A comparison of information requests in five public libraries, two County Council Information Centres and three Tourist Information Centres

by

Judith M. Bevis, B.A.(Hons)

A Master·s Dissertation, submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the award of the Master of Science degree of the Loughborough University of Technology

September 1994

Supervisor: John W. Sumsion OBE, MA, Hon FLA, FIM Library and Information Statistics Unit Department of Information and Library Studies

@J.M. Bevis, 1994 Abstract

A survey of information provision in public libraries has been carried out. Information transactions in public libraries in metropolitan, large city, urban and rural environments were studied by direct observation. In addition information provided in two Information Centres and three Tourist Information Centres was studied. Information transactions were categorised as 'General', 'Business', 'Community', 'Health' or 'Local Government services'. Examples of typical enquiries are listed.

The results obtained for the libraries are compared with previous studies; the comparison shows broad agreement in terms of the percentage of 'General' enquiries and time taken to conclude transactions where previous data are available. Possible reasons for some ofthe discrepancies found are discussed.

Comparison of the three types of establishment revealed significant differences in emphasis, according to the stated purpose of the establishment. There is some overlap between libraries and the other two types of information providers as a result of the generalist approach expected of public libraries. The essential differences relate to the range of subjects covered by enquiries and the dominant stock formats. Public libraries receive enquiries covering a wide range of subjects while the other types of information centres deal with enquiries on a relatively narrow range of subjects relating to their core activities. The Tourist Information and Council Information Centres predominantly stock leaflets while published materials form the major resources used in public libraries.

In addition to the qualitative analysis, the physical and administrative features of the libraries and other centres providing information are described in some detail. This gives an interesting view of the variety of demand and provision from place to place. Some of the consequential management problems are discussed.

Finally, further more detailed studies are recommended to clarify some of the uncertainties arising from the present work are made. Acknowledgements

I wish to thank my husband, John, for his unfailing support and encouragement throughout this project. Thanks are also due to my supervisor, John Sumsion, for his guidance and advice throughout the project.

I also wish to thank the following organisations and their staff for cooperation and assistance during the pilot study and main survey.

Hampshire County Council: Shirley Thorne and her staff at the and Information Centres. Nick Fox, Assistant County librarian - Information Services. Jackie Painting, Divisional Reference librarian, and the staff of Portsmouth Reference and Lending Libraries. Lorna Payne, Divisional Reference Librarian, and the staff of Reference library. Jenny Dine and the staff of library. Terry Firth, Divisional Reference librarian and the staff of Winchester Reference and Local Studies libraries. To Jane Selby, Branch librarian, and the staff of Winchester Lending Library go a special thanks for dealing with so many difficult requests throughout the project.

Wandsworth Borough Council: Chris Lally and the staff of Putney District Library.

Portsmouth City Council: Kate Prowse and the staff of the Portsmouth Tourist Information Centres.

Southern Tourist Board: Heather Othen and the staff of the Fareham Tourist Information Centre. CONTENTS PAGE NO.

Chapter 1 Introduction 1 1 .1 A review of previous research 1 1.1.1 The total service 1 1.1.2 Categorisation 3 1.1.3 Business information 4 1.1.4 General 5 1.2 Community and Health information 6 1.3 other information providers 6 1.4 A review of methodologies 7 1.5 The present study 8 References 8 Chapter 2 Survey framework 11 2.1 Objectives 11 2.2 Definitions 12 2.3 Features 12 Chapter 3 Methodology 13 Chapter 4 Pilot study: Winchester city libraries 15 4.1 The libraries and their environment 15 4.2 The libraries 15 4.3 The study 17 4.4 Results 18 4.4.1 Categorisation of transactions .18 4.4.2 Transaction completion times 22 4.4.3 Staff activity during transactions 23 4.5 An analysis of the pilot study 24 References 28 Chapter 5 The parent organisations 29 5.1 Hampshire County Council 29 5.1.1 Hampshire County Information Centres 30 5.1.2 Hampshire County Library Service 30 5.2 Wandsworth Borough Council 31 5.3 32 5.4 Southern Tourist Board 32 References 33 Chapter 6 Portsmouth Central Library - a city library 34 6.1 The library and its environment 34 6.2 Portsmouth Central Library 35 6.3 The study 37 6.4 Results 38 6.4.1 Portsmouth Lending Library 38 6.4.2 First floor reference desk 41 6.4.3 Second floor reference desk 44 6.4.4 Local Studies Library 47 6.5 An analysis of activity observed at Portsmouth Central Library 49 References 51 Chapter 7 Fareham County Library - an urban library 52 7.1 The library and its environment 52 7.2 Fareham County Library 52 7.3 The study 54 7.4 Results 55 7.4.1 Categorisation of transactions 55 7.4.2 Transaction completion times 56 7.4.3 Staff activity during transactions 57 7.4.4 In-house compiled sources 58 7.4.5 Referrals to external sources 59 7.5 An analysis of the activity observed at Fareham Reference and 60 Information Service References 60 Chapter 8 Fordingbridge County Library - a rural library 61 8.1 The library and its environment 61 8.2 Fordingbridge Library 61 8.3 The study 62 8.4 Results 62 8.4.1 Categorisation of transactions 62 8.4.2 Transaction completion times 64 8.4.3 Staff activities during transactions 64 8.4.4 In-house compiled sources 65 8.4.5 Referrals to external organisations 66 8.5 An analysis of the activity observed at Fordingbridge County 66 Library References 67 Chapter 9 Putney District Library - a London Borough library 68 9.1 The library and its environment 68 9.2 Putney District Library 68 9.3 The study 69 9.4 Results 70 9.4.1 Categorisation of transactions 70 9.4.2 Transaction completion times 71 9.4.3 Staff activities during transactions 73 9.4.4 In-house compiled sources 73 9.4.5 Referrals to external sources 74 9.5 An analysis of the activity observed at Putney District Library 75 References 75 Chapter 10 Hampshire County Council Information Centres 76 10.1.1 The Winchester Information Centre and its environment 76 10.1.2 The study 77 10.1.3 Results 78 10.1.3.1 Categorisation of transactions 78 10.1.3.2 Transaction completion times 80 10.1.3.3 Staff activity during transactions 80 10.1.3.4 Referrals within the Council 82 10.1.3.5 Referrals to other Councils and organisations 83 10.1.4 An analysis of the activity observed at the Winchester Information 83 Centre 10.2.1 The Portsmouth Information Centre and its environment 84 10.2.2 The study 85 10.2.3 Results 85 10.2.4 An analysis of the activity observed at the Portsmouth Information 87 Centre 10.3 A comparison of the two Information Centres 88 Chapter 11 The Tourist Information Centres of Portsmouth and Fareham 89 11.1 Tourist Information Centres in Portsmouth 89 11.1.1.1 The Hard Tourist Information Centre 90 11.1.1.2 The study 90 11.1.1.3 Results 90 11.1.1.3.1 Categorisation of transactions 90 11.1.1.3.2 Mode of contact 93 11.1.1.3.3 Staff activity during transactions 94 11.1.2.1 The Commercial Road Information Centre and its environment 94 11.1.2.2 The study 95 11.1.2.3 Results 96 11.1.2.3.1 Categorisation of transactions 96 11.1.2.3.2 Mode of contact 97 11.1.2.3.3 . Staff activity during transactions 98 11.1.2.4 An analysis of the Portsmouth Tourist Information Centres 98 11.2.1 . ·Fareham Tourist Information Centre and its environment 99 11.2.2 The study 100 11.2.3 Results 100 11.2.3.1 Categorisation of transactions 100 11.2.3.2 Transaction completion times 103 11.2.3.3 Staff activity during transactions 104 11.2.3.4 Referrals 104 11.2.4 An analysis of the activity observed at the Tourist Information 104 Centre, Fareham Chapter 12 Discussion of results: the public libraries 106 12.1 Categorisation of enquiries 106 12.2 Transaction completion times 109 12.3 Sources used to satisfy enquiries 111 12.4 Comparison of survey results with reported Hampshire Ubrary 113 statistics 12.5 Internal and external factors that may affect observations in 115 public libraries References 115 Chapter 13 Discussion of results: comparison of public libraries with 116 specialised information providers 13.1 Subject categories 116 13.2 Transaction completion times 117 13.3 Sources of information provided 118 13.4 Levels of experience required of staff 118 Chapter 14 Conclusions 119 Chapter 15 Recommentations 121 Bibliography 123 LIST OF TABLES PAGE

4.1 Volume and categories of activity recorded at Winchester Lending 19 Library

4.2 Volume and categories of activity recorded at Winchester Local Studies 20 Library

4.3 Volume and categories of activity recorded at Winchester Reference 21 Library

4.4 Time taken to complete longer transactions 22

4.5 Staff activity during transactions recorded in the pilot study 23

6.1 Observation pattern undertaken at Portsmouth Central Library 38

6.2 Volume and categories of activity recorded at Portsmouth Lending Library 39 information desk

6.3 Personal and telephone transactions categorised by time taken to 40 complete

6.4 Staff activity during the recorded transactions 40

6.5 In-house compiled sources used during the survey 41

6.6 Volume and categories of activity at the first floor information desk of the 42 Reference Library

6.7 Personal and telephone transactions categorised by time taken to 43 complete the transaction

6.8 Staff activity during transactions 43

6.9 In-house compiled sources used during the survey 44

6.10 Sources of business related information most used during the survey 44

6.11 Volume and categories of transactions recorded at the second floor 45 Information desk

6.12 Personal and telephone transactions categorised by time taken to 46 complete

6.13 Staff activity during observed transactions 46

6.14 In-house compiled sources used during the survey 47

6.15 Volume and categories of transactions observed at Local Studies 47 Library information desk

6.16 Personal and telephone transactions categorised by time taken to 48 complete

6.17 Staff activity during transactions 48

6.18 Total observed transactions in Portsmouth Central Library in 50 subject/source and time band categories 7.1 Volume and categories of activity recorded at Fareham Reference 56 and Information Service information desk

7.2 Personal and telephone transactions categorised by time taken to 57 complete

7.3 Staff activity during transactions 58

7.4 In-house compiled sources used during survey 59

8.1 Volume and categories of activity recorded at Fordingbridge Library 63

8.2 Personal and telephone transactions categorised by time taken to 64 complete

8.3 Staff activity during transactions 65

8.4 In-house compiled sources used during survey 66

9.1 Volume and categories of activity recorded at Putney Library 71

9.2 Personal and telephone transactions categorised by time taken to 72 complete

9.3 Staff activity during transactions 73

9.4 In-house compiled sources used during survey 74

10.1 Volume and categories of transactions at the Winchester Information 79 -, Centre 10.2 Personal, telephone and written transactions categorised by time taken 80 to complete

10.3 Staff activity during transactions requiring information provision 81

10.4 Portsmouth Information Centre transactions categorised by subject and 86 time taken to complete

11.1 The Hard, Portsmouth, Tourist Information Centre transactions 91 categorised by subject/service and time taken to complete

11.2 Staff activity during recorded transactions 94

11.3 Commercial Road Tourist Information Centre transactions categorised 96 by subject/service and time taken to complete

11.4 Staff activity during recorded transactions 98

11.5 Volume and categories of activity observed at Fareham Tourist 101 Information Centre

11.6 Longer transactions categorised by mode of contact and subject or 103 service

11.7 Staff activity during observed transactions 104

12.1 Percentage of enquiries received at the four libraries in the study in 106 the broad categories 12.1 Percentage of enquiries received at the four libraries in the study in 106 the broad categories

12.2 Time taken to complete enquiries in the four public libraries studied 109

12.3 Broad categories of documents provided and information sources used 111 to answer enquiries at the four libraries

12.4 Normalisation of survey results 114

12.5 A comparison of the survey results with reported Hampshire enquiry 114 statistics

13.1 Percentage of enquiries received at the four public libraries, two County 116 Information Centres and three Tourist Information Centres grouped by broad subject or source.

13.2 Time taken to complete enquiries in the four public libraries, Tourist 118 Information Centres and Hampshire County Council Information Centres monitored for the study Chapter 1

Introduction

1.1 A review of previous research

1.1.1 The total service

It has been claimed in general terms that the information activities of public libraries have increased in recent years. Since 1984 the Chartered Institute of Public and Financial Accountants (CIPFA) has published figures on the volume of enquiries reported by library services in the (UK). These register an increase in enquiries year on year.

According to the County Librarian of Somerset:

... the fastest growth area in public libraries is the provision of information. In the past four years enquiries for information in Somerset rose by some 60% and show no sign of dropping off. This pattern of increase is common to many library authorities (1).

This continued increase in the demand for information is confirmed in the Annual Report for 1993/4 and Hampshire's Library Service has experienced a 82% increase in the total number of enquiries recorded over the past ten years with no sign in recent years of this trend reversing (2).

The report from Hampshire maps the first ten years of experimentation with methods of enquiry statistic collection within the County Library Service. This started in 198213 with a full daily count in every library for six months followed by a full count over the whole financial year of 1983/4. Several sampling methods were then tried over the next few years which produced results that were considered erratic and unreliable. The introduction of full bibliographic and directional counting in 1988 resulted from these experiments. The annual statistics for every individual library since 198213, except for those years covered by the sampling experiments, are included in the report.

The CIPFA figures are officially derived from a count of enquiries undertaken in all public libraries during a specified week in October. The definition of enquiry used in the collection of this data is: Any questions, however received ... .leading to the active involvement of staff in identifying and answering problems posed by library users.

Included are:

i. All requests for information from published, unpublished, personal and organisational resources.

ii. Enquiries leading to assistance for users in the use of library catalogues or bibliographical aids.

iii. Membership interviews involving description of library services available.

iv. Assistance in library use ...

v. Directional enquiries relating to sources external to the library .

.vi. Recent request for bibliographical information - ego a subject request which then results in a book request. (3)

Subsequent research into the practical interpretation of these criteria showed considerable variations especially for borderline questions. Other important points to emerge were: the figures reported to CIPFA were not for the specified week; the mechanics of the.count varies; and the results would be affected because the week chosen was half term for schools (4). This inconsistency casts doubt on the validity of the published statistics. The opinion has also been expressed that:

... aggregated figures extrapolated from sampling produced erratic and completely unreliable comparisons year on year. (5)

As a direct result of these doubts Hampshire County's Library Service adopted full daily counting of bibliographic and directional enquiries in all libraries in early 1988.

A survey of nine city public libraries in 1987 found that little regular counting or recording of enquiries took place. More important, however, was the reported differences in opinion on what to count or record and in the definitions used. This made comparisons between departments in the same service as impossible as comparisons between services (6).

The production of annual figures indicate that statistics are collected but there is little indication of how or what is recorded at the information desks in individual libraries. It became apparent during this study that considerable research has been done on the most effective methods of recording and categorising enquiry desk transactions within a number of library services. ~ is unfortunate that none of this work appears to have been published.

2 1 .1 .2 Categorisation

The information provided by public libraries can be categorised as:

Business Information Community Information Health Information Information on Local Government Services General Information Little is known of the relative volumes of enquiries received in different types of public library or the proportions of enquiries in each category. The existence of a Business Information Service at Reference Library allows the Council to state in the West Sussex Annual Report of 1993/4 that 25% of all enquiries received at the Reference Library are business related. The report also contains the claim that there has been a growth in the demand for specialised information but without qualification or substantiation. Richmond also goes some way to categorise the information demands and gives the percentage of users requiring Council, LocaUCommunity and Tourist Information for which tt has separate departments. Business and Health related enquiries are also mentioned but no indication is given of the volumes these categories represent (7). Devon County was noted for tts subject breakdown of the enquiries made at tts reference libraries by Walker (8).

In reviewing the r~arch done on the analysis of reference questions Powell explains that . most studies are simple counting exercises, although some work has been done in the University of Georgia library into the categorisation of data by area of the library and type of question received (9).

In 1976 an analysis of enquiries from 33 libraries in six un-named public library services:

1 London Borough 1 small provincial city 2 large provincial cities 1 rural county 1 urban county

found that libraries are expected to provide a whole range of information. Almost half of all enquiries were categorised as 'General' because they did not fit into the four broad categories for information that were used in the survey. The categories were:

General (40%) Commerce (11 %) Science and Technology (10%) Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (11 %) Local History (6%)

3 plus a category labelled 'Information' which accounted for the remaining 22% of the enquiries (10).

No information about the actMties of individual libraries was included in the Bromley report. 74% of enquiries were reported to take under five minutes each to answer and occupied 35% of the total time taken to answer enquiries. 2% of enquiries required 18% of the available time to resolve, taking over 30 minutes each. This was supported by Peter Mann's later findings which indicate that nearly 80%of all enquiries are quick and easy to answer, but he reports that they can be dealt with in less than two minutes each (11).

1 .1.3 Business information

Early public libraries, based as they were on the Mechanics Institutes, responded to the educational needs of local industries. (12)

Despite this, Business information is believed to form a small part of branch library activity, being concentrated in reference libraries (13), but some reference libraries are in greater demand than others as was discovered in a 1967 survey. The survey, carried out in 33 public reference libraries throughout , Scotland and Wales, was centred on the requirement for Technical and Commercial Information. This comprehensive study of enquiries and library users found that:

Public reference libraries receive enquiries on a wide range of subjects.

The four large city reference libraries received 56% of the Commercial and Technical enquiries and 76% of the enquiries were concentrated in eight of the libraries. The proportion of total enquiries that were in this category was as high as 78% in some of the libraries.

27% of visitors asked for help from the staff.

20% of enquiries were for various types of I~erature ego periodicals, newspapers, directories, books etc.

Most enquiries were straightforward. (14)

A number of studies provide insights into the information needs of industry and the use made of business libraries. Fiona Trolt categorised the requests for information from the companies participating in her research by subject, but even in this specialised area she records 4% miscellaneous enquiries (15).

An earlier study of the users of business information carried out in private, public and

academic business libraries in London was reported in 1976 (16). Vis~ors and callers were asked to participate in the survey. The results revealed the kinds of information most

4 often needed from business libraries. Vis~ors to the public libraries mostly wanted:

Information about particular product name or firm (21%) Information about foreign markets (15%) Information about British markets (12%)

However, the categories of 'General Study' and 'Other' represented 12% of the sample surveyed. The remaining 40% of enquiries related to the other fifteen categories used in the survey. Telephone enquiries related to Trade Directories (45%), Statistics (30%) and

Telephone Directories (20%) ~ very few general reference enquiries.

The type of enquiries put to the Nottingham Business Library and Leicester Business, Science and Technology Library were categorised by the type of information required ego Electoral Register, Companies, Organisations etc. General enquiries which were reported to defy closer categorisation accounted for 12% of the enquiries at Leicester and 7% at Nottingham (17). The findings of Bakewell and Roper, reporting on an interview survey of librarians in 53 public libraries, were very similar (18).

1.1.4 General

Only one piece of research was found that looked at library users and their needs ~hout concentrating on a specific type of information or group of users. The study, reported by Peter Mann, of Leicester Information Centre arrived at several conclusions:

The centre was used by a wide variety of people, although not representative of the local population.

50% of users required no help from staff.

25% of users required magazines and newspapers for general reading.

25% of users requested specific documents from the staff, some kept in closed access to prevent theft.

75% of enquiries were quick and easy to deal ~h while 14% were more difficult.

The enquiries covered a wide range of subjects which were categorised into a mixture of

subject and source groupings. 15% of enquiries were referred to other sources ~h

almost 50% of referrals being ~in the centre and almost another 15% being made to the Lending Library. The Local Government Information Bureau accounted for a further 15% of referrals (19).

5 1.2 Community and Health information

No research was found relating exclusively to these areas of information provision in public

libraries. The available I~erature which discusses the provision of Community and Health information and information on Local Government Services indicates that alternative information provision is patchy and inconsistent. Local Government Information Centres range from extended receptionist services to a full range of information concentrated on local government services. Consumer Health Information is very fragmented and uncoordinated. Some consider that the wider access, longer opening hours and networked resources providing a more extensive stock, make the public library the most appropriate location for these specialised areas of information provision (20).

1.3 Other information providers

Provision of information about Local Government Services is undergoing considerable expansion as local government authorities fight for their very existence during the Local Government Review. As Dawson observes:

Because of the obvious interest by Central Government in the reorganisation of local government, authorities are at present involved in a power struggle. Quality, delivery, customer care and information on services are of increasing importance. (21)

There are also changes taking place in the provision of Health Information but at least one of these includes a public library service:

... changes in the Health Service which are causing library and information services within the NHS to review their objectives and widen their availability and proposals for a collaborative pilot project involving Wessex Regional Library and Information Service and Hampshire County Library to develop an integrated community and health information system have been discussed ... (22)

The role of the public library and information service is to provide a large part of the information sought by individuals, organisations and companies (whose resources are inadequate to support libraries of their own) in the community which they serve (23). The findings of several of the reports mentioned earlier have shown how public expectations support this view. The effects of financial constraints imposed on local government by Central Government can be seen in libraries as reduced access, impaired quality and financial barriers (fines and charges) (24). Another development is the absorption of . libraries into new directorates, over the past twenty years: where these are 'Leisure' or

6 'Recreation' (25) this can only promote a false and narrow view that librarians are concerned only with leisure and reading (26).

Broome's fears about the image of public library and information services appear to have been confirmed by the apparent failure of Central Government ministers to understand fully the essential contribution made to business life by public information services. Michael Heseltine's One Stop Shops initiative was set up to provide information for business, bypassing the libraries altogether (27), although some public libraries, such as Manchester's Commercial Library has been providing an extensive range of up-to-date business information to the public for over 75 years (28).

The development of specialised libraries for business, science, technical, commercial, music, local studies etc. started well before the last local government reorganisation in 1974. During the 1970s community information collections were developed or expanded by many library services. Much of this most recent fragmentation of information provision is taking place outside the public library service. Will this further fragmentation and duplication of information provision benefit the information seeker?

1.4 A review of methodologies

Various methods have been used to study the needs of library users and the enquiries put to public libraries. Research requiring the participation of library users is dependent on their good will. Peter Mann reported 64 unsuccessful attempts to interview people leaving the Leicester Information Centre and 264 successful interviews (29). Interviews, when successful, provide all the information required by the researcher for the study. The provision of questionnaires to library users can be less successful for two reasons:

Questionnaires are not returned. Questionnaires are not fully completed.

