Reference Service Assessment

(From the AIG wiki; originally posted June 2008)

June 2008 Discussion Topic: Assessing Reference Service

This month please post your ideas for assessing service provided from reference points—in-person or virtual.  Do you go beyond hash marks on a paper form? If so, how do you measure the quality of reference service:  Peer observations,  secret shoppers, surveying patrons, patron evaluation forms…?

Posted by Bella Karr Gerlich,  Re Reference Assessment – I can discuss my personal experiences with experimenting with alternate data gathering for reference. I felt very frustrated having to explain the effort / skills etc behind the reference desk, so to go beyond the tick mark I developed the READ Scale (Reference Effort Assessment Data) tool. The READ Scale is a 6 point scale tool for recording the effort / knowledge / skills / teaching that occur during a reference transaction. My research partner (Lynn Berard, Carnegie Mellon) and I did a national study in the spring of 2007 testing the Scale at 14 diverse academic institutions, including our own. ( We are presenting the results of the national study at ALA this summer, but I would be happy to share more information with anyone interested.) At GCSU, we used the data gathered from our participation in the study to identify those times where professional reference staff were needed on the desk (based on number of transactions and READ Scale rankings) and when they were not – we finally had data to say that it was more cost effective and benefitted our users to have the professional staff on duty during earlier in the day as opposed to being on the desk after 9 pm during the week and on Saturdays, when the only questions received were in the ’1′ category (ie, where is the bathroom?). The professional staff are not only happier to be here earlier and for more hours during the regular work day, but it benefits the institution because staff can participate on additional committees, attend more meetings / assist with projects and cover additional reference shifts allowing for greater flexibility in the schedule overall. The Scale also gives reference staff a chance to qualify their work, and they feel good about the service they give to the students and the faculty.