The Information Institute at FSU is currently conducting a study of access to and use of medical and consumer health information through the Florida Electronic Library.
If you have a few minutes, please complete their survey at: http://www.ii.fsu.edu/
Add comment March 11th, 2008
Each quarter, we do a user satisfaction survey to ensure we are successfully assisting our users.
In September, we completed a survey and received feedback from 1,067 users (a 33.9% response rate). Over 85% of users would use again- a great indication that we are providing a useful service to the residents of Florida. From the glowing comments about the service, our users are generally happy with the service.
- 23% were returning users and 76.3% new. This would be typical with back-to-school.
- 81.3% felt their question was completely or partially answered
- 53.2% were shown web-based resources during their session
- 90% of those shown web-based resources felt they would be able use those same resources on their own later.
- 85.7% said they would use Ask a Librarian again.
Several librarians were individually pointed out by their user for great service:
Ashley
Eve C, Jacksonville Public
Louis, Intern (3 different users)
Ken, Barry University, (2 different users)
Jan (Hodges University)
Sam
Lora (Niceville Public Library)
Jack S (Tampa-Hillsborough Public Library)
Lynn
Owen (Okaloosa Walton College)
Lena (South Florida Community College)
Comments from users included:
- A Truly Wonderful Resource, making it my homepage, wonderful!
- I don’t believe you can improve on something that needs no more improvement.
- This is the best service available for us patrons. Thank you.
How does this compare with the entire 2006/07 grant year? It was pretty typical.
Over the whole year:
- 27% of users were new to the service
- 81.73% felt their question was completely or partially answered
- 50% were shown web-based resources during their session
- 89.18% of those shown web-based resources felt they would be able use those same resources on their own later
- 87% said they would use Ask a Librarian again.
What does this mean? I believe we are doing a great job overall, but there is room to improve the service in this upcoming year. Focusing on customer service and continuing to improve the Docutek software (so you can focus on the customer) will be our top priority this year.
Add comment November 1st, 2007
On September 10th, librarians across the country will be logging into commercial services like Yahoo! Answers, Ask MetaFilter, Wikipedia Reference Desk, or Amazon’s Askville, to answer as many questions as possible to promote libraries and virtual reference.
If you are interested in the event, Library Journal had a recent article with some details.
If your interested in participating in the event, check out the wiki. Further, Bill Pardue one of the coordinators has been working with Yahoo Answers to get librarians fast-tracked to the ranking of ‘knowledge partner’. To have him fast-track your login, send Bill Pardue (bpardue at ahml.info) your name, e-mail and Yahoo screen name by Friday, 9/7, 11 a.m. Chicago time (CDT). The hope is to educate many who “don’t even realize that libraries offer reference services. Let’s surprise and delight them with our quality” according to the web site.
Please let us know if you participate. We would love to have Florida Librarians well represented.
Add comment September 6th, 2007
The presentation I attended at ALA and posted my notes on, is now online at:
Radford, Marie L. 2007. “See it, Hear it, Touch it: How do Communication and Learning Styles Affect Virtual Reference?” RUSA, RSS/MARS Virtual Reference Committee, American Library Association Annual Conference, 25 June 2007, Washington, DC (USA). The presentation and the following handouts are available from the committee’s Web site:
Add comment July 13th, 2007
Just some food for thought:
John Kupersmith recently posted his great study on what users understand of library lingo. The full report is at, http://www.jkup.net/terms.html
The study, finds the terms most often cited as being misunderstood or not understood by users:
Acronyms & brand names
Database
Library Catalog
E-journals
Index
Interlibrary Loan
Periodical or Serial
Reference
Resource
Subject categories
such as Humanities
or Social Science
Add comment July 12th, 2007
At ALA this year, I attended the presentation, “See it, Hear it, Touch it: How do Communication and Learning Styles Affect Virtual Reference?” with presenters, Eileen Abels, Marie Radford, and Lynn Westbrook.
I walked away with pages and pages of notes but I wanted to share some of the highlights and see if you had any feedback…
What do we know about our users?
- Millenials (our heaviest users) (Jr High to about age 27)
Multi-taskers with an affinity for electronic communication. ‘Do-it-Yourselfers’ who learn through experimentation and self-exploration. Prefer independent learning. They look toward the Internet for resolution/solutions. What does this mean? When they come to AaL, its because they have tried on their own already, be positive (make sure they save face), appeal to desire to save time, better resources, don’t be robotic, be clear upfront on what you can and can not do, refer (monitored though).