This was reported by Spencer in Business Information in London, when 60% of the

questionnaires given to visitors to the library were of a su~able quality to be included in the survey and 46% of those sent after telephone enquiries. More than 80 returned forms were unusable (30).

The methodology used for a business information survey required library staff to fill in datasheets for all business related enquiries. The problems encountered here included incomplete forms due to lack of time, changing shifts mid-way through enquiries and reluctance of staff to ask for personal information unrelated to the enquiry. Following up

7 enquirers was also difficult and time consuming because many were not available and some were unwilling to answer questions (31).

There are also 'unobtrusive' observation techniques that can be used to find out what library users needs are. The materials used and areas of the library visited by self-service library users can provide useful information. An observation survey in which a field worker systematically recorded certain details of all enquiries made at the information desk over a given period was also used in the Leicester Infor,:"ation Centre study. Peter Mann reported that the research worker noted as much as possible about the people and their enquiries without intruding upon the dialogue between enquirer and library staff member (32). Clarification was sought where necessary after a transaction. Personal and

telephone enqUiries were mon~ored. The problems that arise from this method of obtaining raw data are the difficulty in keeping track of several enquiries at once during busy periods and making assessments of the enquirers. Observations can only be consistent if made by the same researcher throughout a survey.

1.5 The present study

It was decided that an observational survey of information desk activity in libraries representative of London borough, city, urban and rural libraries would provide much needed information on the relative volumes of enquiries. With the use of appropriate

definitions ~ would also be possible to obtain information about the proportions of enquiries requiring the types of specialist information for which alterative sources are being developed. Comparisons between the activity observed in libraries and the information traffic covered by Tourist Information Centres and Local Government Information Centres could also prove useful and the present study was designed to include these.

References

1. Walker, J.RA. Information matters: the provision of information services in the public libraries of the United Kingdom, 1993, p. 2. A quote originally taken from The Bookseller 12th June 1992.

2. Hampshire County Council. County Ubrary inquiry statistics - the first ten years 1982-3 to 1991-2: a survey, 1992, p. 3.

3. CIPFA. Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy public library statistics c 1991- 92 actuals questionnaire, 1992.

8 4. Sumsion, J., R. Marriott and H. Pickering. The CIPFA enquiry count, 1994.

5. Hampshire County Council, ref. 2, p. 4.

6. Mole, A. Statistical information collection by city reference libraries, 1978, p. 45.

7. Sumsion, J,W. Practical Performance Indicators 1992: documenting the citizens Charter consultation for U.K public libraries with examples of Performance Indicators and surveys in use, 1993, appendix.

8. Walker, ref. 1, p. 59.

9. Powell, R.R. Reference effectiveness: a review of research. Ubrary and Information Science Research, 1984, 6( 1), 14.

10. Bromley,D.W. Survey of Reference and Intormation Work. In: Department of Education and Science. The staffing of public libraries: volume 3, 1976.

11. Mann, P.H. The reality of reference work: a study of the Leicester Information Centre, 1986, p. 29.

12. Hyde, M. Business information in public libraries: an overview. Business Information Review, 1989, 6(2), 22.

13. Walker, ref. 1, p. 2.

14. Clements,D,W,G. Use made of public reference libraries: a survey of personal users and telephone, telex and postal enquiries. Journal of Documentation, 1967, 23, 131-145.

15. Trott, Fiona. Information for industry: a study of the information needs of small firms and the relevance of public information services, 1986, p. 36.

16. Spencer, J. Business information in London. London: Aslib, 1976.

17. Capital Planning Information. Qualitative assessment of public reference services, 1987.

18. Bakewell, K,G,B. and V de P. Roper, Business information services in public libraries:

9 a study of services in London, the North-West of England and Clwyd Ubrary Service, 1984.

19. Mann, ref. 11. 33-35.

20. Kinnell, Margaret. ed. Infonning communities: the role of library and infonnation services. 1992.

21. Dawson, BK An investigation into Local Authority Infonnation Centres or One Stop Shops. 1994. p. 14.

22. Capital Planning Information. HATRICS into the 1990's: a report to the HATRICS executive committee. 1994. p. 2.

23. Campbell, M.H. Public libraries. Aslib Proceedings. 1978. 30(9). 338.

24. Broome, E.M. Public libraries. In: Bromley. D.W. and A.M. Allot!. eds. British librarianship and infonnation work 1986-90: volume 1. 1992. p. 86.

25. Bames, M. Metropolitan and city libraries. In: Bromley. D.W. and A.M. Allot!. eds. British librarianship and infonnation work 1981-1985: volume 1. 1987. p. 97.

26. Broome. ref. 23. p. 92.

27. The Business Library and its Users. Ubrary Review. 1994.43(1).13.

28. Ibid.. p. 17.

29. Mann. ref. 11. p. 9.

30. Spencer, J. Business infonnation in London, 1976.

31. Capital Planning Information. Business infonnation monitoring study. 1990. p. 5.

32. Mann. ref. 11. p. 8.

10 Chapter 2

Survey framework

Specialised information services or collections have been developed by public library services over the years to provide information relating to business, community, health and the services supplied by local government authorities. The development of special collections has, however, not affected the traditional commitment to providing general information across the whole subject spectrum. Alternative information services now operate in all of these specialist information areas, but little information is available about the proportion of library enquiries that, in theory, could be satisfied from these alternative sources.

Leaving aside the issues of free or fee-paying services and the right of access to information, this study was designed to provide information about the proportion of enquiries put to public libraries for which duplicate services are available.

2.1 Objectives

The primary obj~ctives of the survey were to:

Obtain information on the relative volumes of enquiries put to public libraries of different sizes and in different environments.

Obtain information on the proportions of enquiries put to public libraries that require the provision of information that can be categorised as:

Business Information Community Information Health Information Information on Local Government Services General Information

The secondary objectives were to:

Obtain information on the subject and range of enquiries put to public libraries.

Obtain information on patterns of user behaviour. Do users only ask certain types of questions in public libraries?

11 Obtain information on the proportion of information desk transactions that are not related to enquiries.

2.2 Definitions

A review of the I~erature revealed almost as many variations in definition for Business

Information and Commun~ Information as there were reports on the subject. A synthesis of these definitions provided the broad working definitions used in this survey. The natural

overlapping between Commun~ Information and Information on Local Government Services also affected the working definition used for Community Information.

The category definitions adopted for the survey were:

Business Information - information for or about businesses and business.

Commun~ Information - information about all aspects of the local community, other than Local Government Services, that allow the individual to participate more fully or obtain most beneffl from the commun~ of which slhe is a part.

Information on Local Government Services - Information about or produced by the services provided by local government authorities.

Health Information - any health related information ego preventive medicine, guides to specific illnesses, health legislation, health services and the promotion of healthy lifestyles.

General Information - anything that does not ffl into any of the previously defined categories.

2.3 Features

Several features of the survey should be mentioned:

The enquiries recorded in the public libraries may not represent the information needs of all library users, but the sample was deliberately broad.

Error margins are inevitable when undertaking so short a survey in any single location. Typically the sampling errors in this survey - on percentage calculations - will be between ±3 to ±6 percentage points at the 95% confidence level.

Any errors resulting from misinterpretation will be systematic when using one observer.

Differences in interpretation of observations are minimised by using one observer.

12 Chapter 3

Methodology

The project divided into three parts: the logging by observation of the activity at the information desks in the participating establishments, analysis of the raw data to provide a summary of the transactions that took place at each location and, finally, a comparison of the activity patterns between both similar and differing types of information providers. _ The analyses of the individual locations and comparisons of activity patterns between libraries and the other information providers in the survey form the body of this report.

The project methodology was designed to minimise any changes in staff behaviour that could affect the results. It was stressed to the staff of all participating libraries that the survey was of the information needs of library users and not any form of staff assessment. The behaviour of library users may have been affected by the close proximity of a third party but the physical design of some libraries in the study made truly 'unobtrusive' observation from the public area impossible.

The survey took the form of the systematic logging of all transactions observed at the information desks by the researcher. The design of the recording forms was kept simple so that during busy periods at information desks operated by several staff it would still be

feasible to record most ofth~ activity. A coding system was devised to increase the speed at which details could be recorded and which could be entered into a spreadsheet for later analysis.

The details recorded were:

Mode of contact ego telephone, in person, in writing or fax.

Category of the transaction - The information categories of:

Business Information Community Information Health Information Information on Local Government Services General Information using the definitions stated in chapter 2.

13 The non-information categories used were:

Administrative ego sales, change for copier, stationery etc. Redirecting within the library that does not require leaving the desk

Time taken to complete the transaction - considered a quick transaction if taking under one minute but measured to the nearest minute if over.

Staff activity during the transaction - the pre-{ietermined categories of staff activity were:

Database search On line search Closed access stock Answer from personal knowledge Take to/consult relevant stock area Advise where to find relevant information in library Answer from in-house compiled sources Referral to external source(s)

Information sources consulted/provided or organisation referred to - these were recorded in full where known.

Subject and comments

In addition it was considered important to describe the physical features, location, and administrative selling of each establishment because these can have an influence on the activity experienced. This background information is of value in itself and is also important in the interpretation of the statistical results. The transitory effects of specific events can also be seen in the results of this survey.

The pilot study was carried out in Winchester libraries between 19th and 22nd April 1994, with the main study taking place between 5th May and 15th June 1994.

14 Chapter 4

Pilot study: Winchester city libraries

4.1 The libraries and their environment

Winchester, the ancient capital of England, is the administrative centre for the County of Hampshire, The Castle, Headquarters of Hampshire County Council, is located in the city. Winchester City Council is the district council that provides services over an area of 3,888 acres to the city population of about 30,000 (1). The city was the home of the Royal Hampshire Regiment until recent amalgamations within the army, but the garrison still provides a considerable military presence in the city. The Law Courts and Winchester Prison are also important to the economy of a city where industrial development is small and relatively recent. The city is also a dormitory settlement for large employers in other parts of Hampshire, such as IBM, and for London commuters.

The Cathedral is probably the most famous of the important historic buildings, of many different periods, in the city which attract tourists from all over the world each year. There are a number of museums, including some with military themes, scattered around the city. The public Lending Library is housed in the Corn Exchange, one of the many listed buildings in the city.

The Lending Library, in Jewry Street, is surrounded on three sides by a car park and buses stop at the front of the building. The Railway Station is a five minute walk away. The Reference Library, about 100 yards from the Lending Library, is also live minutes walk from the Railway Station but There are few other similarities between the libraries.

The Reference Library, tucked away behind the building that houses Hampshire County Library Service Headquarters in North Walls, does not occupy an imposing looking building and has no public car park. The high profile of the Lending Library building attracts passing trade to the library as well as the regular borrowers. The users of the Reference Library are either patrons of long standing or referrals from the Lending Library. The Reference Services also have the disadvantage of being divided between two sites, with the Local Studies Library located in part of the Corn Exchange with the Lending Library.

4.2 The libraries . The Lending Library stock consists of fiction and non-fiction books, spoken word and language course cassettes, music cassettes and records which can all be borrowed. The

15 fiction ( partly divided into categories) and the Dewey class numbers from 600 to 999 are housed on the ground floor. The recorded music, scores and books about music, composers and musicians are grouped together in the Music Section. The TAP (Training

Access Point) provided by Hampshire Training and Enterprise Council Lim~ed is also available on this floor. TAP provides information about several thousand work related training opportunities throughout Hampshire. No security system is in operation in the Lending Library so cassette cases are displayed and cassettes are stored at the counter.

The first floor gallery houses the remainder of the Dewey sequence, from 001 to 599 and the 800s. Part of the Railway Collection is also shelved on the gallery (the remainder being stored in the basement). The County Play Collection is stored in the basement with single copies shelved on the second floor.

A very small quick reference collection is located at the information desk ~h in-house compiled leaflet files of Commun~ information and the Local Clubs and Societies Directory. (This type of directory is produced by Hampshire County Library Service for all areas of the county.) Other tools available to information desk staff are the Subject Index and the author, title and class catalogues on microfiche and computer. Both formats of

catalogue are needed to provide comprehensive and up-to-date information about ~ems.

AI least one member of staff is timetabled to work at the information desk during opening

hours and this is increased to two when staffing levels perm~. The Lending Librarian is assisted in providing the information service by the Branch Librarian, Children's Librarian, Library Supervisor, two Assistant Library Supervisors and Library Assistants that have undergone appropriate training.

The Local Studies Library is housed in a room leading from the gallery ~h a reserve stock and stack area adjacent. Microform readers are available for use by the public in conjunction ~ the stock in microform. There are usually two people on duty in the Local Studies Library at all times. At the time of the study the Librarian in charge was assisted by a newly qualified librarian and four part-time library assistants. A security system is in operation atthe Local Studies Library.

The Reference Library is one of three large c~ Reference Libraries in the County that act as referral centres for smaller libraries in the Library Service. One of the HATRICS information centres is located here. HATRICS; The Southern Information Network, is a business and technical information network of about 450 member organisations including industrial giants, small specialist companies, libraries, research establishments, government departments and educational establishments (2). The centres consist of

16 dedicated telephone lines located in large Reference Libraries with high concentrations of business related sources of information. The service is provided by the general Reference Library staff (except at the Farnborough centre where a person is employed part-time to deal exclusively with HATRICS enquiries).

The Reference Library stock on display represents a very small proportion of the material available because the backcopies of newspapers and serials, British Standards, MIL (US) and associated standards, HMSO publications including Hansard, Acts of Parliament,

Statutory Instruments, Command Papers and UK Business Mon~ors, conference proceedings, EIU Quarterly Economic Surveys of foreign countries and much more are stored in closed access. The current issues of most serials in stock are displayed with only a few kept in closed access to prevent theft. Microform readers are available for use by the public. A security system is in operation in the Reference Library.

The information service is provided by the Divisional Reference Librarian, two full-time Librarians, two full-time Information Assistants and five part-time Information Assistants. At least two members of staff are on duty at the information desk at all times.

Fax and photocopying services are available on both ~es.

4.3 The study

The location and layout of the information and membership desk of the Lending Library did not lend itself to unobtrusive monHoring of activity from the public area. Although the observer was positioned to the rear of the staff side of the desk and clearly identified as a researcher, during busy periods some questions were still directed at the observer. In the Reference Library H was possible to monHor activHy from the public area which removed all risk of enquiries being directed at the observer.

Observations were more easily made at the Lending Library because the enquirer was facing the observer. At the Reference library the observer was located behind the enquirer which resulted in the need to seek clarification from staff members during busy periods or when the photocopiers were in operation. When H was possible for the observer to see as well as hear what the enquirer said the transactions were recorded more successfully. It was not possible to monHor more than two transactions at once therefore some transactions were not recorded during busy periods.

Observations were made at the Lending Library on Tuesday 19th April 1994, between 9.30am and 4.40pm, except for lunch and coffee breaks. The entries in the Day Book of

17 the Local Studies Library for the same day were used in this study.

The Reference Library information desk was monitored on Thursday 21st and Friday 22nd April 1994, between 9.30am and 3.4Spm, except for lunch and coffee breaks.

4.4 Results

The original portran design of the form on which transactions were recorded proved unsatisfactory on the first day of monnoring so a landscape design was used for the Reference Library study. This arrangement proved much easier to use for the detailed notes needed for the pilot study.

4.4.1 Categorisation of transactions

The transactions recorded at the different libraries produced three different sets of categories. These are shown in Tables 4.1 to 4.3 wnh the number of transactions observed in each category. Not all of the categories chosen are subject categories because requests that specified the information source were very common.

18 Table 4.1: The volume of activity at the Lending Library information desk in broad categories and the number of transactions that would be counted as enquiries using the CIPFA criteria described in chapter 1.

SUBJECT/SOURCE CATEGORIES OF THE NUMBER OF NUMBER COUNTED TRANSACTIONS TRANSACTIONS AS ENQUIRIES (CIPFA)

General 22 20

Bibliographical information 7 4

Community related information 6 6

Health related information 5 5

Ordnance Survey maps 2 1

Telephone books 3 3

Which reports 1 1

Newspapers 1 1

Cassettes 2 1

Administrative 3 - Total 52 42

Apart from the administrative transactions the remaining transactions not considered enquiries, identified in table 4.1 where the figure in the right hand column is less than the figure in the middle column, related to the directing of library users to general areas of stock. Most enquiries about newspapers, serials and telephone directories were redirected to the Reference Library and Electoral Register enquiries were referred to the Local Studies Library and this is where difficulties arise when using the CIPFA criteria. Referrals to sources external to the library are counted as enquiries using the CIPFA criteria so the referrals to the Reference Library would be counted. Transactions requiring directions within the building are not considered enquiries so referrals to the Local Studies Library should not be counted as enquiries.

There were 22 transactions that covered a wide range ·of subjects that had no obvious relationship with each other therefore these were grouped together in a 'General' category.

19 Table 4.2: The volume of activity recorded at the Local Studies Library information desk in broad categories and the number of transactions that would be counted as enquiries using the CIPFA criteria.

SUBJECT/SOURCE CATEGORIES OF THE NUMBER OF NUMBER COUNTED AS TRANSACTIONS TRANSACTIONS ENQUIRIES (CIPFA)

General 8 8 Newspaper backcopies 8 8 Electoral Register 4 4 History of Winchester 4 4 Record Office 1 1 Total 25 25

Even in the more specialised Local Studies Library there were a relatively high number of general enquiries received at the information desk.

20 Table 4.3: The volume of activity recorded at the Reference Library information desk in broad categories and the number of transactions that would be counted as enquiries using the CIPFA criteria.

SUBJECT/SOURCE CATEGORIES OF THE NUMBER OF NUMBER COUNTED AS TRANSAcnONS TRANSACTIONS ENQUIRIES (CIPFA)

General enquiries 32 32 Business related information 15 15

Military Standards 2 2 British Standards 5 5 Company information 1 1

B.R. privatisation 2 2

Statutory instruments 1 1

Statistical information 2 2

Newspapers/serials 27 27 Community related information 4 4

Local government services information 3 3

Telephone directories 4 4

Electoral Register 3 3

Ordnance Survey maps 2 2

Health related information 1 1 Teletext control un~ 3 - Administrative 1

Total 108 104

There were 28 Business related enquiries, of which twelve were made by...2H'..'A"-'.T...,R"'IC"'S'"'--_____ ------'mii"eAimmoers. When specific documents were requested these were included as sub- categories in Table 4.3. The total number of Business related enquiries accounted for almost 26% of the total recorded activity and almost 29% of total enquiries.

The 32 enquiries in the 'General' category accounted for almost 30% of the recorded transactions and almost 31 % of those counted as enquiries. This is the biggest category but actually represents 32 individual categories as not obvious relationship exists between any of the members of the group.

21 4.4.2 Transaction completion times

The longer transactions recorded during the pilot study at the Lending and Reference Libraries are shown in Table 4.4. The records that provided information about activity in the Local Studies Library did not include completion times.

Table 4.4: The categorisation of longer transactions by the time taken to complete the transaction.

SUBJECT/SOURCE CATEGORIES MODE OF nME TAKEN TO COMPLETE CONTACT TRANSACnON IN MINUTES

1 - 4 5 -10 11 - 15 30

LENDING LIBRARY General Personal 4 1 - - Bibliographical Personal 3 - - - Community related information Personal 3 - - - Health related information Personal 2 - - - Administrative Personal 1 - -- Telephone 1 - - - Cassettes Personal 1 - - - REFERENCE LIBRARY

General Personal 4 3 - 1 Telephone 2 2 - 1 Business related information Personal 3 1 - - Telephone 2 1 - - Newspapers/serials related Personal 2 -- - Telephone - 1 - - Health related information Telephone - 1 - - Community related information _ _F"ersonal 1 Telephone - 1 -- Electoral Register Telephone 1 - - -

There were 32 telephone calls recorded at the Reference Library which accounted for almost 30% of the total recorded activity and nearly 31 % ofthe transactions at the Lending Library resutted from telephone calls. The Local Studies Library transactions by telephone accounted for 8% of the recorded total. Only one written enquiry, received by the Local Studies Library, was recorded during the pilot study and this accounted for 4% of the recorded activity at that library. Over 37% of the telephone calls resulted in longer

22 transactions compared with only 18% of the personal visits, this can in part be explained by the need for staff to find then convey information as opposed to providing the enquirer with the information source.

4.4.3 Staff activity during transactions

The activities of staff during transactions were observed to fall into the six broad categories that are listed in Table 4.5. Some transactions required several different activities on the part ofthe staff before completion.

Table 4.5: Categories of staff activities during the transactions observed for the pilot study.

CATEGORIES OF STAFF ACTIVITIES DURING NUMBER OF TRANSACTIONS INVOLVING TRANSACTIONS THE ACTIVITY

Lending Reference Local Library Library Studies Library

Answer from in-house compiled sources 26 22 1

Document from closed access 8 49 9

Take to/consult relevant stock area 13 36 13

Advise where to find relevant information in 4 3 not library known

Referral to external source(s) and each other 11 12 5

Answer from personal knowledge 6 3 not known

The in-house sources used were the Subject Index, microfiche and computer catalogues, leaflet files of local and education information, printouts of various categories of stock and ______·the direclory'oflocal'clubs'and'societies:-The-Iarge-arnountofstoCKin closed~a-c~c~ess""--at'-----­

the Reference Library is reflected in the number of times this activity was observed.

The number of referrals included ten referrals to the Reference Library, eight from the Lending Library and two from the Local Studies Library. Four referrals were made to the Local Studies Library and three to the Lending library from the Reference Library. The Local Studies Library made one referral to the Lending library. These referrals within what can be considered as one organisation accounted for almost 53% of the total referrals . recorded.

23 4.5 An analysis of the pilot study

Table 4.2 shows that the categories based on Business, Community, Local Government and Health information accounted for 37 (34%) of the 108 transactions recorded in the Reference Library and in table 4.1 n can be seen that they account for five (9.6%) of the 52 transactions recorded in the Lending Library. The recording of so many transactions that could only be categorised as general enquiries during the study indicates that the use o.f categories based on specialised collections is not entirely satisfactory when studying total activity at public library information desks. The wide variety of subjects covered by the 'General' category can be seen in the following list derived from the enquiries recorded at the three Winchester libraries. The broad Dewey classifications are based on the Subject Index used wnhin the Hampshire County Council Library Service. Some of the problems in any subject analysis of Information Enquiries are demonstrated where the broad Dewey classifications do not appear appropriate.

