Main Library Reference / 1-East Reference Desk
Annual Report July 2002-June 2003

Introduction

Main Library Reference assists patrons with the techniques of library research (including use of Web tools), the use of Government Documents, and assignments in the sciences, social sciences and humanities. The Reference Desk on 1-East is a joint service point with the Government Documents unit. Many of the personnel responsible for 1-East desk operations also are involved in virtual reference (email and chat).

Main Library Reference Unit Staff

The "official" Main Library Reference reporting unit is a subset of the full list of personnel providing Main Library Reference services. During all or part of 2002-2003, that unit consisted of: Leslie Behm, Kate Corby, Anita Ezzo, Quintella Jackson, Joycelan Kohn, Stephanie Mathson and Steven Sowards (head).

1-East Reference Desk Staffing and Training

Numerous staff from other parts of the MSU Libraries worked on the 1-E desk or in virtual reference:

• Government Documents: Laura Dickson, Becky Fox, Shawn Nicholson and Debbi Schaubman.
• Library Instruction: Kara Gust, Michael Lorenzen and Courtney Young.
• Health Sciences Group: Sheila Bryant, John Coffey, Susan Kendall and Arlene Weismantel.
• DMC: Elizabeth Bollinger, Lisa Robinson and Michael Seadle.
• Collections and/or the branch libraries: Jane Arnold, Holly Flynn, Jon Harrison, Talbott Huey, Sharon Ladenson, Terri Tickle Miller, Jim Oliver, Michael Rodriguez, Mike Unsworth, Kathleen Weessies and Terrie Wilson.
• Technical Services: Heidi Frank and Barb Stephon.
• Faye Backie, from Public Services.
• Rita Echt, who returned from retirement while we were short of staff in Fall '02.

Several appointments, resignations or changes in assignment affected our roster. Jim Oliver took on Main Library Reference assignments (chat and later 1-East desk) beginning July 2002. In July 2002, Lisa Robinson was assigned to full-time duties outside of reference. Courtney Young resigned from the MSU Libraries effective October 15, 2002. Michael Lorenzen resigned from the MSU Libraries effective March 14, 2003. Heidi Frank resigned from the MSU Libraries effective March 21, 2003. Laura Dickson resigned from the MSU Libraries effective May 1, 2003. Elizabeth Bollinger and Kara Gust joined the MSU Libraries on May 1 and began desk work in June 2003.

Members of the Main Library Reference staff participating in "virtual reference" during some or all of the year included:

• E-mail reference: Leslie Behm, Kate Corby, Holly Flynn, Becky Fox, Heidi Frank, Susan Kendall, Sharon Ladenson, Michael Lorenzen, Terri Miller, Shawn Nicholson, Michael Rodriguez, Debbi Schaubman, Steve Sowards, Arlene Weismantel, Terrie Wilson, and Courtney Young.
• Chat/Real-Time Reference (which went live for the public on July 1, 2002): Leslie Behm, Kate Corby, Laura Dickson, Becky Fox, Heidi Frank, Quin Jackson, Stephanie Mathson, Terri Miller, Shawn Nicholson, Jim Oliver, Michael Rodriguez, Steve Sowards, and Courtney Young.
• Terrie Wilson participated in the Library of Congress' Collaborative Digital Reference Service until CDRS became a for-fee service in summer 2002, when MSU opted not to continue.

Reference staff meetings took place weekly during the school year and in alternate weeks during the summer. These meetings included "First Hour" training sessions: during the year, more than thirty library staff members (not all from reference) conducted long or short sessions on more than fifty different topics. Agendas and draft minutes were distributed by e-mail; in theory, final minutes were posted to a Public Folder but in fact there is a long backlog. Susan Kendall joined Leslie Behm in managing the training schedule when Michael Lorenzen left MSU. Jon Harrison continued to prepare monthly schedules; Michael Rodriguez worked with him on virtual reference schedules from July to March.

