibility and to better respond to the information-seeking needs of users. These recommendations were based on statistics of desk usage, collected with the newly adapted online tool Desk Tracker, and structured interviews with library administrators. The taskforce was interested in how these stakeholders use quantitative data in decision-making.

Original languageAmerican English
JournalPublic Services Quarterly
Volume7
StatePublished - May 20 2011

Keywords

  • academic libraries
  • special collections
  • reference services
  • assessment
  • Desk Tracker
  • virtual reference
  • tiered reference

Disciplines

  • Library and Information Science

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