Subjects included in the General category

00 Symbols 06 English Courtyard Association 07 Address of the Portsmouth Chronical 13 Voodoo magic, pictures for an art project 13 Dowsing 15 Dreams 15 Hypnotism 18 I Ching 27 Stories abou1 SI. George and similar people 28 Name of the Industrial Chaplain 29 Inter-fanh organisations in the Unned Kingdom 29 Celtic religion and art 29 Shintoism 31 The date on which lighting-up time first occurs before 9pm 31 Dates of National Bike Week 31 Address of Amnesty International 32 Pre-1955 Parliamentary Constituency Boundaries 32 Information about Max Madden, M.P. 33 A copy of the Impact Study 33 Share prices in June 1992 ------36-Tracing a parent after adoption 36 How to trace the ship from which a pilot was flying when he was lost at sea during World War Two, when only the pilot's name and number are known. 36 Fund raising for charities 36 Jack the Ripper 36 History of Scouting 37 Careers su~able for disabled people 37 How to become a Medical Secretary 37 Summer jobs available in the Unned Kingdom 37 Past 'A' Level examination papers 37 Colleges of Higher Education in Hampshire 37 How to obtain information about Open University courses 37 Bodies responsible for professional examinations

24 38 Shipping areas 38 Up-to-date train timetable 38 Post codes for addresses in the area 42 Teaching English as a foreign language 42 Checking the spelling of a word 51 Differential geometry 55 Global warming 55 Weather forecast 57 Histology 58 Wetlands and watermeadows 60 Who invented Ve/cro 62 Design and analysis of questionnaires 62 Circuit diagrams for video recorders 62 Water industry and water supply in the United Kingdom and Europe 62 Anything on tanks 63 Farming in Mediterranean countries 63 History of the Chelsea Flower Show 63 Old fashioned garden flowers and plants 63 How to keep a parrot 63 Chipmunks as pets 64 Amish and Shaker cookery 64 Activity holidays 64 Youth hostels all over the world 66 Chemical composition of stainless steel 67 Paper making in Hampshire 68 History of sewing machines 73 Picture of a sculpture of Hercules 77 How cameras work 77 Information about the techniques used to make a specific American film sometime between 1910 and 1915 79 The names of the teams in the World Cup final 79 Olympic Games 79 Parachuting 79 Pictures of Topper Dinghies in 1975 79 Angling Clubs 80 Which poem does this quotation come from? 82 Details of the life and work of William Golding 90 Geographical projections 91 Street map of Nottingham 91 Travellers guide to Turkey 91 Cost of living in South East Asia 91 Map of parish boundaries 91 Colours of the new South African flag ______92 Date ofthe death of Sir W. Erie, Bart. 92 Pre-conquest personal names 92 Pictures of heraldic gryphons 93 Effects of the Roman occupation of Britain 94 Portsmouth during World War Two 94 French Revolution

The observation method used in this survey depends on the categorisation of transactions from the initial user/sta/f interaction and the sources of information supplied. It was noted that library users did not necessarily ask for the information they wanted but for the source they thought would provide the information, therefore this method can provide information about the requests made by library users but not necessarily their information needs.

25 What the method can provide is an indication of the proportions of requests that are satisfied from the materials in the various specialised collections commonly found in public libraries.

The materials usually associated with the Business, Community, Health and Local Government Services information collections can be required to satisfy a wide range of enquiries. Some examples of the subjects included in these categories recorded during the Winchester study are listed below. (Where only a small number of enquiries were recorded at Winchester for some categories the subjects of enquiries recorded during the main part of the survey have been used to provide a more comprehensive set of examples. In the case of Information on Local Government Services some queries raised in the public libraries and some in the Council's Winchester Information Centre.)

Business related information

Daily oil prices Privatisation of British Rail and other companies Guidance notes for Health and Safety at Work legislation Company information on a Swedish company in preparation for an interview Statistics on the Transport industry British standards for quality control relating to a specific industry Telephone number of a company in Delt! Article from the serial Ground engineering The publisher of Cargo Handling Economic information on Northern Cyprus Regional Company Survey Backcopies of the European Journal What trade exhibitions are taking place in 1994? Information on a Brazilian company Pictures of trade marks London Transport regulations Industrial Law Reports

Community related information

------Howto·become-avoluntary worker------­ Secretary of a local Canoeing club Guides to walks ,around the Winchester area Information on Evening Classes Contact number for the Winchester Chess Club Exhibitions being mounted at the Museums Road closures for the Tour de France cycle race Names of any Dramatic Groups in the area Rights to benefits for disabled people Local representative of the Normandy Veterans' Association Playgroups in a specific area of Winchester Local Beaver and Brownie packs for new residents

26 Health related information

Reports on the Health Service Information on the Patient's Charter Treatment for the mentally ill Information on Motor Neurone Disease Address of local Health Centre An explanation of the Black Report Names of local G.P.s for a new resident Information about Cystic Fibrosis

Information on Local Government Services

Source of supply of garden refuse sacks Information on the Community Plan for carers Getting names added to the Electoral Register Structure Plans Home Improvement Grants Student Grants Planning applications Candidates for local elections Explanation of the Council Tax Listed buildings Street lights Sheltered housing for the elderly

Categorisation using classification scheme codes would provide a reasonably effective method of categorising the total activity recorded by observation in a public library. Examination of the lists above in conjunction with the definitions, given earlier, for the categories of Business, Community, Health and Local Government Services related information will show how incompatible this would be with the objectives of this study. The specialised collections represented by these categories include core and peripheral information sources that would normally be scattered throughout the Dewey Decimal

Classification Scheme that is used in public libraries in the Un~ed Kingdom.

This study was originally designed to discover what information library users required, ______paying.particulaLattention.to.those.specialised.information·collections·where·alternative----­ information providers were increasingly operating. Because of this emphasis on specific

areas of information provision ~ was decided that categorisation of activities by any other scheme would not provide the required information. The pilot study showed that library

users often ask for specific documents, so ~ was decided to include categories of the types of documents most specified by enquirers. Some of the subsidiary categories, derived in this way, for use in the main survey are listed below.

27 Subsidiary categories derived from requests for documents

Backcopies of newspapers and serials Electoral Registers . International Genealogical Index Ordnance Survey maps Telephone Directories Which Reports

References

1. Winchester City Council. Winchester City Guide. Winchester: Winchester City Council, 1994.

2. HA TRICS: The southern Information Network annual report for the year ended 31 march 1993. Hampshire County Council, 1993.

28 Chapter 5

The parent organisations

It was decided to undertake this project in Hampshire as Hampshire County Library Service included suitable city, urban and rural libraries. Apart from the two relatively new County Council Information Centres the only other information service was that provided by the Reception of Portsmouth City Council. (The other Councils contacted during the preparation for this survey rely on switchboard referral to Departments.) Putney Library in the London Borough of Wandsworth was selected to represent London Borough Libraries. Tourist Information Centres operated by Portsmouth City Council and the Southern Tourist Board for Fareham Borough Council were chosen as the long established specialised information centres in this study.

5.1 Hampshire County Council

Hampshire is a county of variety, ~ includes the cities of Portsmouth and Southampton on the south coast and the historic roughly in the centre. , to the north of the county, is within easy reach of London and the New Forest, in the east, is a very rural area.

Hampshire County Council is responsible for delivering 85% of the services supported by the council tax to a population of about 1.5 million people over an area of more than 377,000 hectares (1). Seven main committees and a number of associated sub­ committees formulate policies and spending plans for the services provided by the twenty council departments. The Recreation Committee is responsible for the Library Service, Museum Service, Record Office, Arts Office and Countryside and Community Department

(2). The County Council's Information Centres, run by the Public Relations Un~, are part of the County Secretary's Department (3).

The different backgrounds and associations within the council structure are reflected in the stated aims and objectives of the two organisations providing information. The Library Service aim

... to provide a comprehensive lending and reference library service which:

makes available books and other published materials to inform, educate and entertain

help individuals to pursue their interests and concerns

29 promote awareness of the importance of reading, partcularly to children and young people

meets the information needs of individuals and organisations. (4)

The County Information Centres were developed to provide an efficient link between the various council departments providing services and members of the public wishing to use such services, and as a centre for the dissemination of information on all the council's services and activities.

5.1.1 Hampshire County Information Centres

Of the two centres in operation, the Winchester Centre acts as a reception point for

County Council vis~ors as well as a centre for the dissemination of information about the council, while the Portsmouth Centre, located in the foyer of Portsmouth Central Library, is purely an information centre. There are plans for two more manned centres (at Basingstoke Library and Southampton) while 20 Local Information Points are under development, in various libraries and other council offices open to the public, throughout the county. Local Information Points (LIPs) consist of leaflets on council services generated by the individual departments and access to the Public Services Index on the county's computer network. Enquiries related to the services provided by District Councils are referred to the appropriate District Council. No similar information centres could be located for District Council Services in Hampshire.

5.1.2 Hampshire County Library Service

The service is provided by eight divisions with central support through 73 libraries, of which six are major libraries lending over 500,000 books per year and major reference libraries. The libraries in this category are Portsmouth Central, Southampton Central, Winchester Lending and Reference, Basingstoke, Farnborough and Fareham Libraries. There are eight large libraries each lending between 350,000 and 500,000 books"a'year and~s~ixt-:e-e-n------__------medium-sized-libraries which lend between 200,000 and 350,000 per annum each. Fordingbridge Library is one of the county's 22 minor libraries which issue between 90,000 and 200,000 books a year. There are also 21 neighbourhood libraries mhin the county library service (5).

Major and large libraries act as regional centres dealing mh the more complex enquiries directiy or after referral from smaller libraries. Portsmouth, Southampton and Winchester are major city libraries mh the depth and breadth of stock which reflects their pre-1974 status as independent city libraries. Each has unique special collections reflecting the

30 interests of their area, for example Portsmouth has the Naval and Dickens collections (6), while Southampton houses the Pitt and Maritime Collections (7). The collections at Winchester include the Railway Collection (8). Special collections are not unique to major libraries in Hampshire but are more concentrated there. Extensive local studies collections and business related information resources are however found only in the major libraries. Local studies collections exist in all county libraries, but the scope is dictated by the size of the library.

Portsmouth Central Library was chosen to represent city libraries in the study because a County Information Centre and Tourist information Centre are in or close to the library. This should minimise any differences that may arise due to location.

Fareham County Library in the town of Fareham, located mid-way between Portsmouth and Southampton, was chosen to represent urban libraries for similar reasons. The library contains one of the Local Information Points and the Tourist Information Centre is only a two minute walk away.

Fordingbridge County Library was chosen to represent rural libraries because, set in the New Forest area, it is truly a rural library unlike many other small libraries in Hampshire which must now be considered suburban due to the expansion of the cities and villages. It is intended that Fordingbridge library will have a Local Information Point in the near future, but this was not in operation during the period of this survey.

5.2 Wandsworth Borough Council

The South-West London Borough of Wandsworth includes the districts of Battersea, Balham and Putney. Wandsworth Borough Council provides services to a population of more than 252,000 people over an area of 3,400 hectares, which is an average population of 72.4 persons per hectare. The population is mainly white (80%), of British or European origin, while the major ethnic minorities are Black (over 10%) and South Asian (over 5%) ______(9).

The public library service is provided by the Leisure and Amenity Services Departments through nineteen libraries at thirteen sites throughout the Borough, a mobile library and housebound service. The libraries include three Music Libraries, two Reference Libraries, the Local History Library and the Multicultural Library and Information Service (10).

Putney District Library was chosen as a suitable venue for this survey: it is the second busiest general library in the Borough with a busy Reference section.

31 5.3 Portsmouth City Council

Portsmouth City Council, one of the district councils in Hampshire, serves a population of about 75,000 people over an area of 4,027 hectares centred on the historic naval city of Portsmouth. The four Tourist Information Centres (TICs) of the city are provided and funded by the City Council through the Marketing, Strategy and Economic Development Department Although no statement of objectives for the Centres existed at the time of the study, a strategic plan for the service was being developed (11).

The four Tourist Information Centres are:

Southsea Tourist Information Centre, open during the holiday season to cater for the tourists visiting and staying in the seaside resort of Sou1hsea.

The Ferryport Tourist Information Centre, located in the terminal of the Continental Ferry Port, is designed to provide travel and accommodation information to passengers arriving on early morning and evening ferries.

The Commercial Road Tourist Information Centre, opposite the Railway Station in the centre of Portsmouth, is aimed at visitors and the local population.

The Hard Tourist Information Centre, located outside the dock gate at Portsmouth Harbour, is the official home of the tourist information service in Portsmouth.

The busiest Centre, at The Hard, and the more centrally situated Commercial Road Tourist Information Centre were included in the survey so that an overall impression of this specialised information area could be derived as well as detailed profiles of the activity at specific locations.

5.4 Southern Tourist Board

The Tourist Information Centre (TIC) of Fareham is managed by the Southern Tourist Board on behalf of Fareham Borough Council to whom management reports are submitted. There has been a Tourist Information Centre in the town for ten years and for the last four years the Centre has shared Westgate House, a Borough Council building, with the Museum, run by the County Council Museum Service.

32 Fareham is not a noted tourist centre but is within easy reach of many places of historic interest and attracts members of the yachting and sailing fraternity. The Centre has the twin aims of providing a service to the local community and to visitors to the area.

References

1. Hampshire County Council. Hampshire review 1993, 1993, p. 7.

2. Hampshire County Council. Services to the community, 1993, p. 6.

3. Ibid., p. 15.

4. Hampshire County Council Charter of Service: Library Service, 1993. (Leaflet)

5. Hampshire County Council. County Ubrary inquiry statistics - the first ten years 1982-3 to 1991-2: a survey, 1992, p. 3.

6. Hampshire Count Council. Local studies and other historical collections: Portsmouth Central Ubrary, 1992. (leaflet)

7. Hampshire County Council. Local studies and other historical collections: Southampton Central Library, 1992. (leaflet)

8. Hampshire County Council. Local studies and other historical collections: Winchester Jewry Street Library, 1992. (leaflet)

9. Putney Library development brief 1994-97, 1994. Wandsworth Library and Museum Service internal document.

10. Wandsworth Borough Council. Welcome to Wandsworth libraries. (leaflet)

11. Brown, G. Tourist/nformation Centre Survey 1993, 1994. (Internal Portsmouth City Council document)

33 Chapter 6

Portsmouth Central Library - a city library

6.1 The library and its environment

The Portsmouth Central Library is located in the Guildhall Square, next to the offices of Portsmouth City Council and surrounded by buildings belonging to Portsmouth University. There is good car parking available near by, and the area is well served by rail and bus services. The main shopping area is a short walk away from the Guildhall Square. The library serves a population of about 75,000 people and acts as a regional centre to eight minor and neighbourhood libraries serving the surrounding suburbs and villages. One of the HATRICS centres is located in the Reference Library.

In the past Portsmouth has been a trading port with a heavy dependence on the Royal Navy and related shipbuilding for its prosperity. It is now the second busiest continental ferry port in the UnHed Kingdom for freight and passengers, including many of the 4. million tourists that visit the area each year, and a regional centre for business and commerce. Hence the comprehensive business information, patents and standards sections in the public library. Although the Royal Navy is less dominant in Portsmouth today, the rich naval history of the region attracts many visitors each year and is reflected in the large Naval Collection at the library (1).

1994 was a very important year for Portsmouth as H celebrated the BOOth anniversary of the granting of its Royal Charter, commemorated the 50th anniversary of D-Day and provided the start and finish of a stage of the Tour de France cycle race. These events are mentioned because they highlight the difficulty in choosing typical, or average, periods over which to study a library. A short study of this kind can only be of limited value in providing information about the activities of a library, and extrapolation over longer time scales should be done with extreme caution.

As this study was carried out during the university's examination period enquiries from students were considerably reduced and therefore another deviation from what is seen as normal activity. Summer months are usually quieter wherever the public library is located.

34 6.2 Portsmouth Central Library

Viewed from the Guildhall Square the building resembles the stern of a ship, the external curve of the building showing the increase in floor area with height. Although a purpose­

bui~ library, opened in 1976, the severe constraints imposed on the design by the size of the site also dictated the integrated stock arrangement used in the library.

Access to the foyer area is gained from the Guildhall Square. Just inside the door, to the right, is the well signed County Information Centre. Ahead and to the right is the discharge counter while entry to the library, which occupies four floors, is to the left, beyond the issue counter. The membership desk is located at the end of the issue counter nearest to the door, but no signs indicate this. Both lifts and stairs give access to all floors. Unfortunately the floor guides, for example 'FIRST FLOOR - REFERENCE AND OTHER NON­ FICTION', are too general and therefore uninformative.

The lower ground floor is occupied by the Children's Library. The popular section of the Lending Library is located on the ground floor, consisting of fiction and popular non-fiction including local interest material for loan. Also included here are videos, compact discs, records, tapes (both music and spoken word) and language courses that can be borrowed. A Training Access Point (TAP) is located in the Lending Library close to the stairs and information desk. The information desk is situated close to the stairs and lifts on this floor as indeed is the case on both Reference Library floors. The desk was staffed by two people at all times with others available for busy spells.

The Electoral Register and other relevant sources of local information are kept at this information desk.

The first floor contains the Dewey classes from 001 to 799 with the more specialised lending stock shelved with the reference material. All business information sections are housed here with some in closed access areas. The stock includes patents, a complete set of British Standards, Economic and Social statistics, selected market reports, trade and company directories, national and foreign telephone directories, Companies House and Extel information as well as a very large legal section. Access to various online databases is available for staff use only. The library is a National Patents Information Network Centre with abridgements/abstracts from British Patents since 1617. 1993 onwards is covered by ESPACE-UK CD-ROM. The dedicated telephone of the HATRICS information centre is also located at the enquiry desk on this floor. General Reference Library staff answer all calls received at the enquiry desk. The business information sources and national newspapers subscribed to on CD-ROM can be consulted by the public on this floor.

35 At present this is also the location of a County Council Information point with a free-phone service, but the presence of the County Council's Information Centre in the foyer may end this arrangement.

The second floor houses the reference and lending stock from 800 to 999, O.S. maps, serials ('Ni\h backcopies in closed access), and the special collections. The study carrels and microfomn readers on this floor are very heavily used so a booking system is operated from the information desk. The current serials are theoretically displayed here while backcopies of those retained are in closed access, however in practice current issues of many titles are kept at the information desk because otherwise they are stolen.

The McCarthy and Naval Collections (both of national importance) are located in a separate area, the Local Studies Library, with the Local History and Playbills Collections to minimise loss and damage. Most of the microform readers available for public use are also located in the special collections area because so much of the material available there is in microfomns. These include extensive back runs of seven local newspapers, the International Genealogical Index for the British Isles and the complete microfiche of the OPCS Registers of Births, Marriages and Deaths 1837 - 1983. There is also extensive coverage of the history of the city and Hampshire in general as well as neighbouring counties which includes illustrations and photographs.

The Dickens Collection is housed in a separate room under controlled conditions suitable for press cuttings and first editions. (Access under supervision or by special permission only.)

Like the serials many other items have to be kept in closed access on both Reference Library floors because otherwise they are removed from the library even though a security system is in operation. Items considered quick reference are also stored at the infomnation desks on both floors. Various in-house compiled sources are also available.

The Reference Library staff consists of six qualified or chartered full time equivalents and eight non-professional full time equivalents with one person seconded from the Lending Library for training purposes. The first floor desk was staffed by two people at all times while one person was available at each of the second floor desks. Enquiries by letter and fax are deallwith on the information desks unless they require detailed research, as with many local history or genealogy enquiries, when uninterrupted work is advisable.

36 6.3 The study

This description of the layout of the library reveals the major problem in undertaking a study requiring observation, which to avoid inconsistency, can only be done by one person. There are four information desks to be observed during the course of the study (one on each floor and one in the Local Studies Library) if any valid indication of enquiry activity is to be obtained. Consultation with staff indicated that there was little daily difference in enquiry numbers and content, and that distortions to what was considered normal activity would already be caused by the reduction in enquiries from students and the usual seasonal variation. Some staff also expressed the view, not supported by the observations made in this study, that Satunday enquiries were different from those received during week days.

After due consideration H was decided to discount daily variation and include a Saturday in the timetable for observations (this proved fortunate as illness prevented the original timetable from being executed). It was agreed that the survey would be conducted between Monday 23rd May 1994 and Friday 27th May 1994, and on Saturday 11th June 1994. Unfortunately H proved impossible for observations to be made on the Tuesday morning or the Friday, therefore Monday 6th June was substHuted as this was the only other day available. Observations were made between lOam (opening time) and 4pm at which time the activity at the desks declined as did the observer's concentration. No evenings were monHored.

The location of the information desks in Portsmouth Central Library made observation from any part of the public area impossible. Therefore the observations were made from behind the information desks, but away from the main working areas. OespHe being clearly identified as a visHor, enquiries were directed at the observer during the absence of libralY staff or during busy periods. (The inabilHy to observe unobtrusively may have led to some modification in the behaviour of enquirers, although several expressed the view that the staff were under observation in a time and motion study.) The observer tried to obtain as much information as possible from observing but was sometimes obliged to ask staff members for clarification.

37 Table 6.1: The observation coverage at Portsmouth Central Library information desks by time of day.

ENQUIRY DESK APPROXIMATE TIME OF OBSERVATIONS LOCATlQN 10 - 11 11 - 12 12 - 13 13 - 14 14 - 15 15 - 16

LENDING 1 1 1 - 2 1 LIBRARY FIRST 1 1 - 1 1 2 FLOOR

SECOND 1 1 1 1 1 1 FLOOR LOCAL - 1 1 - 1 1 STUDIES

6.4 Results

It must be remembered that the results obtained from this study are the interpretation by the observer of the initial interactions between library staff and users of the information service. It is well known that users do not always ask for what they really want on first contact with an information specialist and that this only becomes apparent as the interaction develops.

After further coding the collected data was transferred to a computerised spreadsheet (Microsoft Excel 4.0) and set up as a database. Interrogation by structured queries produced the following analysis. The large number of transactions categOrised as 'General' required further manual assessment.