Prominent topics, issues and problems covered in our meetings this year included:

• virtual reference, including daily e-mail assignments, and launch of the Docutek chat service in July '02
• improvements in reference Intranet pages
• preparations for the revised Web directory structure
• revisions in the Electronic Resources pages (Erasmus)
• installation of recessed monitor desks for two public PCs
• the GPO depository inspection in Nov. '02
• Assistive Technology Center support due to reduced Electronic Resources Help Room hours
• the future of the ERIC database
• inventory of the reference collection by DataCat
• cell phone noise
• support for the summer '03 Linguistics Institute
• moving Consulting Reference from WG-7 to 1-East and storing some index and law volumes
• Late Night Closed Reference procedures
• desk area redesign including transfer of many Closed Reference books to open reference
• the end of no-fee printing in August '02 due to budget constraints
• provisions for PC Help questions
• USA PATRIOT Act procedures
• the impact of branch closings
• Reference standing order cancellations offsetting payment for databases dropped by AccessMichigan
• reassignment of public PCs from Full Web or Selected to Full Set of Applications
• impact of the '02 lighting construuction project including some teleworking due to dust

Reference Resources and Collections

Notable changes in reference resources included:

• purchase of fulltext Historical New York Times and PCI Fulltext backfiles
• the demise of the WinSPIRS interface
• changes in the ProQuest interface
• access to LearnATest from MeL
• SerialsSolutions for analysis of some aggregated article content
• addition of Oxford Reference Online to "ready reference"
• October '02 changes in the MeL/AccessMichigan database list

Steve Sowards coordinated selection of social science, humanities, and general reference titles (refmo account); Susan Kendall took over selection in the sciences (scrmo account) from Judy Matthews. Sharon Ladenson continued to select Travel Guides. Holly Flynn began selecting Testing, College and Career Guides when Michael Lorenzen left. Jon Harrison continued to select Law and Funding Center titles.

Materials funds

Total funds expended on reference materials increased again this year. Increased amounts in the monograph lines reflect print standing order cancellations intended to free up money to pay for Dissertation Abstracts, EconLit, GeoRef and PAIS, which were no longer paid for by AccessMichigan. In these tables, "Spent" and "Encumbered" dollars are combined. Funds were assigned to separate science and social science/humanities accounts.
 

Science reference	2001-2002		2002-2003
	Budgeted	Spent/Encumbered	Budgeted	Spent/Encumbered
Monographs	$10,550.00	$10,501.37	$19,351.00	$19,204.95
New Serials	2,310.43	75.00	3,188.16	2,000.00
Blanket Orders	0.00	42.00	0.00	100.80
Total: New publications	12,860.43	10,618.37	22,539.16	21,305.75
Total: Reserves	108,953.52	111,262.04	114,264.79	110,283.19
Grand TOTAL	$121,813.95	$121,880.41	$136,803.95	$131,588.94

 

Social science and humanities reference	2001-2002		2002-2003
	Budgeted	Spent/Encumbered	Budgeted	Spent/Encumbered
Monographs	$44,216.00	$41,202.23	$77,477.00	$81,800.39
New Serials	13,180.24	9,144.89	25,533.57	19,129.44
Blanket Orders	2,500.00	1,650.89	2,500.00	1,314.09
Total: New publications	59,896.24	51,998.01	105,510.57	102,243.92
Total: Reserves	273,053.01	300,575.43	288,436.43	277,040.66
Grand TOTAL	$332,949.25	$352,573.44	$393,947.00	$379,284.58

Combined totals (below) give a better sense of the total materials funds assigned to Reference. The total spent for the two Main Library Reference accounts went up by about $35,000.
 

Combined	2001-2002		2002-2003
	Budgeted	Spent/Encumbered	Budgeted	Spent/Encumbered
Sciences	$121,813.95	$121,880.41	$136,803.95	$131,588.94
Soc Sci/Hum	332,949.25	352,573.44	393,947.00	379,284.58
TOTAL	$454,763.20	$474,453.85	$530,750.95	$510,873.52

Electronic Resources Funds

Main Library Reference also benefits from many expensive databases charged to Electronic Resources. Expenditures for that fund rose by more than $240,000.
 

