Assessing Reference Service Quality: A Chat Transcript Analysis

This presentation was given on March 28, 2017 at the Association of College and Research Libraries' bi-annual conference in Baltimore, Maryland. The conference proceedings are available online at http://www.ala.org/acrl/conferences/acrl2017/papers .In 2016, members of the University of Kansas Libraries’ Reference Services unit participated in a peer review of 60 chat transcripts from the Fall 2015 and 2016 semesters. This project grew out of the need to begin assessing the level of reference service quality provided at the University of Kansas (KU) Libraries. In-person and virtual reference assistance is provided at the two main libraries up to 12 hours per day, six days per week, when classes are in session. Two main libraries plus four smaller branches make up the KU Libraries system. Staffing of reference services at the KU Libraries has evolved over time, from a mix of faculty-equivalent librarians and library staff to the current staffing model, which employs three full-time staff members and two half-time staff members, complemented by graduate student employees. While the current desk staff are all well qualified, very few have degrees in library science. Therefore, extra care must be taken to train reference staff on how to conduct a proper reference interview, and additional time is required to monitor reference stats to ensure that questions are being answered properly. Previous local studies have been conducted in this vein. In 2007, librarians rated 2,300 chat transcripts from a two-year period to determine whether teaching moments were being taken advantage of, using ACRL’s Information Literacy Standards for Higher Education as criteria. A follow-up study took place in 2008, examining 50 of the previous 2,300 transcripts in detail to identify opportunities and best practices for incorporating instruction in virtual reference services. Since 2008, KU Libraries have not conducted additional formal studies to examine the quality of reference services provided. During the Fall 2015 semester, chat questions made up approximately 43 percent of overall reference questions asked at KU Libraries reference desks. This increased to 47 percent during the Fall 2016 semester. As chat becomes an increasingly common venue for reference questions at KU, this transcript analysis is a first step toward measuring the quality of reference service quality. Chat transcripts are attractive as a starting point since they provide a comprehensive snapshot of an interaction with a patron, and can be examined in a variety of ways to inform best practices in virtual reference. This paper describes the study’s findings, and presents the project methodology alongside referenced literature as a resource for other librarians who may be looking for a starting point in establishing broader evaluation of reference services in general

“You Need to Have a Street Beat”: A Qualitative Study of Faculty Research Needs and Challenges

In the spring of 2015, 14 faculty members in social science or in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) spoke with a working group from the University of Kansas (KU) Libraries regarding their research needs and challenges. Their responses highlighted a dynamic research environment in which individual researchers desire to connect with other experts, yet often remain isolated within their departments. Common challenges included dealing with data storage, management, and preservation, as well as understanding publication impact and dissemination methods. Respondents looked to KU Libraries as a neutral entity that could connect them to experts, materials, and practices that would enhance their research

“A Supernova that Sparks in Every Direction”: A Long-Term Assessment of the Research Sprints Faculty Engagement Program

Article will be published in College & Research Libraries in March 2024. This is the accepted version of the manuscript prior to copyediting.PREPRINT: Article to be published in College & Research Libraries in March 2024. This is the accepted version of the manuscript prior to copyediting. The Research Sprints program offers faculty partners the opportunity to collaborate intensively and exclusively for one week with a team of librarians to achieve significant progress on research or teaching projects. This longitudinal study extends previous immediate and short-term assessments by interviewing Research Sprints participants at two research-intensive institutions 2-4 years after their concentrated week. The authors evaluate the enduring impact of the program on the participants’ projects, research/teaching practices, and relationships with the library. Participants report achieving project goals, improved skills and student success, and greater awareness and appreciation of librarians’ work

Greta Valentine Oral History

Oral histories created by University of Kansas students, staff and faculty as part of the Religion in Kansas Project are archived at http://hdl.handle.net/1808/12524 in KU ScholarWorks, the digital repository of the University of Kansas.Oral history with Greta Valentine conducted by Lev Smyth in Lawrence, Kansas on October 8th, 2018. This interview is conducted with Greta Valentine, a parishioner of Saint Nicholas Orthodox Church, an OCA (Orthodox Church in America) Church in Lawrence, Kansas. Valentine discussed her conversion experiences in the midwest and what it’s like to both convert with a fairly large group of people who are also going through the same processes, and what it’s like to convert as a child. This interview was conducted for the Religion in Kansas Project as part of semester-long internship with the University of Kansas Department of Religious Studies