6.4.1 Portsmouth Lending Library

The transactions recorded at the information desk in the lending library on the ground floor are categorised in Table 6.2. This shows that a considerable amount of the activity observed at this desk was 'General' (as discussed in chapter 4, section 4.4) and cannot be further categorised. This represented over 42% of total activity and 72''(' of the activity recorded as enquiries. Some of the subjects included were African religions and art, military history of Cyprus, travel guides to Tanzania and a Debussy score.

38 Table 6.2: The volume of activity observed at the information desk in broad categories and the number of transactions that would be counted as enquiries using the CIPFA crrteria discussed in chapter 1.

SUBJECT/SOURCE CATEGORIES OF NUMBER OF NUMBER COUNTED THE TRANSACTIONS TRANSACTIONS AS ENQUIRIES (CIPFA)

General 68 68

Business related information 2 2

Community information 4 4

Information from/about local government 2 2

Health related information - - Elec10ral Register 15 15

Reservation collection/queries 20 2

Library services 3 1

Redirecting to other floors of the library 32 - Administrative 15 - Total 161 94

The high level of 'Redirecting to other floors' reflec1s the arrangement of the library but is also considered due in part to the inadequate guiding and signing throughout the building. This type of transaction represents almost 20% of the total activity observed here. They can be categorised by subjec1 or area of referral to give some insight into the number of multiple userlstaffinteractions that may be occurring. The following list also includes the nine general enquiries that were partially answered by redirection to other sections of the library which may also result in enquiries.

Subjec1 number Business related information 2 O.S. maps 1 Community information 1 Elec10ral register 1 Library services 1 Statistics 1 Local studies 7 First floor 2 More specialised stock areas 25 Total 11

The collection of reserved items stored behind the information desk accounted for most of the activity involving 'Reservations', although two enquiries were concerned with the

39 progress of requests placed earlier. The majority of transactions observed were with visitors to the library although some telephone transactions were noted. As enquiries by telephone require the location and delivery of the information by the library staff member these transactions were usually longer than similar person to person contact. Five telephone enquiries required use of the Electoral Register and were completed in less than 5 minutes. The majority of the remaining telephone transactions were general enquiries apart from a request to check for a lost umbrella.

Table 6.3: Personal and telephone transactions categorised by the time taken to complete the transaction.

nMETAKEN MODE OF CONTACT <1 MINUTE 1 - 4 minutes 5 - 10 MINUTES

Personal 114 22 10

Telephone 2 10 3

." The activities of library staff while dealing with transactions were also categorised. In many cases more than one activity was needed to produce a conclusion. It was also noted that some staff members checked on the availability of material before referring users to other sections while some referred directly to other information desks.

• Table 6.4: Categories of library staff activities during the observed transactions.

STAFF ACnVITY DURING NUMBER OF TRANSACTIONS INVOLVING THIS AcnVlTY TRANSACTION ONLY ACTIVITY PART OF TOTAL ACTIVITY

Answer from in-house 15 41 compiled resources

Document from closed 38 5 access

Take to/consult relevant stock 4 19 area

Advise where to find relevant 6 19 information in library

Referral to external source(s) 1 11

Answer from personal 5 knowledge -

The material or information supplied from closed access was mainly accounted for by the 18 reservations which were collected, as these are stored behind the information desk,

40 and 15 requests for information from the Electoral Register. The remainder were from various information and quick reference sources also kept at the desk. Many of the transactions required more than one activity on the part of staff before they were concluded.

The in-house sources used were mainly the Subject Index and catalogues on microfiche and computer. Use of various combinations of the hardcopy Subject Index and Author, Title and Class Catalogues on microfiche and computer often took place during a transaction as each source contains information about stock not available in the other formats. Various computer printouts relating to sections of stock were also used quite heavily.

Table 6.5: The in-house compiled sources used during the period of the survey.

IN-HOUSE SOURCES USED NUMBER

Subject index 13 Computer catalogue 17

Microfiche catalogue 26 Compu1er printouts: Videos 1 C.D.s 1 Music cassettes 1 Spoken Word cassettes 1

Reservations file 3

Internal directory 1 Local information file 2

The referrals to external sources were mainly to other Hampshire Library service points but one referral was made to Portsmouth City Council and one to Borough Council.

6.4.2 First floor reference desk

The presence of the business related information on this floor meant that most of the 'Business information' enquiries were observed here. The number of transactions that resuHed in redirection to other floors of the building represented over 12''(' of total activity observed. Table 6.6 shows the categories of activity recorded at the first floor reference desk where again, the volume of 'General' enquiries that could not be further categorised

41 formed a large proportion of the activity recorded here - in this case over 45% of total activity. The volume of redirections within the building were almost 13% of the total activities monijored.

Table 6.6: The volume of activity observed at the first floor information desk in broad categories and the number of transactions that would be counted as enquines using the CIPFA crijena.

SUBJECT/SOURCE CATEGORIES OF THE NUMBER OF NUMBER COUNTED

TRANSACTIONS TRANSACTIONS AS ENQUIRIES

(CIPFA)

General 68 68

Business related information 35 35

Community information 5 5

Information from/about local government 1 1

Health related information 1 1

Ubrary services 4 2

Penodical/newspaper issues 4 4

Redirections to other floors of the library 18 Administrative 14 - Total 150 116

The 'Redirections to other floors' from this desk were almost equally divided between the ground floor, second floor and special collections while the four enquiries answered partially by referral to other Sections were equally divided between the ground and second floors.

There were a high proportion of telephone transactions involving business related information while the remainder were relatively evenly distnbuted amongst the other categories. Two community related enquiries (received by telephone) and the single enquiry requinng health related information took under five minutes each to answer. One faxed enquiry was partially dealt with but needed a considerable amount of time to complete so was resumed when the observer was no longer present.

42 Table 6.7: The personal and telephone transactions categorised by the time taken to complete the transaction.

MODE OF CONTACT TIME TAKEN

<1 minute 1 - 4 minU1es 5 - 10 minU1es over 45 min.s Personal visit 91 22 3 - Business 5 9 1 - Telephone call 13 16 4 - Business 9 a 2 - Faxed enquiry - -- 1 Business - - - 1

The activities of library staff while dealing with transactions were categorised as in the Lending Library. Again transactions often required more than one activity to produce a conclusion.

Table6.a: Categories of library staff activities during the observed transactions.

STAFF ACTIVITY DURING NUMBER OF TRANSACTIONS INVOLVING THIS ACTIVITY TRANSACTION ONLY ACTIVITY PART OF TOTAL ACTIVITY

Answer from in-house 7 31 compiled resources

Document from closed 25 6 access

Take to /consult relevant 22 9 stock area

Advise where to find relevant 16 22 information in library

Referral to external source(s) 1 2

Answer from personal 6 knowledge -

Database search 1 -

The in-house sources used were similar to those used in the Lending Library and a few specifically Reference Library compiled sources.

43 6.9: In-house compiled sources used during the period of the survey.

IN-HOUSE SOURCE NUMBER OF USES OBSERVED

Subject index 17

Microfiche catalogue 4

Computer catalogue 7

Clubs and societies list 1

The News index database 1

Local information file 1

Printout of periodical holdings 2

Market report index 1

The sources of business related information used or requested was wide ranging but several sources were used more than others, these are shown in Table 6.10.

6.10: The sources of business related information most used during the study.

SOURCES OF INFORMATION NUMBER OF USES OBSERVED

Standards 4

Trade directories 4 CD-ROM sources: newspapers 3 Extel 2

Telephone directories 4

Patents 2

Three outside organisations were recommended as suitable alternative sources of information, these were the D.S.S., other Hampshire County libraries with suitable specialised material and Portsmouth University Library which, according to the University Library Catalogue on microfiche, held back copies of a specific journal.

6.4.3. Second floor reference desk

The observed transactions at this desk were very different from those observed on the first floor not only because the stock areas were different but also due to the presence of the booking systems for the microform machines, which accounted for 44% of the total 'Administrative' activities noted, and the study carrels, which accounted for another 48%.

44 6.11: The volume of activity observed at the second floor information desk in broad categories and the number of transactions that would be counted as enquiries using the CIPFA criteria.

SUBJECT/SOURCE CATEGORIES OF THE NUMBER OF NUMBER COUNTED TRANSACTIONS TRANSACTIONS AS ENQUIRIES (CIPFA)

General 31 31

Business related information 1 1

Community information 1 1

Information from/about local 1 1 government

Health information

Which reports 11 11

Ordnance survey maps 6 6

Newspapers/serials 40 40

Library services 4 2 Redirection to other sections of the 25 - library

Administrative 48

Total 168 93

The 'Redirection to other sections within the library' included seven to the Local Studies Library (one to the Local Studies Library to use The News on microfilm) and two to the first floor to use CO-ROMs for daily newspapers. Three users were directed to the Lending Library for alternative sources of information that could be borrowed.

The 'Newspapers and serials' activity related to requests for backcopies and current copies of national, local and foreign daily papers and serials stored in closed access.

These included ~ems available on CD-ROM on the first floor and on microfilm in the Local Studies Library. The New Scientist and Building are examples of the serials that cannot be kept on open shelves. The Which reports are also in closed access and must be signed for by the user.

The 'General' enquiries accounted for over 33°,(, of the total and over 19% of the transaction total recorded. This category included enquiries about the availability of plays by a specific modern playwright, information about coats of arms and English waterways.

45 The majority of telephone transactions were microform machine bookings which were usually quick transactions. The remaining telephone calls, relating to an historical event and infomnation about an advertisement, required the use of newspaper backcopies. The four other enquiries involving newspapers and serials that took more than a minute to satisfy required retrieval from storage areas some distance from the information desk. The remaining longer enquiries were general except for providing information about the library's microfilm copying service.

6.12: The personal and telephone transactions categorised by the time taken to complete transactions.

MODE OF CONTACT TIME TAKEN

< 1 minute 1 - 4 minutes 5 - 10 minutes

Personal 136 18 1 Administrative 37 1 - Telephone 10 2 1 Administrative 8 2 -

6.13: Categories of library staff activities during the observed transactions.

STAFF ACTIVITY DURING NUMBER OF TRANSAcnONS INCLUDING THE ACnVITY TRANSAcnONS ONLY AcnvnY PART OF THE AcnvnY

Answer from in-house 2 11 compiled resources

Document from closed access 54 5 stock

Consul1ltake to relevant stock 4 5 area

Advise where to find relevant 6 6 information in library

Referral to external source(s) 1 1 Answer from personal 9 - knowledge

External referrals were made to other Hampshire County Libraries with the requested serials in their stock. The use of the microfiche catalogue is reduced on this floor because it is located in the public area rather than at the enquiry desk.

46 6.14: The in-house compiled sources of information used by first floor information desk staff during observed activities.

IN-HOUSE COMPILED SOURCE NUMBER OF USES OBSERVED

Subject index 4

Catalogue on microfiche 1

Catalogue on computer 4

Periodicals holdings list 3

Hampshire Te/egraph index 1

6.4.4 Local Studies Library

The activity observed at the Local Studies Library information desk was mainly 'Administrative' relating to the signing in of microform machine users which accounted for 21 transactions, or over 33% of total activity. The remainder were copier related except for two sales of publications. (Although assured that business related inquiries and requests for local government and community information were also common at this desk this proved not to be the case during the periods of monitoring as can be seen in Table 6.15.)

Table 6.15: The volume of activity observed at the Local Studies Library Information desk in broad categories and the number of transactions that would be counted as enquiries using the CIPFA criteria.

SUBJECT/SOURCE CATEGORIES OF THE NUMBER OF NUMBER COUNTED TRANSACTIONS TRANSACTIONS AS ENQUIRIES (CIPFA)

General 19 19

Information from/about local government 2 2

Genealogical index 3 3

Naval 3 3 Newspapers/serials backcopies 2 2

Electoral Register 1 1 Administration 33 - Total 63 30

47 The 'General' enquiries ranged from information about the availability of works by William Cobbett to tracing a pre-1BBO Portsmouth clockmaker. One enquiry, concerning Sussex Council, was partially answered by redirection to the first floor.

This is a very busy area of the library but many of the users know what they want and

where to find ~, only new or occasional users actually ask for help or information from the staff. Two phone calls were received, one was administrative and the other a referral from Fareham Ubrary for information about a ship which was considered time consuming so deferred until later therefore was not observed. The longer transactions included six occasions where sources from closed access were required.

Table 6.16: Personal and telephone transactions categorised by time taken to complete the transaction.

MODE OF CONTACT TIME TAKEN

< 1 MINUTE 1 -4 MINUTES 5 - 10 MINUTES

Personal 49 10 2 Telephone 2

Table 6.17: Categories of library staff activities during the observed transactions.

STAFF ACTIVITY DURING NUMBER OF TRANSACTIONS INCLUDING THIS ACTIVITY TRANSACTIONS ONLY ACTIVITY PART OF THE ACTNITY

Answer from in-house - 5 compiled resources

Document from closed access 9 5 stock

Consultltake to relevant stock 5 3 area

advise where to find 5 1 information in library Referral to external source(s) - 1 Answers from personal 1 1 knowledge

The in-house sources used were the computer catalogue and card indexes to microfilms and census information in stock.

48 6.5 An analysis of activity observed at Portsmouth Central Librarv

It must be stated once again that the observed activity can represent less than a quarter of the total activity that took place at this library during the study period as only one floor could be observed at any time and lunch breaks and evenings were not monnored. The inabilny on the part of the observer to follow the original timetable may have introduced distortions into the results which only further study would determine. During the study n was observed that many library users appear to know what they want and where to find n. This was particularly noticeable wnh the patrons of the Local Studies Library. The D­ Day commemorations and Le Tour de France cycle race prompted a number of questions. These enquiries ranged from requests for event information and route maps to queries about library access during the planned closures of the Guildhall square.

49 6.18: Total volume of activity observed in Portsmouth ·Central Library in broad categories with the number of transactions counted as enquiries and the time taken to conclude transactions.

SUBJECT/SOURCE NUMBER OF NUMBER TIME TAKEN TO COMPLETE CATEGORIES TRANSACTIONS COUNTED AS TRANSACTIONS IN MINUTES OBSERVED ENQUIRIES (CIPFA) <1 1 - 4 5 -10 >10 General 186 186 112 58 16 - Business related 38 38 14 20 3 1 Community 10 10 5 5 - related - Health related 1 1 - - 1 - Information 6 6 4 1 1 from/about local - government services Electoral 16 16 11 5 - - Register Reservation 20 2 18 1 1 - collection/query Newspapers! 46 46 39 4 3 - serials related Which Reports 11 11 11 -- Ordnance 6 6 1 5 - - Survey maps

Genealogy 3 3 3 - - - Naval 3 3 2 1 - - Library services 11 5 6 2 -- Redirections 76 - 68 8 - - within library

Administration 110 - 106 4 - - Total 543 333 400 114 25 1

Over 61% of the total activity recorded were enquiries therefore about 39% of transactions at the information desks are not enquiries using the CIPFA criteria. 20% of total activity is represented by 'Administrative' transactions while 'Redirections within the library' accoun1s for 14% of the total. These two categories also represent 43.5% oftransactions taking under one minute. The remaining 5% of non-enquiry transactions included some 'Library Services' and 'Reservations' queries. (The number of redirections is believed to

50 resutt from a combination of inadequate floor guides and the spreading of the lending and reference stock over three floors.)

The 'General' enquiries accounted for 56% of the total enquiries recorded and just over 34% of the total recorded activity. Almost 14% of the enquiries (over 8% of total transactions) rela1ed to newspapers and serials. The other categories of information used in this study represent 10% of the total activity and 16.5% of the total number of enquiries recorded. 'Business' related information was needed for 11 % of the enquiries while 'Community' information satisfied 3% and information produced by 'Local Government' au1horities was needed for 1.8%. 'Health' related information represented only 0.3% of the infornnation provided. It was noted that in 14.5% of the transactions and almost 24% of the enquiries the source, not the information sought, was specified by the library user.

Referrals to outside organisations were usually made after exhausting possible sources

within the library or locating specific ~ems at other libraries including contacting libraries

for confirmation of availabil~. The one exception to this was the referral to Havant Borough Council. Thirteen of the referrals to sources outside the library were to other

Hampshire County Ubraries - mainly to very local libraries with the required ~ems in stock or to reference libraries. Other agencies referred to were:

Portsmouth C~ Council Havant Borough Council Age Concern Children's Legal Centre Department for Social Security Portsmouth Univers~ Library

References

1. Portsmouth City Council. Portsmouth City Guide. Portsmouth: Portsmouth C~ Council, 1994.

51 Chapter 7

Fareham County Librarv - an urban library

7.1 The library and its environment

The borough of Fareham (population 101,000) covers 30 square miles of southern Hampshire, mid-way between Southampton and Portsmouth, with the old market town of Fareham at the centre. Proximity to Portsmouth meant the town became a popular location for the homes of senior naval officers, while the local economy was based on shipbuilding and supplying the navy. Brickmaking became important in the 19th Century but ended in 1974. The naval activity during the Second World War included the construction of Mulberry Harbours and preparation for the D-Day landings. Although the town has some historic features several of the surrounding villages, including Trtchfield, and Wickham, are of greater historic interest. (The borough has 500 listed buildings and 8 conservation areas.)

In recent years the town has become a commercial centre with several international companies represented in the area. The main areas of activity are manufacturing, distribution and catering, communications and commercial services which together account for over 60% of the business activity in the borough. The Governmenfs Office of Population and Censuses and Royal Naval Weapons Engineering School, HMS Collingwood, are also within the borough. Other educational establishments of note are the College of Maritime Studies on the Campus of Southampton Institute and Fareham College located in the town (1).

The public library is located to the rear of the covered shopping centre in a building shared with the Citizens Advice Bureau and the Careers Service. The Tourist Information Centre is almost opposije the front of the shopping centre in Westgate House, which is shared with the Museum. Although the Railway Station is a fifteen minute walk from the main shopping area of the town there is extensive car parking and the Bus Station is sijuated behind Westgate House.

7.2 Fareham County Library

The entrance to the library, which resembles a shop front, is located just outside the shopping centre at the end of one of the malls. The public library occupies much of the ground and first floors of the building while divisional administration is carried out from the

52 second floor where some of the closed access stock is located. A lift and stairs are available to all floors.

Unlike the Portsmouth library the Lending Library stock, on the ground floo'r, is completely separate from the Reference Library stock on the first floor. The range of lending materials are similar to those found at Portsmouth although less extensive. The fiction is partially categorised and the non-fiction is arranged in Dewey classification order except for the biographies which are taken out of sequence. Part of the Lending Library area is occupied by the Children's Library. Overall the library is clearly and usefully signed so that new users need only enter the reception area of the Lending Library to find directions to the appropriate department.

The Reference Library is L-shaped with the stock shelved in three distinct groupings divided by study areas and serials display stands. Stock is dMded into distinct subject areas reinforcing the divisions of the Dewey classification scheme at some points, while at others the scheme has been abandoned for a more streamlined approach.

The TAP (Training Access Point) facility is located just inside the Reference Library door to the left and the photocopier is to the right with the business related information, which includes trade directories, statistics, company reports, selected market reports, telephone directories etc. etc. directly ahead. This Business Information area is dMded from the Local Studies area, which occupies the angle of the L-shape, by tables and chairs and an array of map cabinets.

Local Studies includes an extensive range of Fareham Borough Council publications, Parish Registers for the local churches, a complete collection of the Hampshire Magazine, photographs and illustrations of the area and an in-{jepth local history index. A lim~ed amount of the Portsmouth Evening News is available on microfilm and the I.G.I. is available on microfiche as are the most recent census statistics for the area. Serials display stands dMde the Local Studies area from the remainder of the stock which is mainly in Dewey order except for information about indMdual countries which has been gathered together from the various class locations.

The main features noted about the general section was the relatively large legal section, some Acts of Parliament (although not comprehensive), and a Careers information section that is unrelated to the Careers Service Office which is also housed in the same building. Health related information is well represented as is information on services and benefits. In-house maintained leaflet files and the recently installed Hantsnet terminal which supports the Local Information Point (LIP) and 'Help for Health' databases, are closed

53 access sources for providing Community, Local Government Services information and Health related information respectively. The LIP consists of displayed leaflets and on line access to the Public SelVices Index (PSI), on the County Council's computer network, which provides service information on all County Council Departments as well as a very limited amount on District Council services and Health Authority services. The PSI is designed to provide information or contact names and numbers after the user has made choices from a series of lists. The 'Help for Health' database, produced by the Help for , . Health Trust, provides health related information throughout and about the Wessex Health Authority area.

The position of the information desk allows supervision of the whole Reference Library. There is usually one member of staff timetabled to work on the information desk in the Reference Library although help is available during busy periods. Two librarians, one specialising in Local Studies and one in Business Information, job share the post of Reference Librarian. They are supported in information desk duties by the three other librarians working in the branch library and by the DMsional Reference Librarian. The library Supervisor and three Assistant Library Supervisors together with four Library Assistants that have undergone reference training also spend part of their time working on the information desk.

Included on the first floor are a number of study carrels and one soundproof carrel for Linguaphone use, which can be booked by the day. Two microform readers are available for public use as are two microfiche readers. The newspaper and serials backcopies are stored in rooms with direct access from the Reference Library and other materials are stored on the second floor.

7.3 The study

The inclusion of the Lending Library information desk in the study at Portsmouth was considered necessary because of the integrated stock arrangement and the relatively unhelpful floor guiding displayed there. Fareham Reference and Information Centre is very clearly distinct from the Lending Library therefore only the Reference information desk was monitored.

Consultation with library staff indicated that some days were busier than others although the effects of market days and early closing were less obvious now than in the past. The early lunch period was considered the busiest with the number of enquiries usually declining during the afternoons. tt was agreed that observations would be made on Friday 13th May 1994 then from Monday 16th to Thursday 19th May 1994. The Saturday chosen

54 for the study was 28th May 1994 (although the volume of business might be affected as this was the Bank Holiday weekend).

~ was possible for observations to be made from the public area which removed the risk of questions being directed at the observer and reduced the risk of library users being aware of the observation. Once again the records are based on what was observed with clarification from staff members when necessary. Unfortunately the period of observation coincided with several days of sunshine as well as the college examinations so the number of transactions observed were less than the staff had expected.

Observations were made between 9.30am and 4.30pm on week days and for three hours

on the Saturday morning. No evenings were mon~ored.