How does the librarians learning style affect VR?
Who is staffing the desk? If not comfortable in chat, should not force it. Though comfort level will go up with training. So, expose staff.
Resources used in VR:
Users - only 25% use more than one search term. Have lack of conceptual understanding on how information exists on web, confusion with judging sites authoritativeness.
Librarians- Typically use 6-7 words in a Google Search
Librarians often use Google as a first stop in VR. Are we undermining our own e-resources? or are we going straight for an answer not a source…
Users want the answer then the option to learn.
Self-Efficacy- Supports and Barriers in VR. We need to:
- Ask open-ended questions (engage, create active users),
- Ask differentiated questions (Do you want a book or a scholarly article? ) this helps create a ‘teachable moment’ and comes in a positive way. Lets them know what choices are available.
- Keep purpose clear (what they are responsible for, and what you can do for them)
- Focus on the tools/process avoid lingo (Great study on lingo users didn’t understand is here)
- Self-Disclosure (REAL SOUNDING NAME) and admit when it’s a topic your not familiar with.
What to expect from Screenagers :
- Enthusiasm
- Don’t disclose a lack of knowledge
- Abrupt Endings…
- Impatience…which can lead to rude/insulting behavior.
What we do back?
- We are less likely to refer for additional help
- We more often send to Google
- We abruptly end sessions and reprimand
- Use more informal language.
Our own biases can cause some of the issues we have with this group. We need to treat users alike.
How do user and librarian expectations influence VR services?
Expectations:
- Users feel Internet resources are seamless and fluid connections meaning-
Consistency in language should exist (if I searched X here, X should always bring good results), they want choices in process, product and media. Prefer a single approach- (Google Search) and want tremendous flexibility, choice. HA! That’s all….
- Internet Communication patterns: Blurring the line between task and social patterns, we are setting new norms for service, the Internet has an unclear narrative structure (old- beginning, middle, end; new - ‘dip-in’, ‘dip-out’).
- 90% of users start with the Internet for research
- Set expectations for users. They come to VR for information- which they could not find (so they start with us having already failed)and want instant gratification. Users don’t have a good perspective on question difficulty.
- Can’t help - explain why and give a positive alternative.
- Build relationships, these are our users in the future.
Mean Time for transactions is 12.5 minutes.
Add comment June 29th, 2007
LitFinder - the largest, most accessible collection of literature available online - is now available through the Florida Electronic Library and through Ask a Librarian! This comprehensive database guides users easily through the world of poetry, fiction, drama, and much more. It connects users with reliable, in-depth and constantly updated information on authors and their works. LitFinder delivers up to a million examples of full-text, indexed and excerpted literatuer - along with thousands of citations, biographies, explanations, overviews and images to enhance understanding.
What will you find?
Any Florida resident with a public library card can access this and many more outstanding resources through the Florida Electronic Library. Connect now - http://www.flelibrary.org or in Ask a Librarian click right on the LitFinder Bookmark (you’ll be IP authenticated right in).
Add comment March 23rd, 2007
Users are obviously impressed. When asked, “How did you hear about Ask a Librarian”? 9.66% of users replied a friend or family member recommended the service. One user commented, “A classmate told me your services are excellent AND she is correct.”
8% of users were recommended the site from an instructor, or teacher
10.1% of users found the site while browsing or searching the Internet
11.1% of users found out about the service through their librarian or library
1.69% of users found Ask a Librarian through marketing materials
1.21% of users found the site through ‘other’ methods such as a home school book and the post office.
.73% of users located the service through local newspaper
57.5% of users found the site through links on their libraries web site.
The high percentage of users who found the service through links on their libraries web site follows the logic of last year’s OCLC perceptions report and earlier studies, indicating that the more prominent links for electronic resources on library web page leads to increased use.
Add comment November 28th, 2006
Mike Whaley from PJC shared a “Rethinking Google’s Rethinking Google’s system Human- powered search premieres” on a new commercial chat service with our mailing list today. One of the most fasinating aspects to me was the statement:
“30 percent of Web users either do not get their questions answered or take an average of 11 minutes to find information using traditional algorithmic-based Web search engines.”
Further, of interest is visiting ChaCha, I received a message, due to the popularity of the service we can’t answer your question. Come back later. Not very user-friendly. The article describes what the service will do, what librarians have been doing for years, like its groundbreaking. Its fustrating- you just want to yell - visit your library or Ask a Librarian we have been doing this for years!
Add comment September 5th, 2006