Introduction
Main Library Reference assists patrons with the techniques of library research (including the use of both print and digital sources and the use of government publications) on general topics and those in the sciences, social sciences and humanities. The Reference Desk service point on 1-East is operated jointly 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 2003-04, 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 units in the MSU Libraries worked on the 1-East desk or in virtual reference during 2003-04:
Several appointments and changes in assignment affected our roster. Stephanie Perentesis joined the MSU Libraries staff on July 1, 2003; Hui Hua Chua on October 6, 2003; and Jim Latchney on February 2, 2004. Debbi Schaubman left the reference group to take on InMich duties at the end of November 2003.
Members of the Main Library Reference staff participating in "virtual reference" during some or all of the year included:
Reference staff met once a week during the school year and every other week in the summer. Forty different members of the MSU Libraries staff and three guests (from the Archives, MSU Extension and the Writing Center) presented 49 short or long training sessions during First Hour. Agendas and draft minutes were distributed by e-mail, with corrected minutes filed in the Public Folders (we no longer have a backlog). Susan Kendall and Leslie Behm planned and scheduled First Hour sessions; Sharon Ladenson succeeded Leslie in May 2004. Jon Harrison continued to prepare monthly duty schedules.
Prominent topics, issues and problems covered in our meetings this year included:
Reference Resources, Collections, Binding, and Materials Funds
Steve Sowards coordinated selection of social science, humanities, and general reference titles (refmo account); John Coffey succeeded Susan Kendall for selection in the sciences (scrmo account). Both of us were cautious about print purchases, given the budget. Sharon Ladenson continued to select Travel Guides. Holly Flynn selected College Guides, Career Guides and testing materials (as liaison to the Test Prep Consortium). Jon Harrison continued to select Law and Funding Center titles.
There were few notable additions to our electronic reference resources this year, due to the reduced overall budget. In October 2003, the databases offered by the MeL/AccessMichigan grant changed. Fulltext Gale Infotrac products replaced most of the FirstSearch indexes, but we continued to subscribe to FS through a consortium. We are seeing more reference monographs (as opposed to serials like indexes) offered in electronic form, often with unattractive licensing and pricing models. We assessed 'xreferplus' as another ready reference tool of this type (which will be avaiable for use in 2004-05).
We continued to identify standing orders (mainly for printed tools) that could be cancelled to free up funds for new resources. The 2002-2003 project led to cancellations in July 2003; the 2003-2004 project led to cancellations in June 2004.
In these tables, "Spent" and "Encumbered" dollars are combined. Funds were
assigned to separate science and social science/humanities accounts.
| Science reference |
2002-2003
|
2003-2004
|
||
|
Budgeted
|
Spent/Encumbered
|
Budgeted
|
Spent/Encumbered
|
|
| New Monographs |
$19,351.00
|
$19,204.95
|
$8,199.00
|
$5,402.56
|
| New Serials |
3,188.16
|
2,000.00
|
1,541.69
|
0.00
|
| New Blanket Orders |
0.00
|
100.80
|
0.00
|
596.53
|
| Total: New publications |
22,539.16
|
21,305.75
|
9,740.69
|
5,999.09
|
| Total: Reserves |
114,264.79
|
110,283.19
|
116,815.26
|
114,386.37
|
| Grand TOTAL |
$136,803.95
|
$131,588.94
|
$126,555.95
|
$120,385.46
|
| Social science and humanities reference |
2002-2003
|
2003-2004
|
||
| Budgeted |
Spent/Encumbered
|
Budgeted |
Spent/Encumbered
|
|
| New Monographs |
$77,477.00
|
$81,800.39
|
$42,174.00
|
$28,567.39
|
| New Serials |
25,533.57
|
19,129.44
|
30,171.65
|
36,589.00
|
| New Blanket Orders |
2,500.00
|
1,314.09
|
2,500.00
|
1,502.58
|
| Total: New publications |
105,510.57
|
102,243.92
|
74,845.65
|
66,658.97
|
| Total: Reserves |
288,436.43
|
277,040.66
|
263,982.35
|
237,168.35
|
| Grand TOTAL |
$393,947.00
|
$379,284.58
|
$338,828.00
|
$303,827.32
|
The New Monograph allotment tends to fluctuate quite a bit due to the money
freed up by standing order cancellation projects: much of that money then ends
up being assigned to new subscriptions. Combined totals (below) may give a better
sense of the total materials funds assigned to Reference, but those totals still
don't include many major electronic resources that are key reference tools (for
that figure see the next table).
| Combined |
2002-2003
|
2003-2004
|
||
|
Budgeted
|
Spent/Encumbered
|
Budgeted
|
Spent/Encumbered
|
|
| Sciences |
$136,803.95
|
$131,588.94
|
$126,555.95
|
$120,385.46
|
| Soc Sci/Hum |
393,947.00
|
379,284.58
|
338,828.00
|
303,827.32
|
| TOTAL |
$530,750.95
|
$510,873.52
|
$465,383.95
|
$424,212.78
|
Main Library Reference also benefits from many expensive databases charged
to the Electronic Resources fund (others are paid for by funds for specific
disciplines). Please note that I have been using the wrong figure for this part
of the annual report for several years. Correct figures are shown here for the
last three years.
| Electronic Resources |
2001-2002
|
2002-2003
|
2003-2004
|
|||
|
Budgeted
|
Spent
|
Budgeted
|
Spent
|
Budgeted
|
Spent
|
|
|
$437,226.80
|
$441,666.28
|
$620,934.80
|
$647,397.13
|
$518,253.00
|
$484,036.53
|
|
Binding funds for reference were budgeted and spent as follows:
| Binding |
2002-2003
|
2003-2004
|
||
|
Budgeted
|
Spent
|
Budgeted
|
Spent
|
|
| Binding funds |
$2,000.00
|
$2,076.75
|
$2,000.00
|
$931.85
|
Reference Public 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 nearly all afternoon, evening and weekend shifts.