7.4 Results

7.4.1 Categorisation of transactions

The transactions recorded at the Reference and Information Centre information desk were categorised in the same way as those observed during the Portsmouth Central Library Study. Table 7.1 shows the categorisation of the 412 transactions observed. Once again there was a high proportion of enquiries that could not be categorised so are grouped together as 'General'. These account for over 26% of the total activity observed, while

0 'Administrative' transactions formed the largest category representing 32 ,(, of the records. 'Administrative' transactions mainly related to the provision and booking of study carrels and providing change for the photocopier although several requests for stationery were also recorded.

Redirections ~hin the building were mainly to the Lending Library for relevant material

that could be borrowed a~hough one redirection to the Fax service operated from the Divisional Headquarters section of the building was also noted. (One request for public toilets resulted in redirection to the Shopping Centre.)

55 Table 7.1: The volume of activity at the information desk in the Reference and Information Centre in broad subject or source categories and the number of transactions that would be counted as enquiries using the CIPFA criteria.

SUBJECT/SOURCE CATEGORIES OF THE NUMBER OF NUMBER COUNTED TRANSACTIONS TRANSAcnONS AS ENQUIRIES (CIPFA)

General 109 109

Business related information 37 37

Community information 32 32

Information from/about local government 14 14

Health related information 10 10

Electoral register 16 16

Genealogy 4 4

Which reports 5 5

Telephone directories 4 4

Newspapers/serials 40 40 Ubrary services 1 - Redirection within the building 9

Administrative 131

Total 412 271

7.4.2 Transaction completion times

The amount of time taken to complete transactions was also noted and this is shown in Table 7.2, together with a comparison between telephone and personal transactions within the categories listed in Table 7.1.

56 Table 7.2: Personal and telephone transactions categorised by time taken to provide information or document within the subject and source categories.

SUBJECT/SOURCE TELEPHONE! nME TAKEN TO COMPLETE TRANSACTION IN CATEGORIES PERSONAL MINUTES

< 1 1 - 4 5 - 10 11 - 15 >15 General Telephone 1 6 3 1 - Personal 62 27 7 2 Business information Telephone - - Personal 13 14 6 2 - Community Telephone 3 2 1 - - information Personal 17 6 1 - Local government Telephone 1 - 1 - Personal 6 5 - 1 Health information Telephone 1 1 -- - Personal 2 6 - - - Electoral register Telephone 2 2 - - - Personal 11 1 - - Telephone Telephone - 1 - - directories Personal 2 - 1 Newspapers! serials Telephone 1 - - Personal 16 20 1 -

Referral within the Telephone 1 -- - - building Personal 6 - Administration Telephone 1 - - - Personal 127 3 -

The transaction which took more than 15 minutes involved searching then printing out information from the Hantsnet online database. A surprising feature is that no Business related enquiries were received by telephone.

7.4.3 Staff activities during transactions

The activities of staff during each transaction were also observed and the results are categorised in Table 7.3. The documents from closed access were mainly backcopies of national and local papers together with the current copies of a few items which are kept at the infonnation desk to prevent theft. Hems provided from the quick reference collection are also included in this category as are Infocheck and International Genealogical Index on microfiche.

57 Table 7.3: Categories of staff activities during the observed transactions.

STAFF ACTIVllY DURING NUMBER OF TRANSACTIONS INVOLVING THE ACTIVITY TRANSACTION ONLY ACTIVllY PART OF TOTAL ACTIVllY

Answer from in-house 10 29 compiled resources

Document from closed access 102 35

Take to/consult relevant stock 74 42 area

Advise where to find relevant 1 1 information in library

Referral to external source(s) 10 23 Answer from personal 9 - knowledge

Database search 6 2

FIVe of the database searches were on Hantsnet while the remaining two were on TAPs. An interesting feature of this study is the very few incidents of advising the library user where to find relevant information that were recorded. The general practice was to escort

the enquirer to the relevant area and at least initiate the search if not complete ~.

7.4.4 In-house compiled sources

A wide range of in-house sources was used during the mon~oring period. The complete list is given in Table 7.4. Directories of local organisations are produced by the individual

Library Service divisions, sometimes in collaboration ~ district organisations.

58 Table 7.4: The in-house sources used to provide or find information during the observed transactions.

IN-HOUSE COMPILED SOURCES NUMBER OF USES OBSERVED

Subject index 9

Computer catalogue 3

Microfiche catalogue 6

Local organisations directory 4

Local organisations directory, Portsmouth 1

Index to trade directories in stock 5

Leaflet collection 6

Periodicals holdings list 2

Index to map collection 1

Press cuttings files 3

7.4.5 Referrals to external sources

There were 34 referrals made to external organisations during the study. Thirteen of these were to various Hampshire County libraries, mainly reference libraries holding the documents required or with more spedalised coverage of a subject. The remainder of the organisations to which enquirers were referred are given below.

Organisation Number of referrals Fareham Borough Council 4 Citizens Advice Bureau 2 Tourist Information Centre 2 Local Government Ombudsman 1 National Rivers Authority 1 County Record Office 1 Health Centre 1 German Embassy 1 Day Care Officer 1 Wessex Health Authority 1 Education Department of H.C.C. 1 Local Specialist Bookshop 1 Cystic Fibrosis Association - local and national 1 European Information Centre 1 Publicans organisations 1

59 7.5 An analysis of the activity observed at Fareham Reference and Information Service

The observations made here represent much of the activity occurring during the period of the study, although it must be remembered that the activity over the lunch and coffee breaks and during the evenings was not recorded. (Details of the longer and unsatisfied enquiries are systematically noted by the library staff but only the quantity of shorter enquiries is recorded.)

'General' enquiries accounted for 40% of the total enquiries and over 26% of the total transactions recorded. 'Business' related information represented the largest category of enquiries after 'General'. These accounted for almost 9% of total activity and almost 14% of the enquiries received. Nearly 12% of the enquiries were for 'Community' information representing almost 8% of total activity. Information produced by or about 'Local Government' and its services was requested in over 3% of the transactions and this represented over 5% of the enquiries recorded. 'Health' related information was needed to answer almost 4% of the enquiries, representing just over 2% of the transactions.

The requests for backcopies of newspapers and serials represented nearly 15% of the enquiries and almost 10% of the total transactions recorded. The provision of newspaper and serials backcopies represented the major portion of the documents provided from closed access with few current issues included here as relatively few titles seemed prone to theft.

References

1. Fareham Borough Council. Fareham - a Borough Guide. Fareham: Fareham Borough Council, 1994.

60 Chapter 8

Fordingbridge County Library - a rural library

8.1 The library and its environment

Fordingbridge, with a population of 5942, is located to the north-west of the area administered by the Council. The Council provides services to a population of about 166,000 over an area of more than 75,000 hectares of south-west Hampshire between Southampton Water and the Dorset boarder and from to the boarder with Wiltshire. The New Forest is managed by the Forestry Commission. Surrounded by open grazing for forest animals, Fordingbridge, like most of the region, is mainly dependent on agriculture, although the New Forest attracts many tourists to the area (1).

Fordingbridge library, classed as a minor library, is part of the Forest Group of libraries centred on the medium-sized library at . Library is the other member of the group being a similar size to Ringwood Library. This is one of the groupings within the South West Division of the County Library service (2). Ringwood Library provides support to Fordingbridge Library in satisfying enquiries and requests that cannot be

satisfied from the library's lim~ed stock. The library should soon host a LIP but this was not in operation during the survey.

There is very little public transport provision in this area consequently readers from any distance are dependent on their own transport. ,

8.2 Fordingbridge Library

The building, of distinctive design, is s~uated between a large car park and the rear of the local supermarket. This central location has advantages for business but disadvantages as it is close to the gathering point of the local youth and consequently vandalism is a problem at the library. The single storey, six-sided building has a high roof with considerable overhang - looking rather like a large tent. Natural light is provided by

windows ~ated between the roof and top of the walls because there is no ceiling space. This allows for tall wall shelving but creates a problem with overheating during the summer months.

61 The non-fiction stock is categorised and shelved around the walls while the fiction is shelved on free-standing bays which divide the body of the library into sections. The Children's Library corner is formed in this way. Just inside the door is a Job Centre Vacancies Board. The single counter/desk area faces the door and incorporates issue, discharge and enquiry facilities. Two people are normally on duty here at any time, although many other duties are carried out from the counter area.

The Ubrarian in charge also works at Ringwood Library, while the Library Supervisor and library assistants all work part-time. All members of staff are expected to deal with enquiries when they occur.

8.3 The study

Consultation with the staff indicated that Tuesday was the busiest day of the week, while the period after school often included enquiries relating to homework. It was arranged for

mon~oring to take place on two Tuesdays, 7th and 14th of June 1994 and on Wednesday 15th June 1994.

~ was possible for monitoring to take place from the public area of the library although in such a small building the observer was very conspicuous. The chosen days were very hot which probably made a difference to the amount of activity experienced by the library. It

was not possible to mon~or an evening as the only late night is Friday. Observations were carried out between opening time at 1Cam and 4pm. All activity other than the issue and discharge of materials was recorded.

8.4 Results

8.4.1 Categorisation of transactions

The transactions. recorded could be categorised in a similar way to those observed at Portsmouth and Fareham. The resulting categories are shown in Table 8.1 which again includes a large proportion of enquiries that could not be further categorised so are grouped together as general enquiries.

62 Table 8.1: Volume of transactions observed at Fordingbridge Library in broad categories and the number counted as enquiries using the CIPFA cri1eria.

SUBJECT/SOURCE CATEGORIES OF THE NUMBER OF NUMBER COUNTED TRANSAcnONS TRANSAcnONS AS ENQUIRIES (CIPFA)

General 40 40

Community information 4 4

Information from/about local government 4 4

Business related information - Health related information 1 1

Library services 20 14

Newspapers/serials related 3 3

Electoral register 1 1

Request related 2 - Renewals 27 - Book trail related 6

Administrative 22

Total 130 67

There were no business related enquiries observed over the three days at Fordingbridge Library. 'General' enquiries accounted for about 30% of total activity and almost 60% of the enquiries while over 20% of activity was related to the renewal of materials. Library service related transactions accounted for over 15% of the total number of transactions recorded but only 14 of these could be counted as enquiries, representing over 20% of the total enquiries. Community information accounted for almost 4% of the infirmation required while almost 4% of enquiries were related to information from or about Local Council services.

The 'Administrative' activities mainly related to the sale of old library books and change for or problems with the photocopier, although one transaction related to the payment of fines by instalments.

63 8.4.2 Transaction completion times

The transactions recorded mainly took under one minute to complete although 30 person­ to-person transactions took up to five minutes to complete as did three transactions by telephone. Only two transactions took over five minutes. Table 8.2 shows the time categories in relation to the type of contact between library user and staff member.

Table 8.2: Personal and telephone transactions categorised by time taken to complete the transaction.

MODE OF CONTACT TIME TAKEN

< 1 MINUTE 1 -4 MINUTES 5 - 10 MINUTES Telephone - total transactions 17 2 - Counted as Enquiries 2 2 - Personal - total transactions 79 30 2 Counted as Enquiries 33 28 2

Most of the short calls were to have items renewed. Four telephone transactions were enquiries and one related to the opening hours. The longer personal transactions included 21 enquiries and seven related to the joining of new members or explanations of the special services available to some community groups.

8.4.3 Staff activities during transactions

These were mainly single activities with very few transactions attracting several activities. Even when checking the various catalogues the information was usually obtained from one source only.

64 Table 8.3: Categories of staff activities during the observed transactions at Fordingbridge Library.

STAFF ACTIVITY DURING NUMBER OF TRANSACTIONS INVOLVlNG THE ACTIVITY TRANSACTION ONLY ACTIVITY PART OF TOTAL ACTIVITY

Answer from in-house compiled 32 8 resources or computer system

Document from closed access 3 8

Take to/consult relevant stock 26 11 area

Advise where to find relevant 4 1 information in library

Referral to external source(s) 2 3

Answer from personal 18 4 knowledge

There is relatively little reserve stock but nevertheless several enquiries were satisfied from this source. The Electoral Register, Census information and leaflets kept for reference only were the documents supplied from closed access except for the two requested items awaiting collection.

8.4.4 In-house compiled sources

The in-house compiled sources used during the transactions were very similar to those used in Fareham and Portsmouth but the computerised readers' information was referred to during 26 of those recorded. This was due mainly to the renewals and new membership transactions although queries about items on loan also required this activity. Table 8.4 shows the various in-house compiled sources used.

65 Table 8.4: The in-house compiled sources of information used during the recorded transactions.

IN-HOUSE COMPILED SOURCE NUMBER OF USES OBSERVED

Subject index 3

Computer catalogue 7

Microfiche catalogue 3

Local organisations directory 1

Local information card file 1

Press cuttings file 1

Periodicals list 1

Computerised readers records 26

The relatively small amount of catalogue and subject index use may resu~ from the ability of staff to know the stock very well in such a small library such as this.

8.4.5 Referrals to external organisations

There were only five referrals to outside organisations including one to libraries with more extensive coverage of the subject because it was needed urgently therefore could not be requested. (However availability of information was checked before referral.) The other organisations were:

Salisbury Public Library New Forest District Council Local Bookshop Organisers of local leisure activities

8.5 An analysis of the activity observed at Fordingbridge Library

The observations represented most of the activity occurring during the period of the study as only lunch and coffee breaks were not monitored.

The categories of 'Community', 'Local Government' and 'Health' information represented under 9% of the total activity and over 13% of the enquiries received. Once again the majority of enquiries could only be classed as 'General'. There was a wide variety of subjects covered by the enquiries recorded at Fordingbridge Library. These included

66 information about termites, barge painting and J.F. Kennedy, road maps of France and illustrations of cartoon characters.

References

1. New Forest District Council. New Forest District Council yearbook 1993-4, 1994.

2. Hampshire County Council. Library SelVices: South West Division, 1993. (leaflet)

67 Chapter 9

Putney District Librarv - a London Borough library

9.1 The library and its environment

Putney District library is located in Disraeli Road, where it shares a building with Wandsworth Museum, a few yards from the High Street and near the main shopping area; it is central and easily found. Access by car is difficult but many buses stop within easy reach of the library and the well served Railway Station is only about thirty yards along the High Street from the junction with Disraeli road.

Putney Library serves an estimated population of 36,000 mainly from the Thamesfield, East Putney and West Putney Wards, but also from West Hill, Parkside and Roehampton Wards. The geographical area is bounded by the river, West Hill, Putney Heath and Putney Common and is close to the boarder with Hammersmith and Fulham in the north.

Over 92% of the population of this area is wMe, which is highe·r than the Borough average, consequentfy the ethnic minorities form a smaller proportion of the population. About 30% of the population are pensioners while up to 60% of the homes are owner occupied in the catchment area wards compared to a Borough average of almost 54°4. Housing ranges from large expensive homes to big council estates.

Approximately 50% of the local population uses the public library. There is a strong middle-class representation in the users of the library's reservations and enquiry services. 7% of the library users come from outside the Borough because there is a high commuting population working in the local offices and shops, and the colleges and shops attract people from further afield (1).

9.2 Putney District Library

Putney Library is housed in a mainly late-Victorian building given to the people of Putney and Roehampton by the publisher Sir George Newnes in 1696. The entrance to the building is shared with Wandsworth Museum which is at the front while a long corridor gives access to the library at the rear. All public access areas are on the ground floor with reasonably easy access except for the strongly sprung doors from the corridor. The corridor also gives access to the Children's library and Music Libraries which are located in an extension built in 1977, between the original library building and the road. The original library building was refurbished at the same time.

68 The returns counter is to the left of the entrance with the issue counter beyond it while the information and membership desk is to the right. Access to the body of the library is directly ahead through security gates.

The large rectangular room which accommodates the main library has a row of supporting arches, which run its length, dividing the room roughly in half. One side is carpeted and the other has a polished wood floor which adds to the split effect. The workroom, backcopies of newspapers and journals and reserve stock are in the basement, reached by a wrought iron spiral staircase from the library or a twisting stairway linking it to the ground floor staff area. The windows of the library are mainly high in the walls allowing the use of tall wall-mounted shelving as well as many island bays.

The lending stock includes fiction, non-fiction, videos and audio-cassettes. The shelf guides make it relatively easy to locate broad subject areas in the non-fiction while recent categorisation of the fiction stock included comprehensive guiding. Of the total adult library stock of 51,735 items the Reference section contains 900 general reference volumes with no special collections or sections of stock.

Some quick reference material is stored behind the information desk. Reference copies of leaflets, reports and guides produced by Wandsworth Council and other local organisations are filed to form a source of Community information. A list of useful contact names and addresses of local organisations is also maintained. Referral to Reference Ubraries at West Hill or Battersea is made if enquirers need more specialised reference material.

Fax and photocopying facilities are available and there is a typewriter for hire (2). The public have access to the library catalogue through an On line Public Access Catalogue (OPAC) terminal with search facilities unlike the microfiche catalogues available to the public in Hampshire's libraries.

The library staff consists of 1.5 full time equivalents of professionals and about five f.t.e. of non-professional staff but not all of the latter are trained to work on the infirmation desk. Two people are timetabled to staff the information and membership desk at all times when staffing levels permit, with other staff available for busy periods.

9.3 The study

The library is open between lOam and 8pm on weekdays, except Thursdays when it is closed. Saturday closing is at 5pm. The survey was carried out on 31st May, 1st June

69 and 3rd June 1994. As these were the Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday after !lie Spring Bank Holiday weekend the amount of business observed, according to the staff, was less than normal. Observations were made between 10am and 3.4Spm except for lunch breaks which were taken at a different time each day. Evenings were not monttored.

The location of the information desk made tt possible for observations to be made from the public area. During busy periods however tt became difficult to hear conversations on the far side of the desk so staff members had to be questioned about these transactions. Unlike Fareham and Portsmouth all telephone calls are initially answered at the infonmation desk. Telephone transactions were also difficult to monttor when competing conversations were taking place closer to the observer. The level of activity observed was considered by staff to be less than usual, but a higher level of actiWy would have been very difficult for one person to record.

9.4 Results

9.4.1 Categorisation of transactions

The transactions observed at Putney Library information desk were categorised in the same way as for the libraries in Hampshire. Once again the majority of enquiries could only be categorised as 'General'. This was the largest activity category, representing 34°,(, of the total transactions and almost 56% of those transactions considered enquiries using the CIPFA cmeria. 'Administrative' transactions were mainly updating reader's tickets, change for the photocopier and the provision of request cards. These represented just over 11 % of the total while transactions relating to 'Library Services', half of which were considered enquiries, accounted for 11.5%. Included in this category were new membership applications. As wtth Fordingbridge 'Renewals' formed part of the recorded actiWy, accounting for about 15% of the total transactions. Redirections wtthin the building were to the Music and Children's Libraries.

70 Table 9.1: The volume of activity at the information desk at Putney Library in broad categories and the number of transactions that would be counted as enquiries using the CIPFA criteria.

SUBJECT/SOURCE CATEGORIES OF THE NUMBER OF NUMBER COUNTED TRANSACTIONS TRANSACTIONS AS ENQUIRIES (CIPFA)

General 154 154

Community information 17 17

Information from/about local government 10 10

Business related information 6 6

Health related information 4 4

Electoral register 2 2

Which reports 9 9

Telephone directories 3 3

Newspapers/serials 26 26

Library Services 52 27

Request related 31 14 Renewals 67 - Redirections within the building 19 - Administrative 50

Total 450 272

9.4.2 Transaction completion times

The amount of time taken to complete transactions is shown in Table 9.2. Telephone and personal transactions for each category are compared to show any differences in the completion time that may depend on the mode of enquiry.

71 Table 9.2: Personal and telephone transactions categorised by time taken to complete the transaction for the subject and source categories.

SUBJECT/SOURCE TELEPHONE! TIME TAKEN TO COMPLETE TRANSACTION IN CATEGORIES PERSONAL MINUTES

<1 1-4 5 -10 11 -15 General Telephone 17 2 1 - Personal 107 27 4 - Community information Telephone 1 - - Personal 11 4 - 1 Local government Telephone 1 1 - Personal 5 2 1 - Business information Telephone ---- Personal 6 -- - Health information Telephone - - - Personal 3 1 - - Electoral register Telephone - - - - Personal 2 --- Which reports Telephone 1 1 -- Personal 6 1 -- Telephone directories Telephone -- - Personal 3 -- - Newspapers /serials Telephone - - - Personal 14 8 -- Library services Telephone 6 -- Personal 31 15 -- Request related Telephone - 4 -- Personal 19 8 -- Renewals Telephone 35 1 -- Personal 29 2 -- Directional Telephone 15 1 -- Personal 3 --- Administrative Telephone 4 - Personal 42 4 -

No transaction took over fifteen minutes to complete. More renewals were received by telephone than in person. Of the 25 telephoned enquiries recorded 20 were categorised as 'General' enquiries. Telephone transactions represent almost 200,(, of the total number of transactions recorded.

72 9.4.3 Staff activities during transactions

The number of activities undertaken by staff during transactions were reduced at Putney Library as computerised search facilities were available, therefore where in Hampshire

Libraries staff often consu~ed both microfiche and computer catalogues, in Putney Library all the bibliographic information was available in computerised form.

Table 9.3: Categories of staff activities during the observed transactions.

STAFF ACTIVITY DURING NUMBER OF TRANSACTIONS INVOLVING THE ACTIVITY TRANSACTION ONLY ACTIVITY PART OF THE ACTIVITY

Answer from in-house 113 71 compiled resources and computerised library system

Document from closed access 70 16

Take to/consult relevant stock 23 31 area

Advise where to find relevant 17 19 information in library

Referral to external source(s) 12 29

Answer from personal 55 6 knowledge

Over 64% of the transactions required one activity on the part of the staff member. The

documents provided from closed access were requested ~ems available for collection, backcopies of newspapers (stored in the basement), Which Reports, items from the quick reference collection, and material from the local information leaflet etc., file kept at the desk. Generally the leaflets are single copies for reference not distribution. The current copies of some daily papers were also kept at the desk.

9.4.4 In-house compiled sources

A wide range of in-house compiled sources were used during the mon~oring period. The local information file of useful contact names and addresses for local organisations and council services and the file of leaflets, lists and handouts produced by various organisations were used during seven enquiries.

73 Readers can request a printed record of the materials they have borrowed which requires the use of computerised membership details. Access to computerised issue records were needed for every renewal transaction that took place.

