Full Description
The goal of this book is to improve reference service in libraries and information centers, by improving the accuracy of answering capabilities. The authors provide a detailed analysis of the question-answering process and methods of evaluating the completeness, usefulness, user satisfaction, and accuracy of the information provided. This is an important contribution to library studies, and it will be a useful textbook for teaching references courses in library schools. Powerful research models help explain what is happening in the reference transaction. It encompasses a comprehensive review of the research literature. It offers a unique systems analysis of the reference transaction and includes a detailed appendix of the concepts, operational definitions, and research variables used to measure outcomes as well as statistical results from all known prior studies.
Contents
The Multilevel Nature of Reference Service Defining and Modeling Reference Service Evaluating and Measuring Reference Service Multilevel Modeling and Reference Service Evaluation Data Analysis and Findings Conclusions and Implications Systems Analysis of the Reference Process Appendices: Instruments, Descriptive Statistics, Correlation Matrices, Dependent and Independent Variables Used in the Study Bibliography Index