Reference without Books: Using Encore to Survive in an [almost] Bookless Reference Environment

Christopher C. Brown, University of Denver, Penrose Librarycbrown@du.edu

Background of Penrose LibraryM

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Reference Books in Off-Site Storage

All Library Materials in Off-Site Storage

Library Renovation at Half-Way Point

[almost] no Reference Books

Print Reference Footprint

Print Reference Footprint, 2002

Print Reference Footprint, 2012

How a Reference Librarian Thinks

General Library Collection

Reference Collection (collection within a collection)

Ready Reference Collection (collection within a collection within a collection)

E-Reference Acquisitions

Discovery Linkages at the University of Denver, Penrose Library

MARC Records Necessary for all E-Reference Works

Scoping of Records

Law Library

Music Library

DVDs / Videos

Journals / Serials

Reference Internet

E-Reference

Penrose Library

Encore strong with known-item searches

Keyword searches are aided by facets

Paradigm Shift – How to Find Reference Works When they are all Online

Classification SystemProximity to Other Titles

Locate by ColorUse Scoping

Print Reference World E-Reference World

Search Example #1Where’s that book on crime statistics?

When we had print: It the blue book in the Ready Reference shelvesOnline environment: Encore keyword search – crime statisticsClick the E-Reference facet

Search Example #2Where can I find the resource that

evaluates test resources?

How we did our Taxonomies (location hierarchies)

http://csdirect.iii.com/documentation/hierarchlocs.shtml

Bib Level Codespr Referencepre E-Referencein Internet

Item Level Codesprref Reference Stacksprein E-Referenceinter Internet

1Q 2011 – 520 searches for E-Reference out of 9,513 (0.5%)2Q 2011 – 808 searches for E-Reference out of 6,767 (12%)3Q 2011 – 154 searches for E-Reference out of 2,345 (6.6%)4Q 2011 – 118 searches for E-Reference out of 2,814 (4.2%)1Q 2012 – 260 searches for E-Reference out of 3,557 (0.7%)

Not well used, but essential to Happy Reference Librarians

Data from Google Analytics

Questions?

Thank You!Christopher C. Brown, University of Denver, Penrose Library

cbrown@du.edu