'Can you help me?' Analysis of reference questions received in the National Library.

• Author: Weir, Aileen
• Position: Survey

The National Library of Australia offers reference services and access to its collections across seven different reading rooms around the building. With the impact of the Internet on research workflows and increasing digitisation of collection materials, the Library is evaluating whether its traditional grouping of reference services and reading rooms around collection formats remains valid.

In an effort to understand how information needs are changing, every question received onsite in the National Library reading rooms was logged during a two-week period in March 2008. Reading room staff kept detailed statistics on every transaction and completed a brief questionnaire for every query that met the Association of Research...