Will this be a busy week at the reference desk?

For planning purposes, it maybe helpful to look back at past weeks. This table shows Reference Desk traffic from the beginning of Spring term 1999 to the end of Summer term 2001, and OPAC transactions for the same period except for Summer term 1999. See further notes below.

Traffic levels by week:

Week	1999		2000		2001
	OPAC count	Desk traffic*	OPAC count	Desk traffic	OPAC count	Desk traffic
First full week in January	27,221 [break]	407 [break]	26,848 [break]	173 [break]	21,921 [break]	175 [break]
Second full week in January	42,031	522	46,819	578	44,151	477
Third full week in January	54,136	950	45,663	660	48,717	530
Fourth full week in January	61,473	1,004	59,036	833	60,529	651
Final week in January	---	---	62,178	868	64,192	824
First full week in February	64,374	1,104	62,020	890	59,929	701**
Second full week in February	62,567	1,045	62,675	803	61,271	669**
Third full week in February	61,243	872	64,626	1,105	60,344	657
Fourth full week in February	68,314	1,045	---	---	---	---
Final week in February	---	---	49,411	674	53,416	565
First full week in March	54,660	777	41,707 [break]	445 [break]	35,585 [break]	407 [break]
Second full week in March	44,094 [break]	617 [break]	68,711	807	60,615	618**
Third full week in March	71,791	1,040	71,941	910	67,412	719**
Fourth full week in March	72,935	1,049	---	---	---	---
Final week in March	69,072	1,114	71,205	973	70,260	813
First full week in April	82,808	1,235	70,115 [NCAA parade]	924	71,959	839
Second full week in April	79,357	1,236	73,630	1,058	69,363	953
Third full week in April	72,437	1,028	64,351	1,017	70,619	966
Fourth full week in April	---	---	---	---	57,577	743
Final week in April	52,379	(875**)	53,966	870	31,322	345
	1999		2000		2001
First full week in May	29,430 [break]	(705**) [break]	30,933	455	30,611 [break]	281 [break]
Second full week in May	n/a	421	29,315 [break]	260 [break]	31,903	344
Third full week in May	n/a	597	33,992	324	28,440	272
Fourth full week in May	n/a	553	34,472	439	---	---
Final week in May	n/a	484	29,310	390	26,126	297
First full week in June	n/a	560	36,080	419	31,358	339
Second full week in June	n/a	551	33,702	405	29,517	306
Third full week in June	n/a	610	33,285	449	29,939	435
Fourth full week in June	---	---	---	---	---	---
Final week in June	n/a	425	26,875	348	27,397	288
First full week in July	n/a	462	23,839	285	25,741	236
Second full week in July	n/a	488	31,802	389	40,480	298
Third full week in July	n/a	646	31,185	417	31,153	318
Fourth full week in July	---	---	29,606	309	30,565	362
Final week in July	n/a	398	29,150	342	27,384	286
First full week in August	n/a	560	28,807	302	29,219	232
Second full week in August	n/a	651	27,077	239	26,999	186
Third full week in August	n/a	553	28,576	408	18,675 [system offline two days]	296
Fourth full week in August	n/a	562	---	---	[end of recordkeeping]	[end of recordkeeping]
Final week in August	39,835	1,082	41,323	694
	1999		2000
First full week in September	49,809#	1,020	48,136	970
Second full week in September	62,547	1,158	60,455	1,169
Third full week in September	66,311	1,289	58,968	1,018
Fourth full week in September	---	---	---	---
Final week in September	63,782#	1,132	62,384	1,009
First full week in October	64,356#	1,114	58,262	889
Second full week in October	63,316	1,094	60,436	997
Third full week in October	66,582	1,201	61,636	1,043
Fourth full week in October	---	---	62,976	958
Final week in October	66,870#	1,165	64,587	1,003
First full week in November	73,034	1,131	68,260	961
Second full week in November	84,523#	1,432	72,847	956
Third full week in November	83,490#	1,427	42,271	603
Fourth full week in November	48,842	858	--	---
Final week in November	77,301	1,336	72,704	1,123
First full week in December	58,043	969	54,156	857
Second full week in December	31,752	415	26,097	309
Third full week in December	17,809 [break]	191 [break]	23,608 [break]	127 [break]
Fourth full week in December	---	---	---	---
Final week in December	11,334 [break]	143 [break]	10,273 [break]	87 [break]
	1999		2000

Notes:

• * January-April 1999 figures are GD/SSHR + Science Ref totals.
• ** Estimated from partial numbers.
• # Football weekends ... which don't turn out to affect the weekly count.
• All weeks begin on Mondays. The first "full week" in a month may begin as early as the 1st or as late as the 7th. The "final week" of a month typically includes the last days of one month and the first few days of the following month.
• OPAC transactions are taken from counts compiled by the III system, limited to terminals 100 and 800 (which cuts out most staff traffic).
• Desk traffic is based on tallies kept at GD/SSHR and Science Reference up to May 1999: after that, there is a merged tally from the 1-East desk.

Page created April 18 2000 by Steve Sowards; last modified 1 December 2002.

URL = http://www.lib.msu.edu/sowards/mlr/busyweek.html