Virtual reference traffic grew markedly after "Ask A Librarian" buttons were installed on the library Web site and in Magic. Email traffic was handled by a volunteer team working from their offices: each person handled one day of the week (weekend questions picked up on Monday). Another set of volunteers handled chat traffic from their office PCs during weeks in which school was in session. In our second year of chat, service was offered twenty hours a week: Monday-Friday 12:00 noon-4:00 pm (instead of 1:00-5:00, to respond to higher use of email during the noon hour).
For the first time in years, the number of questions asked at the Main Library
Reference Desk on 1-East increased this year (these figures include directional,
reference and technology-related questions). Our virtual reference activity
also grew (especially use of the reference desk email account, which doubled)
and now represents more than 10 percent of our traffic.
| Main Library Reference Qs |
1999-2000
|
2000-2001
|
2001-2002
|
2002-2003
|
2003-2004
|
| July/August at desk |
4,318
|
2,714
|
2,248
|
2,446
|
1,893
|
| Fall term (Sept.-Dec.) at desk |
18,270
|
14,948
|
12,700
|
11,262
|
12,741
|
| Spring term (Jan.-April) at desk |
14,101
|
11,826
|
10,271
|
9,025
|
10,305
|
| May/June at desk |
2,753
|
2,269
|
2,447
|
2,243
|
1,875
|
| TOTAL: tallies at the 1-East desk |
39,442
|
31,757
|
27,666
|
24,976
|
26,814
|
| Email virtual reference Qs |
n/a
|
n/a
|
300
|
*1,324
|
2,652
|
| Chat virtual reference Qs (est.) |
n/a
|
n/a
|
n/a
|
320
|
460
|
| TOTAL: desk + email + chat |
39,442
|
31,757
|
27,966
|
*26,620
|
29,926
|
*The email figure shown for 2002-03 has been recalculated to add about 175 questions.
Main Library Reference contributes statistics for the MSU Libraries' annual report to ARL. For 2003-2004, the Main Library will report 42,307 total reference transactions to ARL. This is a decrease from 47,373 last year, but that is misleading: services for remote users went up, and traffic at the main reference desk went up. The decrease in the final count is entirely explained by the decline in Help Room traffic, and that decline was a result of reduced staffing and reduced hours of service. Omitting the ERHR figures, the three annual totals would be 38,515 -- 37,723 -- 40,566.
| Traffic reported to ARL by year (July-June) |
2001-2002
|
2002-2003
|
2003-2004
|
| Questions handled at the 1-East Desk |
27,666
|
24,976
|
26,814
|
| Questions handled in the Electronic Resources Help Room (staffed hours reduced each year) |
30,290
|
9,650
|
1,741
|
| Questions handled by LDLS |
1,549
|
1,877
|
740
|
| Questions handled by the reference email account |
300
|
1,150
|
2,652
|
| Questions handled by chat service (est.) |
n/a
|
320
|
460
|
| Questions handled by email sent directly to bibliographers (est.) |
9,000
|
9,400
|
9,900
|
| Total |
68,805
|
47,373
|
42,307
|
Transactions involving "distance" or "remote" services (the last four items) rose from 12,747 last year to 13,012 this year. Our ARL report does not cover reference transactions in the branch libraries. Our estimate of 9900 "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 7200 questions in 1999-2000, 7600 questions in 2000-2001, 9000 questions in 2001-2002, and 9400 questions in 2002-2003. This year's estimated figure reflects a 5 percent increase based on reports from staff who deal with the largest share of email sent to offices (averaging 100 questions per month).
Library Instruction
For figures about bibliographic instruction for classes conducted by members of the reference staff, see the reports posted on the Intranet site by the Library Instruction unit at http://intranet.lib.msu.edu/libin/stats/statsindex.htm.
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 were offering these PC resources to the public on 1-East:
The "Selected Resources" PCs allow us to fulfill our depository and land grant mission obligations by offering access for community users to federal depository Web sites, the OPAC and licensed index and fulltext resources.
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 hours in the Electronic Resources Help
Room were reduced to Sunday-Thursday evenings, and that service ended in May
2004. Student labor costs as budgeted and spent were:
| Student labor |
2002-2003
|
2003-2004
|
||
|
Budgeted
|
Spent
|
Budgeted
|
Spent
|
|
| Ref regular account (54-55) |
$36,500.00
|
$33,314.88
|
$37,500.00
|
$34,723.67
|
| Ref late night account (52-53) |
1,500.00
|
931.24
|
1,000.00
|
830.53
|
| Reference TOTAL |
38,000.00
|
34,246.12
|
38,500.00
|
35,554.20
|
| ERHR regular account (24-25) |
$2,300.00
|
$1,383.28
|
$5,000.00
|
$4,259.30
|
| ERHR late night account (110-111) |
10,500.00
|
11,509.22
|
0.00
|
0.00
|
| ERHR TOTAL |
12,800.00
|
12,892.50
|
5,000.00
|
4,259.30
|
Respectfully submitted,
Steven Sowards
Head, Main Library Reference
August 6, 2004
URL=http://www.lib.msu.edu/sowards/mlr/annrep04.html
Page editor: Steven Sowards
Draft last modified 18 August 2004
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