Evaluating documents reference service and the implications for improvement

Abstract

Using the Wisconsin-Ohio Reference Evaluation Program developed by Charles A. Bunge and Marjorie Murfin, the Government Documents Department at Joyner Library at East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina evaluated its reference services during the spring of 1994. By tabulating staff and users' responses to questions about individual reference transactions, the program measures effectiveness in answering questions and shows factors that lead to success. Factors considered are type of staff, subject and difficulty of the question, whether the staff directed or searched, time spent, types and number of sources used, how busy staff was, existence of cataloging or technical problems, and amount learned during a transaction. Undergraduate students were found to be the largest group of users; however, faculty had the largest per capita use. While social science majors and questions dominated, the majors and questions covered a wide range. The overall success rate was 72.37 percent with a nonprofessional staff's success rate of 68.75 percent and a professional librarians' success rate of 73.33 percent. The Documents Department's success with document questions (74.19 percent) was much higher than the average of general reference desks with such questions (55.60 percent). Results indicated that cataloging and technical problems, the amount of time spent in searching, and staff knowledge appear to be the factors that most affected success.