An Examination of Academic Library Privacy Policy Compliance with Professional Guidelines

Objective – The tension between upholding privacy as a professional value and the ubiquity of collecting patrons’ data to provide online services is now common in libraries. Privacy policies that explain how the library collects and uses patron records are one way libraries can provide transparency around this issue. This study examines 78 policies collected from the public websites of U.S. Association of Research Libraries’ (ARL) members and examines these policies for compliance with American Library Association (ALA) guidelines on privacy policy content. This overview can provide library policy makers with a sense of trends in the privacy policies of research-intensive academic libraries, and a sense of the gaps where current policies (and guidelines) may not adequately address current privacy concerns.Methods – Content analysis was applied to analyze all privacy policies. A deductive codebook based on ALA privacy policy guidelines was first used to code all policies. The authors used consensus coding to arrive at agreement about where codes were present. An inductive codebook was then developed to address themes present in the text that remained uncoded after initial deductive coding.Results – Deductive coding indicated low policy compliance with ALA guidelines. None of the 78 policies contained all 20 codes derived from the guidelines, and only 6% contained more than half. No individual policy contained more than 75% of the content recommended by ALA. Inductive coding revealed themes that expanded on the ALA guidelines or addressed emerging privacy concerns such as library-initiated data collection and sharing patron data with institutional partners. No single inductive code appeared in more than 63% of policies.Conclusion – Academic library privacy policies appear to be evolving to address emerging concerns such as library-initiated data collection, invisible data collection via vendor platforms, and data sharing with institutional partners. However, this study indicates that most libraries do not provide patrons with a policy that comprehensively addresses how patrons’ data are obtained, used, and shared by the library

Global economic burden of unmet surgical need for appendicitis

Background There is a substantial gap in provision of adequate surgical care in many low- and middle-income countries. This study aimed to identify the economic burden of unmet surgical need for the common condition of appendicitis. Methods Data on the incidence of appendicitis from 170 countries and two different approaches were used to estimate numbers of patients who do not receive surgery: as a fixed proportion of the total unmet surgical need per country (approach 1); and based on country income status (approach 2). Indirect costs with current levels of access and local quality, and those if quality were at the standards of high-income countries, were estimated. A human capital approach was applied, focusing on the economic burden resulting from premature death and absenteeism. Results Excess mortality was 4185 per 100 000 cases of appendicitis using approach 1 and 3448 per 100 000 using approach 2. The economic burden of continuing current levels of access and local quality was US $92 492 million using approach 1 and$73 141 million using approach 2. The economic burden of not providing surgical care to the standards of high-income countries was $95 004 million using approach 1 and$75 666 million using approach 2. The largest share of these costs resulted from premature death (97.7 per cent) and lack of access (97.0 per cent) in contrast to lack of quality. Conclusion For a comparatively non-complex emergency condition such as appendicitis, increasing access to care should be prioritized. Although improving quality of care should not be neglected, increasing provision of care at current standards could reduce societal costs substantially

Global economic burden of unmet surgical need for appendicitis

Background There is a substantial gap in provision of adequate surgical care in many low- and middle-income countries. This study aimed to identify the economic burden of unmet surgical need for the common condition of appendicitis. Methods Data on the incidence of appendicitis from 170 countries and two different approaches were used to estimate numbers of patients who do not receive surgery: as a fixed proportion of the total unmet surgical need per country (approach 1); and based on country income status (approach 2). Indirect costs with current levels of access and local quality, and those if quality were at the standards of high-income countries, were estimated. A human capital approach was applied, focusing on the economic burden resulting from premature death and absenteeism. Results Excess mortality was 4185 per 100 000 cases of appendicitis using approach 1 and 3448 per 100 000 using approach 2. The economic burden of continuing current levels of access and local quality was US $92 492 million using approach 1 and$73 141 million using approach 2. The economic burden of not providing surgical care to the standards of high-income countries was $95 004 million using approach 1 and$75 666 million using approach 2. The largest share of these costs resulted from premature death (97.7 per cent) and lack of access (97.0 per cent) in contrast to lack of quality. Conclusion For a comparatively non-complex emergency condition such as appendicitis, increasing access to care should be prioritized. Although improving quality of care should not be neglected, increasing provision of care at current standards could reduce societal costs substantially