Table 9.4: The in-house compiled sources used during the observed transactions.

IN-HOUSE COMPILED SOURCES USED NUMBER OF USES OBSERVED

Subject index 21

Computer catalogue 74

Membership records 5

Issue records 78

Requests file 9

Local information file 3

Local information leaflet file 4

Cuttings file 1

Periodicals list 1

Benefits leaflets file 1

9.4.5 Referrals to external sources

There were 41 referrals to other organisations made during the study at Putney Library. These included many to other Wandsworth Borough libraries, both general and specialist ones. On two occasions library staff contacted the outside organisation to obtain the information. The referrals to Social Services Department were related to requests for bus passes which for a trial period had been available at the library. The full list of organisations referred to is given below.

Organisation Number Other Wandsworth Borough libraries 27 West Hill Reference Library 9 West Hill Library 3 Battersea Reference Library 2 Battersea Library 2 Roehampton Library 2 Tooting Library 3 Southfields Library 1 Local History Library 1 Housebound Library Service 1 General referrals to other libraries 3

Social Services Department 3

74 Local crematorium 1 Local College 1 Housing Unit 1 Commercial garden refuse sack suppliers 1 Electoral Registration Office 1 Putney Pool 1 Westminster Borough Libraries 1 Citizens Advice Bureau 1 Wandsworth Museum 1 Bus Station 1 Post Office 1 Organiser of art display in library 1 Borough Notice Board 1

9.5 An analvsis of the activity observed at Putney District Library

The observations made probably represent at least half of the activity experienced at the library over the three days of the study although the evenings were not monitored. It is not possible to be more concise on this point because no regular record of activity is made by the library staff for comparison.

'Business' related information was required for just over 2% of the enquiries while over 6% needed 'Community' information to satisfy them. Almost 4% of enquiries were for information on 'Local Government' services but just over 1% of enquiries were 'Health' related. The large volume of 'General' enquiries observed, accounting for almost 57% of the total enquiries recorded, once again show that the public expects libraries to provide information on a wide range of subjects.

It was also noted that in almost 15% of the recorded enquiries the library users specified the source and notthe information required.

References

1. Putney Library development brief 1994-97, 1994. (Wandsworth Library and Museum Service internal document)

75 Chapter 10

Hampshire County Council's Information Centres

10.1.1 The Winchester Information Centre and its environment

The County Council's Information Centre in Winchester shares part of the ground floor of Mottisfont Court, a relatively new office development, with the Trading Standards Departmenfs public office. The remainder of the building is occupied by the County

Arch~ecrs Department. Many of the buildings around Mottisfont Court also house Council Departments that can no longer be accommodated in the Council's main complex, The CasUe, which overlooks Mottisfont Court. The Information Centre is therefore well situated

to provide a central Reception Service to all the Council Departments in the local~.

Although the Information Centre is away from the main shopping area, ~ has a relatively

high profile in the c~. This is partly due to the occupation of a prominent corner site

overlooking one of the main routes into the c~, but is also related to the extensive display space available onto streets that provide the shortest route from the multi-storey car park

to the shops. The Centre was designed to advertise the Council, and the services ~ provides so full use is made of floor to ceiling windows and glass doors to promote individual services with colourful displays.

Inside, the Centre displays the full range of Council publications from general ~ems such as the Annual Report to leaflets produced by the individual services. These are not restricted to descriptions and location information of the services, but also include advice on such matters as improving personal and domestic security, how to reduce waste, consumer rights, road safety and promoting healthy lifestyles. Leisure activities are encouraged with the provision of information about country parks, museums, nature reserves, theme walks and long distance walks throughout the county. Activity centres and sports facilities are also advertised. Services, organisations and charities supported by the Council are also well represented in the leaflet displays at the Centre, for example timetables of the bus services by district, Age Concern leaflets and advertising for independent museums.

Winchester has many historic buildings and associations which attract tourists from all over the world each year. Once again D-Day commemorations and the Tour de France cycle race are important events for the local population in 1994. Some of the associated events are being supported by the Council or organised by the Events Officer and therefore are advertised at the Centre.

76 The Centre also has the broader objective of acting as an efficient link between the users and suppliers of Council services throughout the County. It is prominently featured in the telephone directory entry for the Council and advertised and promoted where ever possible.

The leaflets and booklets available to the public from the Centre sometimes provide the information needed by enquirers but this is more likely to come from the small reference collection oftelephone directories, electoral registers etc. and in-house compiled sources kept at the information desk. The Public Services Index was designed to be the chief source of contact names and telephone numbers available to the staff. This is supplemented by the internal directories of both the Council and its' Departments and by the files compiled by individual members of staff during the six month training programme. A card file is maintained of the information needed to answer the most frequently occurring questions that are not related to the Council's activity, such as the dates of the Farnborough Air Show.

A selection of ttems displaying the County's emblem or coat of arms and postcards produced by the Record Office and Museum Service are on sale.

The four part-time staff completed a six month training programme before the Information Centre was opened in July 1992. Visits to the 20 Departments were included in the training so that contacts could be developed between the Centre and the Departments. The Information Centre is staffed by two people throughout the opening hours of 8.30am to 6pm Monday to Friday and 9.30am to 1pm on Saturday. The Information Centre staff wear a uniform in the County's colour.

10.1.2 The study

It was arranged for the Information Centre to be monttored on Thursday 5th May and Friday 6th May 1994, between 9am and 4pm. Lunch breaks were taken at different times each day. Consultation wtth the staff had indicated that Saturdays were so quiet that the Councillors held their surgeries at the Centre on Saturdays.

It was not possible to make useful observations and to record use of materials from the public area therefore observations were made from the staff area. This proved an advantage wtth telephone transactions because the notes made about the calls by the staff reduced the need to seek later clarification. All activity at the Centre is systematically recorded by the staff.

77 Although it was observed that a steady stream of Council Officers, local people and tourists visited the Information Centre to browse, most of the enquiries received were by telephone. The majority of these enquiries resulted in referral by the transfer of the call to a named person, in the relevant department. Failing this, the callers were given the name and number of the contact. Although it is possible for Council Officers to be notified about enquiries using electronic mail this facility was not used during the study.

The reception function of the Centre provides a stream of Council visitors throughout the day while responsibility for the booking of the meetings rooms in the building increases the activity further. The Centre also holds the keys to the studios of the local radio stations so broadcasters must visit the Centre.

10.1.3 Results

10.1.3.1 The categorisation of transactions

The information provision function of Hampshire County Council's Information Centre in Winchester accounted for 75% of the recorded activity, with the remaining 25% relating to the reception function. Rwas possible to categorise the observed transactions for each function. The resulting categories are shown in Table 10.1 together with the number of transactions represented by each category.

All of the 'Reception function' transactions were concluded in under one minute. Visitors were either directed to the relevant department or collected by the Officer they were visiting. The 'Administrative' transactions included five postcard sales and three complaints from neighbours about the noise from the air-conditioning housing. All meetings rooms throughout the Council buildings were reported by staff to be heavily used and in greater demand than the supply could satisfy, therefore many of the transactions relating to booking of the Meetings Rooms resulted in disappointment for the applicant. A Councillor and a Council Officer were among those making broadcasts on the local radio stations during the study period.

The transactions relating to the Information Centre's primary function of providing information could be divided into five categories including a 'General' grouping for the enquiries that could not be further categorised. The subjects in this grouping ranged from the conservation of bats to dating a building and included the location of an exhibition of embroidery and confirmation that silk weaving still took place at the Whitchurch Silk Mill.

78 Table 10.1: The volume of activity observed at the Winchester Information Centre in broad subject or activi1y categories.

CATEGORY OF TRANSACTION NUMBER OF TRANSACTIONS

INFORMATION ACTIVITIES

Information from/about local government services 75

General 25

Community related information 23

Business related information 9

Health related information 3

RECEPTION ACTIVITIES

Vis~ors to the Council 14

Meetings rooms bookings 13

Administrative 10

Key provision 5

Requests for application forms 3

Total 180

The 75 transactions that required information about Local Government provided services represented over 55% of the transactions requiring information and almost 42% of total recorded activi1y. These transactions included fourteen for services provided by District Councils, therefore the enquirers were referred to the appropriate Council. Fourteen of the enquiries relating to County Council services could be answered from the sources

~in the centre, but the remaining 47 enquiries were referred to named Officers in other departments. Enquiries that require specialised knowledge of legislation and rules governing the provision of the different types of grants administered by the council are always passed on to the correct department or Officer. This last group represented nearly 35% of enquiries and over 26% of the total number of transactions.

The Business related transactions represented almost 7% of the enquiries and 5% of the total activity. These included requests for District Council addresses for mail shots, a request from a French company for more information about a contract for which the Council had inwed tenders, the correct direction for invoices relating to specific work carried out for the council and an enquiry about accommodation for businessmen visiting the city.

79 10.1.3.2 Transaction completion times

Telephone transactions represented almost 75% of the total activity recorded at the Centre. The majority of transactions were completed in less than one minute. Six of the eleven transactions that took between five and ten minutes to complete required detailed investigation by the Centre's staff because the information given by the enquirer was incorrect, out-of-

Table 10.2: The personal, telephone and written transactions categorised by the time taken to complete the transaction.

CATEGORY MODE OF TIME TAKEN TO COMPLETE THE TRANSACTION CONTACT < 1 MINUTE 1 -4 MINUTES 5 -10 MINUTES

INFORMATION ACTIVITIES Local government Telephone 54 - 6 services Personal 11 - 2 Written 2 - - Community Telephone 8 - 1 Personal 8 - 1 Written 5 - - General Telephone 15 1 1 Personal 8 - - Business related Telephone 9 - - Health related Telephone 3 - - RECEPTION Council visitors Personal 14 - - Administrative Telephone 5 - - Personal 5 - - Meetings rooms Telephone 12 - - booking Personal 1 - - Keys Personal 5 - - Applications forms Telephone 3

10.1.3.3 Staff activity during transactions

Many of the enquiries received at the Information Centre occur regularly so the staff either remember the information or where it can be found most easily. The internal directories

80 and Public Services Index are the main in-house compiled sources used for locating names and contact numbers for referrals to other departments.

Table 10.3: Categorisation of Information Centre staff activity during the observed transactions that related to the Infirmation Providing function of the Centre.

STAFF ACTIVITY DURING TRANSACTIONS ONLY ACTIVITY PART OF TOTAL ACTIVITY

Public Service Index database 3 20

Closed access document 2 5

Personal knowledge 3 3

Take tal consult relevant leaflet 18 12 stock

In-house compiled sources 11 47

Referrals to relevant departments 14 51

Referrals to other Councils and 10 27 organisations

Redirect to Centre Manager 2

A variety of sources were used to answer the fourteen enquiries on County Council services that were not referred. These included the database and the personal files of individual staff members, but leaflets and personal knowledge provided most of the answers.

Only eight of the referrals to Council Departments were made without consulting enher the database, in-house compiled sources or leaflets on display. In eighteen transactions the personal file of the staff member was consulted, while on twelve occasions the database provided the contact details. Internal departmental directories were used on two occasions.

Of the fourteen enquiries relating to the services of other Councils only three were referred wnh no preliminary checking for contact details. For the remaining eleven enquiries the personal files of staff members were used to obtain the referral information needed.

The Communijy related information needed for 23 enquiries was obtained from the leaflets on display for twelve of the transactions and another was answered from closed

81 access stock. Five enquiries were referred at once to outside organisations and four were referred to Council Officers.

The mailing lists requested in two of the Business related enquiries were faxed from hardcopy closed access sources with the remaining transactions being referred after

locating a su~able Officer for the enquiry. In the case of the telephone enquiry from France the Council Officer listed as a fluent French speaker was located using the database.

About 60% of the transactions recorded required two activities before they were concluded and sometimes three. In most cases these were the location of a contact name and number then referral to Council Officers or external organisations.

10.1.3.4 Referrals within the Council

Referrals were made to more than twenty different Departments and Un~ during the

mon~oring period although some were more in demand than others. Five transactions

resulted in referral to the Student Grants Un~ ~in the Treasurer's Department while there was only one referral to the Public Library.

DepartmentlUn~ Demand Treasurer's 7 Student Grants Un~ 5 Surveyor's 10 Secretary's 9 Social Services 7 Education 6 Planning 4 ArcMects 3 Countryside and Commun~ 3 Chief Executive's Office 2 Record Office 2 Occupational Health Un~ 1 Public Library 1 Public Relations Un~ 1

A wide range of subjects were covered by the enquiries referred to Council Departments. These included student grants, car leasing, removal of a stair lift, street lighting, rents and cycle proficiency tests.

82 10.1.3.5 Referrals to other Councils and organisations

The District Councils are responsible for providing Home Improvement Grants, Housing Benefits and sheltered housing for the elderly and the compilation of the Electoral Registers so enquiries relating to these functions are referred to the Relevant District Council. During the survey referrals were made to nine City and Borough Councils within the County.

The other organisations to which referrals were made were:

Citizens Advice Bureau Local W.1. organiser Wessex Health Authority Unison Hampshire Gardens Trust Local Book shops W.H. Smith Copy Shop Tourist Information Centre Southern Water Services Lim~ed Alien Gallery, Alton Housing Charities (various)

10.1.4 An analvsis of the activity observed at the Winchester Information Centre

The activity categories included in the Reception function represented 25% of the total activity observed and the categories relating to the Information function accounted for 75% of the total recorded activity.

Information about the services provided by Hampshire County Council and the District Councils within Hampshire was required in more than 55% of the enquiries. Community information represented 17% of the information sought and Business related information was required by almost 7% of the people contacting the Centre for information. The 'General' category of enquiries was 18.5% of the total number of enquiries received by the Centre.

Taking into consideration the fact that the Centre is publicised as a specialised'information provider the wide range of enquiries received there is rather surprising. It is more understandable that many people do not clearly understand the responsibilities of the different tiers of Local Government. Although the percentage of enquiries in the 'General' category are reduced compared to the Public Libraries in this study they do indicate that any information provider is considered a possible source of information when people have no idea where to ask.

83 Once again the D-Day related enquiries ranged from information on specific events to a complete list and Tour de France cycle race enquiries were for route plans as the race was planned to pass through the city.

10.2.1 The Portsmouth Information Centre and its environment

Opened in early 1994, the Portsmouth Information Centre is located in the foyer of Portsmouth Central Ubrary and therefore shares the same environment. It is identified by a very prominent sign in the County colouffi which are repeated in the furniture and fittings of the Centre as well as in the uniform of the staff. Although the Centre has a large

window ove~ooking the Guildhall Square only limited use can be made of it for advertising the Centre and the County Council because space is at a premium. For the same reason the material displayed in the Information Centre is only a fraction of that available at the Winchester Centre. The Centre was originally stocked with materials that reflected the concems of the customeffi at the Winchester Information Centre, but as the staff build up an understanding of the needs of their own customeffi the materials on display will change.

Six people work in this Centre because it is open in the evenings to match the opening hOUffi of the library. The original six month training programme devised for the staff of the Winchester Centre was augmented for the Portsmouth staff with work experience at the Winchester Centre.

The Information Centre was publicised in a lea':et distributed to homes throughout the Portsmouth area because it was intended to provide information about the services of the County Council to the population of Portsmouth city and the surrounding villages. Unfortunately this has not prevented the Centre from suffering an identity problem which has probably been exacerbated by opening in such an important year for Portsmouth as 1994. Observations clearly indicate that people have confused the new Information Centre with Portsmouth City Council's Events Office opened to promote the BOOth anniveffiary celebrations and the City's Tourist Information Centres. Within the building the highly visible 'Hampshire County Council Information Centre' sign only serves to highlight the absence of service signs for the public library and, as a consequence, people intending to use the library for the first time seek help at the Information Centre.

The small information desk houses a basic collection of quick reference and internal county directories in hardcopy and two terminals providing access to the Public Services Index. The leaflets on display show a strong consumer bias and represent the most widely used services of the County Council. The leisure related leaflets, which are also

84 well represented, proved so popular that 'display only' copies are on show to reduce the amount of random leaflet collecting by browsing members of the public.

10.2.2 The study

Conversation with the Manager of the Information Centres indicated that, in contrast to the

Winchester Centre, the Portsmouth Centre was busy on Saturday so ~ was decided to

mon~rthe Centre on the moming of Saturday 7th May 1994. The remainder of the study was carried oU1 on Wednesday 11th May and Thursday 12th May 1994 between lOam and 4pm. No evenings were monnored.

The restricted space at the Information Centre made n impossible for the observer to be unobtrusive so observations were made from the boundary between the public and staff areas of the Centre where the least disruption to activity would be caused. The majomy

of transactions were easy to mon~or because in such a confined space there was no problem in hearing the conversations or observing staff activity. Only two telephone transactions took place during the study period and both required clarification from the staff.

Absence from the foyer of signs and guiding for the library services offered in the building resulted in the Centre providing an unofficial reception service to the public library and to any exhibitions, conferences or other events taking place in the meetings rooms on the third floor.

Unfortunately the days chosen for observation proved to be very quiet for the Centre, producing a total of only 58 transactions. The small sample size means that any

calculations made from ~ are less likely to be representative of normal activity at the Centre than a much larger sample would have been.

10.2.3 Results

Once again the observed transactions could be divided between the unofficial 'Reception function' and official 'Information providing function', both of which could be further categorise by subject or type of infirmation required. These categories are shown in Table

10.4 together ~h the number of transactions they represent.

85 Table 10.4: The volume of activity observed at the Portsmouth Information Centre in broad categories and the number of longer enquiries within each category.

CATEGORIES NUMBER OF NUMBER OF LONGER TRANSACTIONS TRANSACTIONS FOR TIME BANDS IN MINUTES

1-4 5 -10 11 - 20

INFORMATION PROVISION

Community . 21 3 1 2 Information from/about local 8 - government services --

General 7 1 - - Business related 1 - 1 - Health related 1 - - - RECEPTION Redirections within building 15 1 - - Administrative 5 1

58 6 2 2 Total

The redirections within the building were mainly to various floors of the library or to the membership desk on the opposite side of the foyer to the Information Centre although one was to the third floor where music examinations were being held. These transactions represented almost 26% of the total recorded activity and with the administrative transactions accounted for over 34% of the total. Sale of postcards accounted for three of the administrative transactions.

The 38 transactions requiring information represented almost 66% of the total recorded activity. Enquiries about council services represented almost 14% of the total recorded transactions and 21 % of the transactions related to the official Information function of the Centre. Five of these related to County Council services with three being referred to the City Cou ncil.

The largest categOIY of enquiries was for Community information which represented more than 55% of the enquiries observed. Only two of the longer enquiries in this group were genuinely long enquiries, the remainder resulted from enquirers wishing to reminisce. Both of the genuinely longer enquiries took 20 minutes to complete while the staff tried to

86 locate sailing facilities for the disabled in the Portsmouth area and the bus timetable for a D-Day event bus service. This category included nine enquiries relating to D-Day events which were all partly answered with leaflets from the display. In several cases referral was made to local newsagenls for copies of The News special D-Day issue and to the Tourist Information Centre. An enquiry about boat trips to view the fleet on the anniversary of D­ Day was referred to the company running the trips. Four requests for leaflets on walks

occurred as a direct resu~ of displaying only one copy. The remainder of the 'Community' enquiries ranged from bus timetables to disabled access to buildings in the area.

The 'General' category accounted for over 18% of the total enquiries observed and ranged from a request for a map of Winchester to the location of a printing service available on Saturday. The latter enquiry took several minutes to answer as some of the yellow pages entries were out of date. Two people required directions to places in the city which were given with the aid of a local map.

The Business related enquiry for a list of contact names for booking trade stand space at local events was satisfied with printouts of relevant information from the database, consequently this transaction took nine minutes to complete.

The Health related enquiry was for information of the G.P.s in the area and information on how to change doctors. As this enquiry was by telephone the relevant information was posted to the enquirer.

Staff activities during the transactions included the provision of items from closed access on 18 occasions and this was matched by the number of items supplied from the leaflets displayed. The database provided information for three enquiries and referrals were made to three outside organisations other than the City Council. Personal knowledge provided information on seven occasions and the staff referred to Council Officers, either directly by telephone or by giving the contact name and number, on five occasions. The three departments involved were the Treasurer's, Surveyor's and Education departments.

10.2.4 An analysis of activity observed at the Portsmouth Information Centre

The location and prominent identification of the Information Centre have resulted in it providing an unofficial reception service to the whole building which accounted for almost 26% of the activity recorded in the survey. The official function of providing information about County Council services formed less than 16% of the observed enquiries and just over 10% of the total activity observed. Combined with the Community information, however, it accounted for over 71 % ofthe enquiries and almost 47% of the total activity.

87 The enquiries relating to the D-Day events accounted for more than 15% of the total activity and just under 24% of the enquiries. The combined effects of high observed activity in one, essentially transitory, area with the low number in the sample can only increase the uncertainty of obtaining valid information from the survey carried out at the Centre.

10.3 A comparison of the two Information Centres

The most important difference between the two Centres is the virtual absence of telephone transactions at the Portsmouth Centre while they represented 75% of the transactions observed in the Winchester Centre. There was a steady stream of people at both Centres that browsed through the material on display but did not ask for assistance. At Portsmouth these people also used the library. The siting of the Portsmouth Centre obviously has some effect on the activity experienced there but the very different catchment areas probably make a difference too. (Anecdotal evidence indicates that.University students and young Naval ratings regularly request information about schemes such as the Duke of Edinburgh Awards.)

Any conclusions drawn from this survey about the ratios of the different categories of information required at the Centres would be of limited value due to the small sample obtained from the Portsmouth Centre and the possible distorting effects of the huge local interest in the D-Day events.

One feature common to both Centres however was the recording of a group of enquiries that could only be categorised as 'General'. These accounted for 13% of the enquiries at Portsmouth and over 18% at the Winchester Centre.

88 Chapter 11

The Tourist Information Centres of Portsmouth and Fareham

11.1 Tourist Information Centres in Portsmouth

The Southem Tourist Board supplies the information centres with display headings, signs and reference kits which maintain the readily identifiable Tourist Information Centre image. The reference kits include standard works on museums and other attractions throughout the country, such as Days out in Britain, hotel guides, events yearbooks, various AA publications and the National Express Directory.

