laura connaughton - great expectations, birmingham december 2014

Laura ConnaughtonMaynooth University Library

“Gathering meaningful statistics: Use of Knowall

Enquire at Maynooth University”

[email protected]@lozconn

mailto:[email protected]

While formally established as an autonomous university in 1997, Maynooth University traces its origins to the foundation of the Royal College of St. Patrick in 1795, drawing inspiration from a heritage that includes over 200 years of education and scholarship

The University community comprises over 9,000 students and 800 staff from more than 20 countries

Two Libraries– Russell Library, Special Collections and pre-1850 material– John Paul II Library (JPII)

maynoothuniversity.ie/library

South CampusSt. Patrick’s College

South CampusNew Library


My talk today...

Discuss the shift in Maynooth University Library from

paper based enquiries to online based enquiries

What KnowAll Enquire is and how it was adapted for

practical use in our Library

How KnowAll Enquire can improve the user experience

and measure excellence in an institution


Measuring ExcellenceMetrics are becoming more and more important in terms of demonstrating library work and value

Maynooth University Library – new building, new facilities, new resources – we want to be able to demonstrate our value and commitment to teaching, learning and research at Maynooth University

First academic library in Ireland to purchase KnowAll Enquire

KnowAll Enquire helps us monitor enquiries and generate meaningful statistics which means we can monitor and improve our service and prove our value

New Library – New Services

New Opportunities


Why introduce an enquiry management package?

Opportunity to streamline all our enquiries into one central point

Ability to measure customer enquiries, for example, amount of enquiries, time taken, busy/quiet times etc.

Opportunity to improve the customer experience by having a bank of knowledge/FAQs

Provide clarity for library staff – ability to see if enquiries are answered/resolved, what the answer is for future reference

With our new library, we expected library usage to increase and were being proactive in terms of gathering metrics


Where do our Library Enquiries come from?

ChatEmailWalk InsAppointmentOnline formPhone

Pre-2014 Paper BasedInformation Desk Statistics Sheet

Pre-2014 Paper BasedAdmission Desk Statistics Sheet

Where did these statistics go? ...

ExcelCons:• Data Entry• Laborious • Time Consuming• Requires

knowledge & ability to manipulate figures

How do we collate these figures in one go?

KnowAllEnquire

KnowAll Enquire

What is it?


KnowAll EnquireKnowAll Enquire is an enquiry tracking software package which tracks all types of enquiries right through from initial enquiry to meaningful

statistics and reports with a view to improving the customer experience and track the enquiry from origin through each stage of the enquiry

handling process.

How does it work?

It captures initial enquiries made at the Information Desk, via walk-ins, online form, email or library chat

We can assign queries to people i.e. share the workload according to location, specialist subjects and availability

By monitoring the enquiries we can ensure that questions are answered

We can search answers thus sharing knowledge and see how similar enquiries were answered previously

The software is capable of providing very accurate statistics and reports which means we will be able to improve our service

We can publish FAQ’s meaning enquirers can help themselves with straightforward queries


Library Departments

1. Information Desk (11 staff)

2. Admission Desk (11 staff)

3. General Collections & Finance (12 staff)

4. Special Collections & Russell Library (7 staff)

5. Digital & Electronic Collections (3 staff)

6. Information Literacy (3 staff)

7. Subject Librarians (7 staff)

8. Library IT Development (3 staff)


Let’s take a look

•Admission Desk

•Information Desk

•Subject Librarian


Admission Desk Interface


Information Desk Interface


Sample Subject Librarian Form

Reporting

Measuring excellence


Custom Reports


Report : Maynooth University Information Desk (By Contact Method) Shows Enquiries By Contact Method And Gives Percentage


SUBJECT LIBRARIANS (WORK IN PROGRESS)SHOWS COUNT BY TIME AND SUBJECT


Benefits for Students & Staff

• Self-Directed Learning– When KnowAll Enquire is 100%

customised, students and library users will be able to search FAQs for self-service answering of queries with instant answers

• Students can be assured that enquires will not be ‘lost’ in the process of referrals from desk to department

• Online Form – students don’t need to know exactly who should get their query, less time consuming

• One dedicated system for receiving, tracking and answering enquiries

• Do away with paper-based enquiries, all in a central location

• Potential to enhance our customer service through consistent answering and knowledge bank

• Each library team can monitor their own enquiries

Students Staff


Evaluating Meaningful Statistics

• Reporting of metrics and statistics an excellent feature

• The level of detail in the reports has the ability to dig down to both quantitative and qualitative information

• Ability to improve customer service, e.g., what is the most asked question re. databases, do we need to do more training/advertising?

• Gives an overview of busy/quiet time data to inform of changes to opening hours etc.

Statistics


Where do we use the statistics?Library Information Skills Tutorials (LIST)Learning, Teaching and Research Development – Subject Librarian TeamPatron Information – year of study, subjects, FT/PTOnline Form – out of hoursSummon FeedbackInfograph for presenting informationWider University bodies – Career Development

Libraries need to proactively show our value and KnowAll

Enquire is key to us demonstrating this in a variety of

ways


AdviceHaving a dedicated person to work on the software set-up side is not necessary but definitely an advantage

You need the time to learn the product and how you want to use it. The capability is huge, you need to be able to harness it

Emerging body of literature about development of statistical packages – we made our decision informed by practice and met Bailey Solutions at LILAC 2012

Visited site before purchase (A&L Goodbody) and after purchase (University of Warwick)

Remember it’s not an ‘overnight’ product. We still have lots of work to do on it including diversion of emails into Enquire, more training and rollout. Be patient!


Laura ConnaughtonJohn Paul II Library, Maynooth University

[email protected] 00353 (0)1 708 3429

@lozconn


Thank YouAny questions?



Contact

KnowAll Enquiry Management from Bailey Solutionswww.knowallenquire.com

[email protected]

http://www.knowallenquire.com/



Credits

Maynooth University Library KnowAll Enquire– http://nuim.knowallenquire.co.uk/Home.aspx

J. Gabe Gossett, Elizabeth Stephan, Rebecca Marrall, (2012) "Implementing reference statistics collection software at multiple library service points", New Library World, Vol. 113 Iss: 5/6, pp.235 - 248

All photos by kind permission of Alan Monahan, Maynooth University Library

Dilbert cartoon - https://www.pinterest.com/jtl505/dilbert/

http://thisishowtodostuff.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Put-all-of-your-eggs-in-one-basket.png

https://www.pinterest.com/jtl505/dilbert/

https://www.pinterest.com/jtl505/dilbert/

laura connaughton - great expectations, birmingham december 2014

Education

library enquiries

library work

academic library

library jpii

library usage

ielibrary knowall

based enquiries

library staff ability