Most academic libraries have long provided reference service through multiple means. The UC-San Diego Library offers the service in-person, as well as by phone, chat, email, and most recently, text. One year after implementing text reference, use of it was evaluated to determine if it should be continued. The content of questions asked by email, chat, and text was also analyzed. 

The content of reference questions asked in-person is often understood only anecdotally or by a discipline-specific liaison. Online tools like QuestionPoint facilitate greater understanding of the questions users ask by storing transcripts of these transactions. Nonetheless, some institutions may not have time to review transcripts even for accuracy and completion, let alone for a holistic view of user inquiries. 

To determine the topics of questions most frequently asked through its digital reference services, the UCSD Library conducted an assessment of the content of digital reference questions. Doing so supported the library’s decision to continue its relatively new text service and also informed the creation of canned responses to frequently asked questions, expansion or clarification of web pages and publications, highlighting of heavily sought information, and other modifications to best address questions users were likely to have.

In the assessment of 1509 total transcripts from the Winter quarter of 2011, 1055 chat, 307 email, and 147 text transcripts were reviewed. This poster will outline characteristics of UCSD’s digital reference services, assessment details, similarities and differences between methods, topics of the most frequently posed questions, and outcomes from the project. 

Card sorting is one method for obtaining direct user feedback. It consists ofusers imposing their own organization on a set of ideas, andworks well for developing or evaluating website and menu structure. Participants are asked togroup terms or concepts in a way meaningful to them, and may also be asked to name resulting groups. Participants not only provide insight on how to arrange various items, but can also highlight terms that are confusing or ambiguous.

In early 2011, the University of California, San Diego library conducted a card sorting exercise to learn how real library users were likely to categorize menu items on its homepage. The study involved a row of 7 primary tabs that appear in the persistent header on the library’s homepage and all other library web pages, as well as the 37 entries in drop-down menus below the primary tabs. Though limited in our ability to change the names of the primary tabs, we were greatly interested in how users might arrange menu entries among the tabs. We were also interested in whether users understood the language currently on the menu entries, user preferences for ranking or placement of entries within a given menu, and whether the majority of information to which users might want easy access did in fact exist within the current menu structure.

Participant preferences for how entries should be ranked within the menus was moderately consistent. Likewise, significant uniformity was seen in participant preference for the headings under which individual entries should appear. Placement of 4 of the 37 entries were particularly troublesome, with results being less clear and more variable among participants. However, testing revealed strikingly different thinking between librarians and users in some instances. Testing also identified areas where new information could be added and new entries created, and others where entries could be renamed or consolidated. Findings confirmed some of the library’s practices and dispelled others, identifying several areas where user preferences diverged from the library’s current menu structure.  

Nearly all academic libraries offer course reserves and most have long considered it a core library service. However, expanding use of course management systems in academia have opened new opportunities for libraries interested in exploring changes to electronic reserves services. Budget constraints and staffing shortages have also led several institutions to consider eliminating or modifying their e-reserves operations. Potentially difficult challenges, however, also accompany making significant changes to often well-established practices. 

This environmental scan of selected academic libraries across the United States discusses institutions which have maintained the status quo in e-reserves services, as well as those who have changed or discontinued these services. The article also provides insight on why some of the latter decided to make these changes.