RefStats at HIN: 2 Week Anniversary Update

Good morning everyone,

Yesterday marked the 2-week anniversary of the RefStats launch at HIN. During this period (September 15th - September 29th), There were a total of 628 questions recorded, with the following breakdowns:

Question Type
Consultation: 6
Directional: 194
Reference: 327
Technical: 101

Question Format
Chat: 5
E-mail: 65
In-person: 481
Phone: 77

Patron Type
AHS: 400
Patients & Families: 195
University of Calgary: 33

The following are a few points/reminders:

a. Please paraphrase questions (no need to write out question in full detail)
b. Answers for directional, technical issues, or commonly asked questions can be left blank. However, do include answers for questions that would benefit the whole (i.e. citation style questions, new resources, problems with accessing databases, etc.)
c. The "Reference Working Group Final Report" (a document circulated by Darlene Warren earlier this month), also included the following brief definitions:
Directional: questions regarding policies or the location of services, collections, and materials
Reference: questions that involve use of one or more resources
Technology (Technical): questions that concern use of technologies...or hardware/software (troubleshooting, equipment, materials, etc.)
**please note that as per the HSL RefStats guide, questions pertaining to bibliographic software (i.e. RefWorks) are to be recorded as reference transactions**
d. At times, the same question can fit into more than one category (i.e. questions surrounding the process of, for instance, requesting after hours access or navigating through a particular resource, would be deemed as reference questions; however, issues surrounding the inability to gain after-hours access, database goes down, etc. are technical questions). All are asked to use their discretion and choose the question type that best fits the situation.
e. Please exercise caution if backtracking and entering a series of questions at once; there were a few instances of several questions entered at once under one question type category, when in fact they differed (i.e. directional vs. reference)
f. On occasion, questions may be fielded from clients that do not fit into one of the pre-determined user categories (i.e. client is not affiliated with U of C or AHS, and is not a patient or family member of a patient). In these instances, the client's affiliation (location) should be recorded in the question box, along with the question.