Comments on: Reference transactions, such as they are

By: waltcrawford

waltcrawford — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 21:35:20 +0000

Thanks, Rochelle. That was my assumption. (And, AFAIK, it’s only public libraries that have this sort of national uniform survey. Not that I’d know…)

By: Rochelle Hartman

Rochelle Hartman — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 20:24:44 +0000

Yes, we record all reference transactions–regardless of how the patron gets to us and report that number in our annual report. Public library, if that makes a difference.

By: waltcrawford

waltcrawford — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 14:44:19 +0000

The PDF defining terms in the IMLS public library dataset says “Total reference transactions.” That may be further defined in instructions for libraries; I wouldn’t know. My assumption would be that it includes all forms.

By: rcn

rcn — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 07:33:47 +0000

Does the term “reference transaction” include face-to-face, telephone, email, chat, and text reference modes?