Electronic Resources	2001-2002		2002-2003
	Budgeted	Spent	Budgeted	Spent
	$905,181.59	$925,705.29	$1,177,309.36	$1,167,534.75

Binding

Binding funds for reference were budgeted and spent/encumbered as follows:
 

Binding	2001-2002		2002-2003
	Budgeted	Spent/Encumbered	Budgeted	Spent/Encumbered
Binding funds	$2,000.00	$1,235.70	$2,000.00	$2,076.75

Reference Desk Services

Library visitors had access to Reference desk service on demand 80 hours per week in the Main Library during the fall and spring semesters: Monday-Thursday 8:00 am-10:00 pm, Friday 8:00 am-5:00 pm, Saturday 12:00 noon-5:00 pm, and Sunday 12:00 noon-10:00 pm. In the summer , the desk closed an hour early on Sunday-Thursday evenings, at 9:00 pm. The desk was double-staffed during afternoon, evening and weekend shifts. Email traffic was no longer handled by staff working at the desk but instead was assigned on a daily basis to members of a volunteer team. Another volunteer team launched our pilot chat service on July 1, 2002: live online help was available Monday-Friday from 1:00 pm - 5:00 pm.

The number of interactions tallied at the Main Library Reference Desk on 1-East continues to decline, extending a trend reported widely from other U.S. academic libraries. This is beginning to be offset by the growth in virtual reference traffic (email and chat). Prior to January 2002, figures for email questions sent to the reference account were combined with walk-up transactions, because both were handled by 1-East desk staff during their shifts. Chat service began in July 2002.
 

Main Library Reference Qs	1999-2000	2000-2001	2001-2002	2002-2003
July/August at desk	4,318	2,714	2,248	2,446
Fall term (Sept.-Dec.) at desk	18,270	14,948	12,700	11,262
Spring term (Jan.-April) at desk	14,101	11,826	10,271	9,025
May/June at desk	2,753	2,269	2,447	2,243
TOTAL: tallies at the 1-East desk	39,442	31,757	27,666	24,976
Email virtual reference Qs (est.)	n/a	n/a	300	1,150
Chat virtual reference Qs (est.)	n/a	n/a	n/a	320
TOTAL: desk + email + chat	39,442	31,757	27,966	26,446

It will be increasingly important to meet this trend. The next table compares public demand for reference services with the resources (especially staff time) assigned to different aspects of our operation. As the demand for desk-based reference service goes down, we have reduced or shifted our personnel (staff hours and student labor). Expanded funding for online reference tools has already been noted. A disproportionate share of staff time (measured in terms of traffic) is assigned to virtual reference (especially chat), but the need to investigate and develop these options justifies that choice for now.

Main Library Reference demand and services	1999-2000	2000-2001	2001-2002	2002-2003	'02-03/'99-00 as ratio
Walkup questions answered at 1-East desk	39,442 Qs	31,757 Qs	27,666 Qs	24,976 Qs	63.3%
Volumes reshelved (May '02-April '03)	42,313 vols	50,628 vols	46,940 vols	34,592 vols	81.8%
Staff hours assigned to 1-East desk: peak week	176 hrs	172 hrs	160 hrs	131 hrs	74.4%
Student labor budget (funds spent/year)	$36,532.68	$37,634.01	$37,820.78	$34,246.12	93.7%
E-mail questions answered by MLR (est.)	ca. 100 Qs	ca. 200 Qs	300 Qs	1,150 Qs	ca. 1000%
Staff hours assigned to email service: peak week	(est.) 2 hrs	(est.) 4 hrs	6 hrs	12 hrs	ca. 600%
Chat questions answered by MLR (est.)	none	none	none	320 Qs	n/a
Staff hours assigned to chat service: peak week	none	none	none	20 hrs	n/a

Notes about some figures in this table:

• Figures for "peak weeks" are based on staffing in the busiest single Spring semester week (always in April).
• The estimated figure for 2002-2003 e-mail questions should be accurate because it is based on manual counts of 'Sent' messages. It excludes questions sent directly to bibliographers (see below). Estimated email traffic and time taken to answer it for 1999-2000 and 2000-2001 are guesses.
• The estimated number of chat sessions is extrapolated from tallies kept in their offices by half of the members of the chat team, which were compared to sometimes incomplete records kept by the Docutek software. The software recorded 355 sessions: about 320 or 90 percent took place during our 1:00-5:00 pm service hours. Both methods point to something like 320 valid sessions. Probably about 100 sessions took place from July-Dec. 2002 and about 220 from Jan.-June 2003 as awareness of the service grew.

