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Keeping a Gimlet Eye on Reference Data

Keeping a Gimlet Eye on Reference Data. Ken Simon Reference and Instruction Technologies Librarian Loyola Marymount University Los Angeles, California Twitter: @ ksimon Email: kenneth.simon@lmu.edu. READ scale Dr. Bella Karr Gerlich. http :// readscale.org /. Librarian Training.

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Keeping a Gimlet Eye on Reference Data

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  1. Keeping a Gimlet Eye on Reference Data Ken Simon Reference and Instruction Technologies Librarian Loyola Marymount University Los Angeles, California Twitter: @ksimon Email: kenneth.simon@lmu.edu

  2. READ scaleDr. Bella Karr Gerlich http://readscale.org/

  3. Librarian Training • Where is “The Sun Also Rises?” Directional or Reference? • It depends! • How do I request a book from storage? Policy or Reference? • It depends! • How do I access a database from off-campus? Technical or policy? • [Well, you get it by now.] • Difficulty of non-reference questions on the READ scale: • Policy = always 2 • Directional = usually 1 • Referrals: how long you spend, not difficulty of question

  4. Student Training and Evaluation • Blackboard training module + exercises • Guides to Gimlet, READ Scale, tagging • Easy evaluation of students: search by initials • Flag or email questions for follow-up

  5. Gimlet LibGuide for LMU http://libguides.lmu.edu/gimlet

  6. DATA DUMP 2 years = 29,000 records

  7. It’s Not Social Tagging!

  8. It’s Not Social Tagging!

  9. It’s Not Social Tagging!

  10. It’s Not Social Tagging!

  11. It’s Not Social Tagging!

  12. Crunch all you want… • Excel: sort and filter by fixed fields • Content analysis using Simple Concordance Program: • Directional: led to signage improvements • Technology: Fixes, training, State of Technology in the Library report for campus I.T. • Next up: coding the data

  13. Coded Data

  14. Reference Tags Note: these tags differ from the ones used in Gimlet 1 = Catalog Use & Lookup 2 = Database Help & Use 3 = External Web page 4 = Internal Web page 5 = Reference Book (print) 6 = Referral 7 = Reserves 8 = Retrieval 9 = Other 99 = empty / unknown

  15. Conclusions • To assess and improve, you need data! • It takes work to get the data into shape. • You can’t escape subjectivity……but you can help to manage it. • Experiment with tools for analysis: • Excel, concordance software, codebook/SPSS • Why? • To better fulfill our mission • Potential cost savings, better use of staff time

  16. Credit where credit is due: • Alexander Justice • Susan Gardner • Shannon Billimore • Courtney Hoffner • Jason Campos • Meg Gregory • Bonnie Rainey

  17. Keeping a Gimlet Eye on Reference Data Ken Simon Reference and Instruction Technologies Librarian Loyola Marymount University Los Angeles, California Twitter: @ksimon Email: kenneth.simon@lmu.edu

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