Was That a Reference Question?

Many frontline library workers are asked to count certain interactions with patrons, such as the number of reference questions they answer. At Library Research Service (LRS), we call these reference interactions between patrons and staff “reference transactions.” Being tasked with tracking this data might also naturally lead staff to wonder, “What exactly qualifies as a reference transaction?” and “Where does this data end up, and why is it important?” In this post, we’ll share some new guidelines from LRS on counting reference transactions, see what we can learn from the reference data we have collected, and share some advice for a more accurate reference count…

Continue reading this post on LRS.org and check out more posts on research in a library context from Library Research Service.

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