The displays at the Information Centres are filled with the advertising leaflets from a wide range of events and attractions throughout the Southern Counties, but paying particular attention to those in the Portsmouth area. Bus timetables and information on boat and coach excursions offered by local companies are also available.

The Portsmouth Information Centres display a wide range of gifts and souvenirs in a bid to maximise revenue potential and therefore reduce the cost of providing the service. The items for sale include books on local themes and maps and guides of the region. The Centres are also Bureau de Change agents, theatre booking agents and agents for the issue of bus passes of various sorts. An accommodation booking service is also available, for both advance bookings and immediate residence.

Apart from one permanent member of staff and the Manager of the Centres all Tourist Information Centre staff are temporary. Most of the staff were students undertaking course-related work experience during their studies or recent graduates. The normal staff

uniform of navy blue and wh~e was supplemented in the Portsmouth Centres by sweatshirts and teeshirts advertising the BOOth Anniversary celebrations.

During preliminary discussions the Manager of the Centres agreed in principle to the survey taking place but expressed reservations about the necessary timing of the study.

The survey coincided ~h two of the most important events of 1994 for the Information Centres, the 50th Anniversary of D-Day and the Portsmouth stage of the Tour de France cycle race. It was agreed that the study could be undertaken after the weekend of the main O-Day Commemoration services and events, and before the big build-up to the cycle race on 7th July 1994. The study was carried out on Wednesday 9th June and Thursday 10th June 1994.

89 During discussions with the Manager rt became clear that there were differences in the activities that would be observed at each Centre, therefore rt was decided to monrtor The Hard Tourist Information Centre on the Wednesday and the Centre in Commercial Road on the Thursday.

11.1.1.1 The Hard Tourist Information Centre and rts environment

Located outside the dock gates, about 200 yards from the Portsmouth Harbour railway terminal and about 100 yards from the bus and coach station, this Tourist Information Centre is very heavily used by visrtors interested in Naval attractions and boat trips. The Centre is also on the tourist bus route.

11.1.1.2 The study

The Tourist Information Centre at The Hard is small with a cramped L-shaped staff area. The overcrowding was exacerbated by the presence of a student on a work experience placement as well as the observer. Five members of staff were on duty originally, but one was redeployed to another Information Centre which had become unexpectedly busy. Early duties at the Ferryport Centre, compensated for by an early finish, further reduced the number of staff on duty by mid-afternoon by which time the number of visrtors to the Centre also declined.

Observations were made from a corner of the staff area that minimised inconvenience to staff but provided difficulties for the observer, in particular when several telephone conversations were taking place at once. On these occasions only the closest transaction was monrtored. The Centre was too busy for clarification to be requested from staff during most of the monrtoring period and rt was difficult to observe the activities of staff on the farther side of the staff area. The number of visrtors to the centre are electronically counted.

Observations were made between 10am and 4pm, except for a lunch break of thirty minutes.

11 .1 .1 .3 Results

11.1.1.3.1 Categorisation of transactions

90 The activities observed at The Hard Tourist Information Centre could be categorised by subject, service or type of information but there was still a small group of transactions that could not be categorised.

Table 11.1: The volume of observed activity at The Hard Tourist Information Centre in broad categories by subject, type of information required or service and number of longer transactions recorded in each category:

SERVICE OR SUBJECT NUMBER OF NUMBER OF LONGER TRANSACnONS CATEGORY TRANSACTIONS BY TIME CATEGORIES IN MINUnES

1 - 4 5 - 10 11 - 15

INFORMATION PROVISION Tourist attractions 28 5 -- Sending relevant 25 1 -- information

Accommodation related 21 6 2 1 Car park information 4 - - - Referral to other Tourist 12 2 - I nformation Centres - General 7 3 -- Transport related 8 3 - - information Directions 17 3 - - Le Tour information 4 - -- Requests for maps 5 - -- Referred to Veterans 3 - -- database Shipping movements 2 - - - SERVICES

Sales 22 2 -- Bureau de change 9 9 -- Bus passes 2 1 -- Administrative 6 - - - Total 177 35 2 1

Of the total of 177 transactions recorded 59 were related to services not the provision of information. The remaining 118 transactions involved the provision of information. The

91 transactions relating to the provision of information accounted for almost 67% of the total activi1y monitored.

The 'Accommodation' category presented the most difficulty in separating service from information because four of the transactions were for bookings made by the Centre on behalf of a client. Three of these transactions resulted from written applications and one from a personal visit. Two of the transactions were notifications of currently available accommodation to the Centre for the Accommodation Booking Service. The remaining . fifteen transactions related to the provision of information about accommodation. The information provided ranged from a few telephone numbers to the official accommodation guide. This category accounted for almost 12% of the total activity and almost 13% of the transactions relating to information provision.

The enquiries relating to tourist attractions ranged from information about specific attractions to very general enquiries. This information was supplied in leaflets from the displays to personal visitors, but the fifteen telephoned requests were answered from personal knowledge for the most popular attractions and after consulting leaflets for the less frequently received enquiries. These transactions represented almost 16% of the total recorded during the survey and nearly 24% of the transactions requiring the provision of information.

14% of the total activity and 21 % of enquiries' resulted in the mailing of various sources of information to the enquirer. These transactions were all by telephone except for two in writing. One of the written applications was from France. Information about the area and accommodation were most often requested.

The seventeen requests for directions were mainly to attractions, embarkation points and booking offices for the pleasure cruises or bus stops, but one person required directions to the Civic Offices. (Unless the destination was within site of the Centre, a map was provided with the directions.) Requests for directions represented over 14% of the recorded enquiries and almost 10°,(, of the total.

Five requests (4% of enquiries) were specifically for maps of the Portsmouth area which were satisfied with a map of the city, showing the attractions, produced by the City Council. Requests for information about bus, boat and train services and routes accounted for nearly 7% of the enquiries and less than 5% of the total transactions.

92 The transactions resulting in referral to other Tourist Information Centres were telephone transactions, with one exception. They all required detailed information about other parts of the country for which the Centre had only very basic information.

Once again there were a number of enquiries that could only be classed as 'General' enquiries. These accounted for 6% of the enquiries and less than 4% of the recorded total and included the following:

A request for help in locating venues for a dance group planning a tour of the U.K. (this was referred within the Council)

A request for the names of casinos in the Portsmouth area (provided from the telephone directory).

A request for the names and addresses of Portsmouth newspapers.

A request for information on the public monuments in Portsmouth from someone trying to trace a specific memorial.

A request for statistics on tourism (referred to relevant council office)

The longer transactions were mainly related to specific services, but those requiring information either reflected the unusual nature of the enquiry, for example the enquiries about casinos and monuments mentioned above, or the need to convey information by telephone. The longest transactions were for the booking of accommodation.

11.1 .1 .3.2 Mode of contact

The transactions were roughly equally divided between personal visitors to the Centre and telephone calls. There were five written transactions, three of which related to accommodation bookings and two requests for information about the area. The 88 personal transactions included the service transactions such as issuing bus passes and Bureau de change as well as the sale of goods. All directional transactions and thirteen of the enquiries about tourist attractions were made in person.

The telephone transactions included fifteen of the requests for information about attractions and all, except two, of the transactions that required the sending of information.

93 11.1.1.3.3 Staff activity during transactions

Table 11.2: Categories of Tourist Information Centre staff activities during the observed transactions.

STAFF ACTIVITY DURING TRANSACTION NUMBER OF TRANSACTIONS INVOLVING THIS ACTIVITY

Answer from in-house compiled sources 19 Information from closed access sources 28

Take to/consult relevant leaflet stock 52

Answer from personal knowledge 33

Referral to other organisations 17

Sometimes multiple activities occurred before transactions were concluded. The tourist season was well advanced when the survey was carried out so staff had developed extensive personal knowledge of the Portsmouth area, the attractions and bus timetables. Most directional enquiries were answered from personal knowledge. Enquiries about accommodation and tourist attractions were mainly answered by providing leaflets and guides from the displays. The in-house compiled sources included various lists of accommodation, compiled by type, cost, location, vacancies during specific periods, T,I.C. approval etc. and these provided the telephone numbers for many of the enquiries about accommodation. A file of useful addresses and telephone numbers was maintained.

Most of the referrals were to other Tourist Information Centres, but three people were referred to the organisers of the Veterans exhibition and database, one referral was to the operators of a car park and one to a company of ferry operators.

The closed access sources were mainly accounted for by the maps used while giving directions although limrted use was made of the reference krt provided by the Southern Tourist Board.

11.1.2.1 The Commercial Road Tourist Information Centre and rts environment

Located opposrte the Railway Station in the centre of the crty, this Tourist Information Centre is close to the main shopping area and about 200 yards from the Guildhall Square. It is also close to numerous bus stops. The building strongly resembles a greenhouse and suffers from the problems inherent in glass roofed buildings. In hot weather the Centre can become so hot that rt is closed to avoid endangering the health of visrtors and staff.

94 11.1.2.2 The study

This Information Centre is also small but the presence of less administrative equipment

makes ~ appear less cramped than the Centre at The Hard. Two people were on duty at the Centre throughout the day. Observations were made from the staff area with minimal

disruption to the staff. The much lower number of telephone calls made. ~ possible to

mon~or them all ~h little need to ask staff for clarification.

Observations were made between 10am and 4pm, with an hour lunch break.

95 11.1.2.3 Results

11.1.2.3.1 Categorisation of transactions

The transactions could be categorised in the same way as the activity observed at The Hard.

Table 11.3: The volume of activity observed at the Tourist Information Centre in Commercial Road in general categories and the number of longer transactions in each category.

SERVICE OR SUBJECT CATEGORY NUMBER OF NUMBER OF LONGER TRANSACTIONS TRANSACTIONS BY TIME CATEGORIES IN MINUTES

1 - 4 5 -10

INFORMATION PROVISION Tourist attractions 21 3 - Sending relevant information 5 1 - Accommodation related information 15 2 2 Car park information 1 - - Referral to other Tourist information 9 1 - Centres

General 5 1 - Transport related 14 - - Directions 28 2 - Le Tour information 3 1 - Requests for maps 3 - - Events 2 1

SERVICES Sales 23 - - Bureau de change 1 1 - Bus passes 11 4

Administrative 8 - - Total 149 17 2

96 The 'Accommodation' category once again divided into service and information transactions. There were three transactions notifying the Centre of available accommodation and two instances of booking accommodation while the client waited. These were the transactions that took between five and ten minutes to complete. The remaining ten transactions, including two by telephone, required information about various kinds of accommodation.

The transactions requiring infomnation accounted for 101 of those recorded or almost 68% of the total. Accommodation information accounted for almost 10% of the enquiries and nearly 7% of the total number of transactions recorded.

Requests for directions, to various locations in and around the city as well as tourist attractions and bus stops, accounted for almost 28% of the enquiries. This was almost 19% of the total activity.

Enquiries about tourist attractions represented almost 21 % of the information requirements but only 14% of the total activity. Once again there were referrals to other Tourist Infomnation Centres throughout the country for more detailed information than was available at the Centre. Travel information accounted for almost 14% of the information requested and requests for guides to the area to be sent represented almost 5% of the enquiries.

Once again a small group of transactions had to be classed as 'General' enquiries. These included a telephoned request for the times and dates of guided walks, the address of the local Bingo Hall and the location of any specialist art supplies shops in the city.

11.1.2.3.2 Mode of contact

The 25 telephone calls (17% of the total transactions) included the requests for infomnation to be sent and four of the administrative transactions. Three calls relating to the availability of accommodation for the booking service were also included in this number. All but one of the transactions resulting in referral to other Tourist Information Centres were telephone enquiries. The remaining calls included requests for accommodation, attraction and travel information as well as the general enquiry on guided walks.

The majority of the recorded transactions resulted from personal visits to the Centre. These accounted for 83% of the total activity.

97 11.1.2.3.3 Staff activity during transactions

Table 11.4: Categories of staff activity during the transactions observed at the Commercial Road Tourist Information Centre.

CATEGORIES NUMBER OF TRANSACnONS INVOLVING THIS ACTIVITY

Information from in-house compiled sources 6

Information from closed access sources 38

take to/consult relevant leaflet stock 29

Answer from personal knowledge 27

Referral to other organisations 11

Very few enquiries required more than one activity for completion. The in-house compiled sources were the same in both Centres included in the study, although they were used very little here. Maps from closed access were given to personal visnors when providing directional information. A good knowledge of the ctty centre meant that the staff did not need to refer to alternative sources of information.

11.1.2.4 An analvsis of the Portsmouth Tourist Information Centres

There were several striking differences between the two Centres which became obvious during the survey.

Visnors The Hard Centre is more heavily used by tourists enher visiting the many naval attractions or taking pleasure trips around the harbour and the forts. This was reflected in the requests for directions and information on naval attractions. The Commercial· Road Centre is used by visnors that are interested in a whole range of attractions wtth less emphasis on the naval history. A number of local people visned the Centre for directions,

including the Registra~s Office, the Vehicle Licensing Office and the Careers Office. Bus passes seemed popular wtth local people too.

Telephone transactions The Commercial Road Centre received a much smaller percentage (17%) of telephone calls than the Centre at The Hard (50%).

Requests for directions There was almost a 10% difference in the percentage of requests for directions between the two Centres. At The Hard these accounted for less than 10% of the total activity while at Commercial Road they represented almost 20°,(,.

98 Apart from these differences there are overall similarities in the range of information that the staff were called upon to provide. The very broad categories that can be used to describe the information requested from the Centres are:

Information on all the different types of accommodation available in the area (hotels to caravan Parks).

Information about all forms of public transport, including timetables and routes, and the excursions available in the area.

Information on the opening hours, charges and facilities at tourist attractions, entertainments and events in the area, throughout the County and beyond.

Directions to tourist attractions and a wide range of public and commercial buildings and services throughout the area.

11.2.1 Fareham Tourist Information Centre and its environment

The Tourist Information Centre in the town of Fareham shares Westgate House with the Museum. Westgate House is about 50 yards from the Covered Shopping Centre and pedestrian precinct in the centre of Fareham, and about 100 yards from the public library. It is about 100 yards from Fareham public library which is located behind the Covered Shopping Centre. The walled garden to the rear of Westgate House has recently been restored and opened as a public garden. The bus station is located behind and extensive parking to the side of the house and garden.

The public room of the Tourist Information Centre is located to the left of the main entrance to the building. The square staff area behind a high information desk and low display cabinet for sale goods occupies one corner with the remaining area filled with displays. The staff have access to various facilities throughout the building. Storage space is at a premium so very little reserve stock can be accommodated at the Centre. Although all the available display space is used in the Centre there is more material available for display than space to display ft, therefore bus timetables and other ftems are stored under the information desk.

The displays contain leaflets about events, attractions and entertainments throughout the southern counties and general visftors guides to many other parts of the country. On sale are various A.A. publications, maps and regional guides. Postcards and souvenirs of the Borough are also sold here.

99 The in-house compiled information sources available were a file of useful addresses and telephone numbers and the accommodation lists_ The standard reference kit provided to all Tourist Information Centres was also available for the more general or national information_ This included National Express Directory, Britain Events 1994--5, Days out in Britain, Historic Houses, Museums and Galleries and AA publications like Touring England_ Many hotel and Y_HA guides to the UK and Europe were also available for staff use_

The service is provided by three members of staff, including the Centre Manager. The training certificates, displayed behind the information desk, testify to the variety of training opportunities available to Southern Tourist Board staff_ Four manually operated counters are used to record the number of UK and overseas visitors to the Centre and enquiries received by post and telephone_

11 .2.2 The study

~ was agreed that the survey would be conducted on Friday 10th June and Monday 13th June 1994_ On both observation days the two members of staff on duty were assisted by a student on work experience placement The narrowness ofthe public area at the Centre made t necessary for the observations to be made from the staff area. The presence of four people, instead of the usual two, behind the information desk caused some access problems_

Observations were made between 10am and 4_15pm on both days except for half-hour lunch breaks_

11.2_3 Results

11.2.3_1 Categorisation of transactions

The observed transactions could be categorised by the subjects and services involved_ These categories are shown in Table 11.5 with the number of transactions represented by each group_

100 Table 11.5: The volume of activity observed at the Fareham Tourist Information Centre in general categories.

SUBJECT/SERVICE CATEGORIES NUMBER OF TRANSACTIONS

INFORMATION PROVISION

Events 20

Tourist attractions 19

General visitors guides 14

Accommodation 22

General 10

Travel related 10

Community related information 5

Directional 5

Fareham guides 3

Referral to other Tourist Information Offices 2

Business related information 3

Referral to the Museum 5

SERVICES

Administrative 12

Sales 11

Bus passes 10

Coach booking 1

Total 152

The 'Accommodation' category of transactions included one actual booking done by the Centre on behalf of another Tourist information Centre and two notifications of available

0 accommodation. The whole category accounted for over 14 .. of the transactions but the eighteen requiring information accounted for almost 12% of the total recorded. Those that required information about accommodation in the area, one specifying as the location, were either provided with telephone numbers or copies of the Fareham Guide.

101 Taking into account the service related accommodation transactions there were 36 transactions that did not result in the provision of information and 116 that did. The latter accounted for over 76% of the total activity recorded in the study.

The enquiries about tourist attractions outside the area ranged from steam railways throughout the country to the opening hours of Jane Austin's house. The more local attractions covered were the museums in Fareham and Gospor! and the 17th Century village. These enquiries accounted for 12.5% ofthe observed activity and over 16% of the total enquiries. Of the enquiries about more local attractions there were four enquiries about Southwick House, which played a very important part in the events leading up to D-Day.

Enquiries about events were also not restricted to those occurring locally, but included the dates of the finals days of Wimbledon, dates for both the South of England and New Forest Shows and information on events at Goodwood. A local event that attracted nine enquiries was the Portsmouth stage of the Tour de France cycle race. Two enquiries about remaining D-Day events were also recorded. Event enquiries accounted for over 17°., of the requests for information and 13% of the recorded transactions.

The Centre staff received fourteen enquiries for infonnation for vis~ors to other parts of the country, ranging from cottages in Comwall to a guide to Wales. Guides to the Camp s~es of the New Forest proved the most often requested guides to other areas. Requests for the guides to other parts of the country accounted for 12% of the total enquiries and just over 9% of the total number of transactions. The Centre did not always have the required guide in stock therefore two enquirers were referred to the appropriate Tourist Information Centre for the subject of their enquiry.

There were three business related enquiries dealing ~h various aspects of providing

Southern Tourist Board approved Bed and Breakfast accommodation. The 'Commun~' information category included summer holiday activity schemes in the town and market days in Portsmouth and .

There were, once again, some enquiries that could only be grouped together as 'General' enquiries. Some enquiries included in this category were:

Where can I get my pram repaired?

Where can I go in the evenings? (enquiry from single female on a course in the town for a few days)

102 Have you got contact numbers for the Country Clubs in the area?

How do I join the Y.H A.?

One consequence of sharing a building is that some people wander into the wrong area.

This happened on five occasions during the study and resu~ed in referrals to the museum.

11.2.3.2 Transaction completion times

Table 11.6: The longer Personal and telephone transactions in broad categories.

SUBJECT/SERVICE CATEGORIES MODE OF CATEGORIES OFTIME TAKEN TO CONTACT COMPLETE THE TRANSACTION IN MINUTES

<1 1 - 4 5-10 11 - 15

Accommodation Telephone 6 12 1 1 Personal 2 - - - Tourist attractions Telephone 1 2 - - Personal 15 1 - - General visitors guides Telephone - 2 - - Personal 9 3 - - General Telephone 1 3 - - Personal 5 1 - - Travel related information Personal 8 2 - - Community related information Personal 4 1 - Directional Personal 3 1 - - Fareham guide Telephone 1 - - Personal 2 1 - - Bus passes Telephone 6 1 - - Personal - 3 - - Business related information Telephone 1 1 - - Personal - 1 - - Administration Telephone 3 2 - - Personal 7 - - - Sale Personal 9 2 -- Total 82 40 1 1

There were 43 telephone transactions which was just over 28% of the total activity recorded so personal visits to the Centre provided almost 72% of the transactions. There were no written transactions and no fax facility was available.

103 . The longest transaction, which took fifteen minutes, was the booking of accommodation for the Cheltenham Centre. Two of the telephone calls requested bed and breakfast accommodation with parking facilities for lorries.

11.2.3.3 Staff activity during transactions

The staff activities during transactions requiring infirmation were observed to fall into five categories. On some occasions more than one activity was needed to complete a transaction. The in-house compiled sources used were the file of useful local addresses and the accommodation lists. The information from closed access stock related to leaflets on themes, such as steam trains, bus timetables that could not be fitted into the displays and the general reference books provided by the Southern Tourist Board. The personal knowledge of staff provided the answers to some questions, particularly those less related to the main stream activities of the Centre. The largest activity area was the provision of information from the leaflets and booklets on display.

Table 11.7: The categories of staff activity during the observed transactions.

STAFF ACTIVITIES DURING NUMBER OF TRANSACTIONS INCLUDING THE TRANSACTIONS ACTIVITY

Answer from in-house compiled 46 sources

Information from closed access 13 sources

Take to/consult relevant leaflet 53 stock

Answer from personal knowledge 13

Referral to external organisations 14

104 11.2.3.4 Referrals

Apart from the referrals to other Tourist Information Centres which provided the whole answer for some enquiries, referral was also made to other Centres as part of some enquiries. Referrals were also made to local estate agents, the Shopping Centre, the local pram shop, and to the museum.

11.2.4 An analysis of the activity observed at the Tourist Information Centre, Fareham

This Tourist Information Centre is very much an established part of community life in Fareham. It was observed that many visitors passed the time of day with the staff then

browsed through the displays. Two members of the town Twinning Association vis~ed the

Centre while researching what Borough souvenirs would be su~ble as gifts for their German and French counterparts. The presence of information about other parts of the country caters for the holiday requirements of many local residents.

The Centre acts as agents for the issuing of bus passes, ticket bookings for local theatres and seat reservations on coach excursions with local companies. These services also

encourage residents of the area to vis~ the Centre.

The information requested at the Fareham Centre was very similar to that needed in the Portsmouth Centres. Information on accommodation, attractions and events, guides to other parts of the country and transport accounted for over 53% of the total recorded transactions and almost 70% of the enquiries observed.

