At this meeting, the following topics were covered:

• Reference Statistics—examples of reference and directional questions were discussed.
• 2^nd Open Forum on Reference Statistics Sampling at CUL (April 17, 9-10:30am, Olin 106)—Review of national definitions by Linda Miller.  Examples of reference and directional questions by Ida Martinez.  Discussion facilitators: Jean Callihan and Ida Martinez.  Notes: Beth Katzoff.  Mihoko has a scheduling conflict and cannot attend.
• Reference Statistics Sampling Form—Two drafts were reviewed
• 2005/2006 Budget for PSEC Reference & Outreach Committee--the 2005/06 budget has been approved.

Present: Mihoko Hosoi (Co-chair and minutes), Ida Martinez (Co-chair), Jean Callihan, Virginia Cole, Beth Katzoff, Jim Morris-Knower, Jill Powell, Pat Schafer (PSEC liaison), Linda Miller (guest)

Reference Statistics: Reference vs. Directional

At the March Open Forum, the audience suggested that national definitions are described to facilitate the understanding of different terms such as reference and directional.  Thorough understanding of those definitions will help us achieve consistency among CUL and also across the nation.  Linda Miller has prepared a document describing existing national definitions.  

The term “technical” is not covered in national definitions, and will need to be defined at PSEC (Public Services Executive Committee) so that we’ll be able to measure what’s important to them.  It’s not clear what constitute technical reference questions.  Some libraries seem to record directional, technical, and reference questions separately.  Some use “equipment” instead of technical, covering printer, copier, microfilm reader, etc.  This is an internal issue, apart from ARL, that needs to be resolved.

We discussed some examples of questions to see where we agree and where we disagree (see attached).  We decided that it’s probably better to focus on the examples where we agreed, highlighting key characteristics of reference and directional questions. 

It is important to realize that we will not be able to review all of the questions, and that agreeing on every example is going to be challenging.  We should focus on the ones that are likely to affect our statistics significantly, e.g., what to do with printer job questions.  Once those confusing points are identified, Linda will be able to contact ARL to clarify those issues.

We should not lose focus on our task given by PSEC, i.e., to create a unified reference statistics sheet for CUL.  Producing what’s requested by PSEC will be our priority.

The committee and CUL statistics professionals need PSEC’s direction on the implementation of the reference statistics project.  Jean and Mihoko have suggested, in their presentation, that the statistics administrator(s) handles the following with the Ref & Outreach Committee’s input: guideline preparation, training, determination of sampling weeks, collection and analysis of data, data maintenance, and occasional reality check.  Pat will discuss this with other PSEC members.

2^nd Open Forum on Reference Statistics Sampling at CUL

It is scheduled for April 17, 9-10:30am, Olin 106.  The purpose is to inform staff on national statistics definitions, and Linda Miller will present this part with hadouts/slides.  Following the description of the definitions, examples of reference and directional questions will be presented by Ida Martinez.  Discussion facilitators will be Jean Callihan and Ida Martinez.  Notes will be taken by Beth Katzoff.  Mihoko has a scheduling conflict and cannot attend this forum.

Reference Statistics Sampling Form

Mihoko tested the usability of the second draft (see attached) and found that: 1) it is easy to understand the form; 2) separate rows for reference and technical reference questions are needed to facilitate automatic computation in Excel; 3) some areas of the form allow users to write in but are hard to transform electronically, e.g., days of week and technical reference questions (marked in circles); 4) “over 15 minutes” category will include consultation that might take one hour or over, which is not expressed in the current design.  Writing in number of minutes will complicate the data processing.  PSEC requested a form that measures the amount of time spent for different questions.  Pat will clarify with other PSEC members; 5) this form might result in increased paperwork and manual work because each staff will fill in a sheet per day and someone in each library will need to compile data adding up the figures in each cell; 6) in person column includes both reference desk questions and consultation, which are of very different nature.  If the goal of data collection is to make future staffing decision (at reference desk), they might need to be separated. 

She then briefly described the original statistics form (slightly modified to include technical reference column) submitted in Nov. 2005 to PSEC (see attached).  This form may require some explanation for first time users, but does provide the data required and provides automatic calculation with less paperwork.  Jean and Mihoko consulted a statistics professor to prepare the form.  At this point, it seems helpful to obtain PSEC’s feedback on these forms.

Committee members were encouraged to test the forms at the personal level so that they can evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of different forms.

2005/2006 Budget for PSEC Reference & Outreach Committee

Pat reported that the funding for the 2005/06 budget items was approved.  Virginia will order refreshments for the April 17 forum.

Next meeting will be 5/8/06 (Monday), Olin 106 @10:30-12:00