Main Library Reference contributes statistics for the MSU Libraries' annual report to ARL. For 2002-2003, the Main Library reports 47,373 total reference transactions to ARL including (compared to 68,805 last year for 2001-2002):

• 24,976 questions answered at the 1-East desk (Reference) (compared to 27,666 last year)
• 9,650 questions answered at the Electronic Resources Help Room (Instruction) (30,290 last year)
• 1,877 reference questions answered by Library Distance Learning Services (LDLS) (1,549 last year)
• 1,150 questions submitted by e-mail to the reference desk account (estimated) (300 last year)
• 9,400 questions answered after email went directly to bibliographers (estimated) (9,000 last year)
• 320 questions answered using chat software by Reference staff (estimated) (none last year)

The decrease primarily reflects changed hours and procedures in the Help Room: non-ERHR counts were 38,515 last year and 37,723 this year. Transactions involving "distance" or "remote" services (the last four items) rose from 10,849 last year to 12,747 this year. Our ARL report does not cover reference transactions in the branch libraries. As in recent years, our estimate of 9,400 "off the desk" e-mail reference transactions is based on extrapolations from tallies kept by eight to ten staff members in their offices. We estimated this traffic at 7,200 questions in 1999-2000, 7,600 questions in 2000-2001 and 9,000 questions in 2001-2002.

Library Instruction

For figures about bibliographic instruction for classes conducted by members of the reference staff, see the reports posted by the Library Instruction unit at http://www.lib.msu.edu/libinstr/bitraining/stats/.

Reference Desk and Facilities

During the year, 10 'Selected Resources' PCs and 24 'Full Web Access' PCs on 1-East were switched to the 'Full Set of Applications' image to meet student demand for word processing and access to class resources on the Internet. At the end of the year, we offered these PC resources to the public on 1-East:

• 18 Selected Resources PCs in front of the Reference desk, plus 2 telnet Magic terminals and 1 Win95 PC running some government documents materials
• 20 Selected Resources PCs in the Electronic Resources Help Room, equipped also to reach stuinfo, enroll and pilot setup
• 10 Full Set of Computer Laboratory Applications PCs on the corridor leading to the desk
• 24 Full Set of Applications PCs on the east side of the reference room
• 16 Full Set of Applications PCs and 7 Macintosh computers in the southwest corner
• 25 Full Set of Applications PCs in the Reference Instruction Room
• 54 laptop-ready DHCP ports in carrels

The "Selected Resources" PCs remain our solution to offering the OPAC, federal depository Web sites, and licensed index and fulltext resources to community visitors to meet our depository and land grant mission obligations. These PCs require no MSUNetID login, but offer access only to specific URLs (not the whole Internet) so that we conform to MSU network security policy. Print jobs can be directed to the Copy Center: only PCs with a login can use e-token printing. Budget pressure forced us to eliminate no-fee printing from the Selected Resource PCs in August 2002.

At the 1-East desk for staff use were four PCs: two on the front counters, a third on a consulting height table (used for special situations such as stand-alone CD-ROMs that run poorly on the Selected Resources PCs), and a fourth driving a laser printer and processing e-mail reference traffic.

Student Labor

Reference unit student workers handled reshelving. shifting, cleaning the public area on 1-East, processing books in and out of the collection, and preparing statistics about desk traffic. Student labor costs as budgeted and spent were:
 

Student labor	2001-2002		2002-2003
	Budgeted	Spent	Budgeted	Spent
Ref regular account (54-55)	$37,150.00	$36,709.42	$36,500.00	$33,314.88
Ref late night account (52-53)	1,250.00	1,111.36	1,500.00	931.24
Reference TOTAL	38,400.00	37,820.78	38,000.00	34,246.12
ERHR regular account (24-25)			$2,300.00	$1,383.28
ERHR late night account (110-111)			10,500.00	11,509.22
ERHR TOTAL			12,800.00	12,892.50

Due to the resignation of both Instruction Librarians during the year, the Electronic Resources Help Room (ERHR) reported to Main Library Reference during the last few months of the year.

Respectfully submitted,
Steven Sowards
Head, Main Library Reference
27 August 2003 (draft); 8 October 2003 (revised)

URL=http://www.lib.msu.edu/sowards/mlr/annrep03.html
Page editor: Steven Sowards
Draft last modified 8 October 2003.

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