105 Chapter 12

Discussion of results: the public libraries

12.1 Categorisation of enquiries

Table 12.1: The percentage of enquiries received at the four libraries in the study in broad categories.

SUBJECT! SOURCE THE PERCENTAGE OF TRANSACTIONS COUNTED AS ENQUIRIES IN EACH CATEGORIES CATEGORY FOR THE SURVEYED LIBRARIES

PORTSMOUTH FAREHAM FORDINGBRIDGE PUTNEY

General 55.9 40.3 59.6 56.4

Business 11.4 13.6 - 2.2 Community 3 11.8 6 6.3

Local 1.8 5.1 6 3.7 government

Health 0.3 3.7 1.5 1.5

Specific 23.7 24 6 14.6 documents Special 1.8 1.5 - - collections

Library services 2.1 20.9 15.6

The 'General' subject category accounted for the largest proportion of enquiries at all four public libraries in the study. This grouping of subjects that could not be categorised further, represented 40% of enquiries at Fareham which compares well with the findings of previous research outlined in chapter 1. The other three libraries in the present survey recorded between 15% and almost 20% more 'General' enquiries than Fareham, but this may not be significantty different from earlier research because the categories used were different. The earlier survey included an 'Information' category which represented 22% of the enquiries.

106 The similarity between the libraries for 'General' enquiries is not observed in any other category used in this sU/vey. Both Portsmouth and Fareham had about 24% of enquiries for 'Specific documents', which in the case of Portsmouth could reflect the considerable amount of stock in closed access. Although this is not the case at Fareham a similar proportion of requests for specific documents was recorded. Putney Library registered less enquiries for 'Specific documents' which may be a result of the smaller amount of closed access stock, such as Which Reports, Electoral Registers, newspaper backcopies and quick reference volumes, that would be specifically requested. Fordingbridge had the lowest percentage of such transactions and also a minimal amount of closed access stock.

The third largest category for enquiries at Portsmouth and Fareham was 'Business' which accounted for over 11 % and almost 14% respectively. This probably reflected the large amount of business related information available and requested at these larger libraries. Putney and Fordingbridge libraries registered few, if any, 'Business' enquiries. Putney Library is also located relatively close to the West Hill Reference Library. As might be expected business related enquiries were recorded at those libraries with appropriate resources.

The 'General', 'Business' and 'Specific documents' categories account for 91 % of the enquiries recorded at Portsmouth Library with the remaining 9°.. accounting for the other five categories. At Fareham these three categories are joined by the 'Community' category in representing almost 90% of enquiries, with the remaining 10% accounting for three other categories.

The 'Community' category produced a completely different pattern between the four libraries. Portsmouth recorded only 3% of enquiries in this category while Putney and Fordingbridge were very similar with 6% each and Fareham registered almost 12%. This pattern cannot be a result of the stock available to deal with such enquiries because Portsmouth had the most extensive stock in this area and Putney's almost equalled that of Fareham. Fordingbridge had very little resources in this area but they were relatively heavily used. The differences between Portsmouth and Fareham may well be explained by the absence of smaller libraries and alternative information providers at Fareham.

The 'Local government' category represents no more than 6% of enquiries in any of the libraries studied. The very low levels for this category and 'Community' related enquiries at Portsmouth may reflect the close proximity of the County Council Information Centre and Portsmouth City Council Offices.

107 'Health' enquiries are reported to account for 5% of enquiries (1) but no library in the survey reached this level. As explained later (section 12.3) the facility to stock and distribute leaflets may provide a partial explanation for the low level of enquiries recorded in these categories. Pharmacies, Doctors' surgeries and health clinics are alternative providers of health related information.

The remaining two categories of 'Special collections' and 'Library services' (which included request queries) reflect the stock and organisation of the libraries in the study. Portsmouth and Fareham Libraries included special collections although Fareham's Local Studies collection cannot be compared with the collections of Portsmouth. Fordingbridge and Putney had no special collections. The counter at Fordingbridge doubles as the information desk and at Putney Library the membership and telephone answering point are combined with the information desk.

If only the five information categories detailed in section 2.1 are considered then Fordingbridge and Putney libraries deal predominantly with 'General' enquiries while at Portsmouth Library 'Business' enquiries are also important. At Fareham Library the 'Business' and 'Community' categories of enquiries are important but the 'General' enquiries still predominate. The categories of 'Health' and 'Local government' represent a very small proportion of enquiries at all four libraries.

The transactions that were not counted as enquiries accounted for almost 39% of the total activity recorded at Portsmouth Central Library and over 39% at Putney District Library. Fordingbridge Library experienced a greater proportion of non-enquiry transactions than any other library in the survey at over 48% and the lowest proportion of just over 34% was recorded at Fareham. The higher proportion at Fordingbridge would be expected as the information desk and counter are combined. Renewals represented about 50% of the non-enquiry transactions with administrative transactions, including photocopier related transactions, accounting for the other 50%. At Fareham Library the non-enquiry transactions were mainly accounted for by photocopier related transactions, study carrel bookings and administration.

The similar percentages of non-enquiry activity recorded at Portsmouth and Putney libraries were, in the main, derived from totally different types of transactions. At Portsmouth the 'Administrative' transactions accounted for over 52% of the non-enquiry transactions and 'Redirections within the library' building accounted for 36%. The remainder of the transactions not counted as enquiries related to reservations and other library services and accounted for almost 12°,(,. Almost 44% of the 'Administrative' transactions related to the booking of microform readers and study carrels. Photocopier

108 related transactions were also included in the 'Administrative' category. At Putney Library the non-enquiry transactions included 37 ... that involved renewals and 28 ... 'Administrative' transactions including those related to the photocopier. Library service and request related transactions accounted for almost 24 ... of the non-enquiry transactions and 'Redirections within the building' accounted for over 10....

12.2 Transaction completion times

Table 12.2: Time taken to complete enquiries in the four public libraries mon~ored for the study.

TIME TAKEN IN PERCENTAGE OF TRANSACTIONS IN TIME BANDS FOR EACH LIBRARY MINUTES MONITORED

PORTSMOUTH FAREHAM FORDINGBRIDGE PUTNEY

Less than 1 61.6 55.0 52.2 70.2

1 - 4 30.6 33.9 44.8 27.2

5 - 10 7.5 8.5 3.0 2.2 11 - 15 - 2.2 - less than 1 16 - 44 - -- - 45 or more less than 1 less than 1 -

A relatively large proportion of the enquiries put to the four libraries in the survey were straightforward and easily answered in less than a minute. Putney experienced the highest percentage (70"') of these very quick and easy enquiries while Fordingbridge received the least with 52 .... The proportion of enquiries that took under five minutes was remarkably similar for all four libraries, ranging from about 90... at Fareham and Portsmouth to 97 ... at Fordingbridge and Putney. Many of the quick enquiries related to the provision of specific documents although retrieval of closed access materials stored away from enquiry desks can artificially increase the transaction times observed. No enquiries took over fifteen minutes at Putney District Library and Fordingbridge took less than ten minutes to answer all enquiries. In the case of Fordingbridge, the small amount of stock is well known by the staff so referrals are made rather than searches. The West Hill Reference Library is relatively close to Putney Library which may account in part for the lack of longer enquiries observed during the survey, indeed referrals to the Reference Library were observed during the study. In this respect Putney Library is similar to that of Fordingbridge.

109 One factor that must be considered in conjunction with the transaction times is that staff will defer difficult searches until they are not working at the information desk. This happened at Portsmouth information desks on several occasions during the study.

The quick and easy nature of almost 90% of the enquiries equate with previous research findings although the percentages derived from this study are higher than those quoted in chapter 1. It was considered dangerous to derive any conclusions from the longer enquiries observed during this survey as such a small number in the sample population could introduce very large errors.

110 12.3 Sources used to satisfy enquiries

Table 12.3: The broad categories of documents provided and information sources used to answer enquiries observed at the four surveyed libraries.

STOCK CATEGORIES PERCENTAGE OF EACH CATEGORY OF STOCK USED AT THE AND INFORMATION INDIVIDUAL MONITORED LIBRARIES SOURCES PORTSMOUTH FAREHAM FORDINGBRIDGE PUTNEY

Books and 41.8 41.2 54.3 36.5 pamphlets open access 20.5 35.3 53.3 32.4 closed access 21.3 5.9 1.0 4.1

Newspapers! 13.3 14.7 5.3 8.3 serials

Leaflets 7.5 17.7 10.7 10.1

Compu1er 10.4 4.0 9.3 23.5

Microfiche 9.5 2.6 4.0 not used

Referrals 5.2 12.1 6.7 13.0

In-house 12.4 7.4 19.3 8.6 compilations in hardcopy

The largest group of enquirers in all four libraries were provided with 'Books and pamphlets'. The percentages represented by this category was highest at Fordingbridge Library (53%) and lowest at Pu1ney (37%), with Portsmouth and Fareham libraries at about 41 % falling in between. However, when this category is broken down into open access and closed access a different picture emerges which reflects the relative amounts of stock in closed at each library. Portsmouth Library provided an almost equal proportion of this category from closed and open access while Fareham and Putney both provided about a seventh of this category from closed access. As Fordingbridge had little closed access stock it is not surprising that this category is predominantly provided from open access stock.

Newspapers and serials also represent a small portion of the materials provided at Fordingbridge because no backcopies are stored and was actually accounted for by current issues of serials from the small collection being misplaced in the library.

Leaflets from the local information file and leaflets displayed in the library accounted for almost 18% of the information sources used in Fareham Library. Single reference copies

1 1 1 of leaflets are filed in the local information file together with lists, handouts and other documents produced by local organisations and relevant press cuttings to provide information only. Leaflets were often the source of Community, Health and Local Government related information. Fareham subscribes to the Camden Free Leaflet Information Service, a specialised leaflet service. (This type of service is very useful for maintaining comprehensive and up-to-date leaflet cOllections.) The local information leaflet collections also provided about 10% of the information at Putney and Fordingbridge libraries.

The computerised sources of information included in-house data bases and the Hantsnet and TAP data bases provided by other organisations. Commercial CD-ROM data bases were also available for public use at Portsmouth but not at the other three libraries. Computerised library catalogues provided most of the information for enquiries in all four libraries. The higher percentage of computer use recorded for Putney Library related to the search facility available on the computer catalogue. Hampshire libraries were dependent on microfiche for much of the bibliographical information available on Putney's computerised catalogue. Although various on line services were available in Hampshire and advertised in their business related I~erature, no enquiry was observed to result in an online search.

The variation in microfiche use observed between the Hampshire libraries was in some part due to the availability of various publications in this format that were available at Portsmouth and Fareham but used more by the public in the former.

The hardcopy in-house compilations were composed of standard county-wide computer printouts of various types of stock and locally compiled card files or lists of useful addresses and other information. The relatively small collection of such sources at Fordingbridge Library was very heavily used. Putney and Fareham libraries, with in-house compiled sources similar in extent, made much less use of them. Portsmouth had the most extensive range of such sources and used them for over 12% of their enquiries.

Referrals were made less frequently from Portsmouth Library, which acts as a regional centre for referrals from other libraries, than from Putney and Fareham libraries where referrals represented 13% and 12% oftotal activity but Fordingbridge also made relatively few referrals. This could be explained by the conversion of enquiries to reservations at Fordingbridge while Fareham and Putney libraries are relatively close to other libraries and organisations that could provide information.

112 Leaving aside the information sources that are affected by variations in library organisation and layout the trends indicated by this study are:

The majority of enquiries were satisfied from book and pamphlet stock from open or closed access.

Where newspapers and serials were available they were used.

Leaflets provided the information for more enquiries in Fareham than any other library in the survey and for the least at Portsmouth.

A few in-house compiled sources provided over 19% of the answers to enquiries at Fordingbridge Library.

The large city and small rural libraries made fewer referrals than the urban and London borough libraries.

12.4 Comparison of survey results with reported Hampshire library statistics

To make the survey results for the libraries in Hampshire compatible with the reported statistics the following equation was used:

Total opening hours x Number of desks] X Number of enquiries. [ Hours surveyed

By using this equation it was possible to derive a better indication of the number of enquiries put to the libraries each week. This can only be used as a very rough indication of the volume of enquiries dealt with by each library in a week because the survey was carried out during the hours considered to be the busiest by library staff.

Fordingbridge Library was monitored for two Tuesdays which was considered the busiest day of the week by the staff and a Wednesday which was much less busy. Staff at Portsmouth, Putney and Fareham reported that the activity observed was less than usual. The Putney Library survey took place during the week after the spring Bank Holiday, and University and College students that form large portions of the library users at Portsmouth and Fareham were sitting exams during the study.

113 Table 12.4: Normalisation of survey results.

LIBRARY TOTAL HOURS DESKS NUMBER ESnMATED OPENING SURVEYED OF WEEKLY HOURS ENQUIRIES TOTAL

Portsmou1h 51 26 4 333 2613

Fareham 50 33 1 271 411 (Reference)

Fordingbridge 30.5 15 1 67 136

Pu1ney 48 15 1 272 870

Table 12.5: A comparison of the survey results with reported Hampshire enquiry statistics.

LIBRARY ANNUAL (199112) ANNUAL {1991/2l SURVEY AS A % OF 52 ESTABLISHMENT STATISTICS

Portsmouth 213761 (2) 4111 63

Fareham 73834 (2) 1420 (includes 29 lending library)

Fordingbridge 6889 (3) 132 101

The survey results appear to reflect the average level of activity experienced at Fordingbridge Library.

The survey results for Portsmouth Central Library appear to represent just over 60% of average activity reported in the Library Service statistics, however the figures reported by Hampshire include enquiries received in the Childrens' Library and at the counter and membernhip desk that were not mon~ored during this survey. Are the differences between the enquiry statistics reported by Hampshire and the survey results accounted for by the enquiries received in the areas of the library not mon~ored in the survey? Could they in part be accounted for by differences in the crtteria used for counting enquiries, or surveying an unrepresentative sample? nis not clear from the Hampshire documentation how far the definitions differed from those used in the survey. The figures for Fareham cannot be compared because the Lending Library, which included a Childrens' area, was not included in the survey.

114 12.5 Internal and external factors that may affect observations in public libraries

There are many possible points of variation between libraries which may account for differences in various aspects of the activity observed. Some of these variations have been mentioned earlier in this report, but it is considered worthwhile repeating them at this point.

The customer care ethos may encourage more and longer enquiries. (Seen during this survey by the low incidence of directing enquirers to stock areas.)

Local environment and population mix can cause significant differences in the volume and type of enquiries put to libraries. (High number of University students using Portsmouth Library and high representation of middle-class people in the population of Putney.)

Good signs and guides may reduce enquiries. (Poor signs in Portsmouth may be partly responsible for the level of referrals to different floors.)

Ubraries spread over several floors increase the number of enquiries. (Observed at Portsmouth Lending Library information desk in the number of referrals to Reference Library information desks.)

Opening hours, the condition of the stock, staff arrangements (queues put people off), technical advances, presence of OPACs and other information sources for public use.

Alternative information providing agencies may affect the mix of enquiries put to public libraries.

References

1. Berke, R. Access to consumer health information. Reference Librarian, 21, 1985, 196.

2. Hampshire County Council. County Library information statistics - the first ten years 1982-3 to 1992-2: a survey. 1992, p. 9.

3. Ibid. p.12.

115 Chapter 13

Discussion of results: comparison of public libraries with specialised information providers

13.1 Subject categories

The Tourist Information Centres show most differences in the categories of enquiries recorded during the survey. Over 92% of the information supplied was tourism related with only 6% of the enquiries categorised as 'General'. Community related enquiries represented just over 1% of the total.

The Information Centres were presented with a wider range of enquiries but their specialist areas accounted for over 70% of the total. Enquiries about services provided by the council accounted for over 55% of the enquiries put to the Winchester Centre but the Portsmouth Centre received a higher proportion of Community related enquiries. The 'General' category accounted for over 18% of the information requirements of the enquirers.

Table 13.1: The percentage of enquiries received at the four libraries, County Council Information Centres (ICs) and Tourist Information Centres (TICs) in the study in broad subject or source categories.

SUBJECTI THE PERCENTAGE OF TRANSACTIONS COUNTED AS ENQUIRIES IN EACH SOURCE CATEGORY FOR THE SURVEYED ESTABLISHMENTS CATEGORIES PORTSMOUTH FAREHAM F'BRIDGE PUTNEY H.C.C.ICS TICS

General 55.9 40.3 59.6 56.4 18.5 6

Business 11.4 13.6 2.2 5.8 <1

Community 3 11.8 6 6.3 25.4 1.4

Local 1.8 5.1 6 3.7 48.0 government - Health 0.3 3.7 1.5 1.5 2.3 - Specific 23.7 24 6 14.6 - documents -

Special 1.8 1.5 - - collections - - Library 2.1 - 20.9 15.6 - - services

116 13.2 Transaction completion times

Almost 91 % of transactions requiring information in the County Council Information Centre took less than one minute. The information transactions taking four minutes or less to complete accounted for 93% of the total which compares well with the majority of enquiries put to the libraries in the survey. The requests for information at the Tourist Information Centres (TICs) took longer to satisfy on average, with about 78% taking less

than a minute but 98% being dea~ with in four minutes or less. This comparison between the three types of information providers indicates that most requests for information were quick and easy to deal with.

The 6% of longer transactions at the Council's Information Centre took between 5 and 10 minutes to complete with just over 2% taking between one and five minutes. This slight increase in longer enquiries in the higher time band indicates a difference from the trend observed in libraries.

The trend in average completion times for the TICs is very similar to that recorded for Putney Library. No transaction took over 15 minutes to complete.

117 Table 13.2: Time taken to complete enquiries in the four public libraries, Tourist Information Centres (TICs) and Hampshire County Council Information Centres monitored for the study.

TIME TAKEN PERCENTAGE OF TRANSACTIONS IN TIME BANDS FOR EACH ESTABLISHMENT IN MINUTES MONITORED

PORTSMOUTH FAREHAM F'BRIDGE PUTNEY H.C.C.ICS TICS

Less than 1 61.6 55 52.2 70.2 90.6 76.6

1-4 30.6 33.9 44.6 27.2 2.3 21.5

5 - 10 7.5 6.5 3 2.2 6.0 1.3

11 - 15 - 2.2 - less - less than 1 than 1

16 - 20 - - - less than 1 - 21 - 44 - - -- 45 or more less than 1 less than - - -- 1

13.3 Sources of information provided

The ncs included in the study supplied leaflets and booklets from displays and conveyed information from reference sources, relating to the tourist industry provided by the Southern Tourist Board. The ICs supplied leaflets produced by the Council or organisations supported by the Council. Both types of Centre used in-house compiled sources of information for their core activities and areas of more general information.

13.4 Levels of expertise required of staff

The staff of both TICs and ICs need a very good knowledge of their specialised areas. The staff in public libraries need a good level of general knowledge as well as an understanding of how to obtain information and expertise in the retrieval of information. The difference is between the specialist, having a detailed knowledge of a subject, and the generalist, knowing how to quickly find out about a whole range of subjects. The staff of public libraries are expected by the public to be experts in the retrieval of information.

118 Chapter 14

Conclusions

The survey fulfilled the primary objectives stated in section 2.1. Information was obtained about the relative volumes of enquiries put to public libraries of different sizes in various environments. Information was also obtained about the proportions of enquiries in the recognised specialist areas of business, community, health and local government services information.

A range of sizes and great variety of physical characteristics are revealed by the descriptions of the environment and appearance of individual units in the survey, but it was not possible to decide from so small a study to what extent variations in observed activity were related to these features. Features dictated by the other library services with which the Information Services were meshed, especially where staff were not employed exclusively for Reference and Information work, could be seen in the surveyed libraries. Fordingbridge and Putney libraries provided good examples ofthis in the integration of Information and Lending Library functions at the counter and information desk respectively. The variety in these circumstances must affect the application of standards and norms.

There were obvious differences in the proportions of the different categories of enquiries investigated in the study, but to get a clear understanding of the demand for information in the less well represented categories a much larger sample is needed. A common feature of all the libraries was the straightforward nature of the majority of enquiries. To obtain a better understanding of the longer or more complex enquiries which formed such a small proportion of the recorded enquiries a larger sample would again be required.

There were common features among the libraries in several of the enquiry categories. The very high proportion of 'General' enquiries recorded for all the libraries and the similarity in the proportions of 'Business' enquiries received by libraries with good business related information stocks are the most notable. As could be expected the stock of each library equated with the enquiries received by the library, therefore no library received a significant proportion of enquiries that could not be answered from the sources available. This was also true of the other information providers in the survey. Over 90% of the activity recorded at the Tourist Information Centres was related to tourism and almost 75% of the requires received by the Council Information Centres was for community or council services information.

119 The secondary objectives were also achieved to a considerable degree. The wide range of subjects recorded show that the public do assume that library staff are capable of providing answers in many fields. The observational nature of the survey made it impossible to discover the information needs of a large proportion of enquirers because they requested specific documents without stating the information required. The requirements can be inferred from some types of document but this is by no means possible for all.

Information on the proportion of information desk activity that is not related to enquiries was also obtained. Approximately one third of all transactions could be categorised as non enquiry transactions in the libraries studied.

The survey was not designed to investigate the self-help users of the services but it was observed throughout the survey that all the information centres were used by visitors that appeared to obtain what they required without approaching staff members. This was particularly true of Reference libraries at Portsmouth and Fareham.

The descriptions of the different services include brief descriptions of the staff employed to provide the information service. Qualified information specialists are employed in the library services to provide the information services with locally trained non-professional information assistants. The high proportion of quick and easy enquiries put to most libraries can be efficiently dealt with by well trained non-professional staff, but there is the need for qualified information providers for the more complex enquiries that regularly arise. This survey indicates that the more complex enquiries form a very small proportion of the enquiries received by public libraries. but on at least two occasions research was postponed until the member of staff was not timetables for public enquiry duties.

The large proportions of transactions that are unrelated to enquiries do not need specialist information providers for successful completion.

120 Chapter 15

Recommendations

From the survey rt is clear that further studies are desirable. It is recommended that these studies include the features discussed below:

1. Taking into account the considerable variations that appear to be caused by spirt srtes and multi-floored libraries it is recommended that a larger survey of groups of crty, urban, rural and London borough libraries be undertaken. This would yield results that could be compared with greater confidence.

2. A longer study in an individual library to provide a larger sample, less liable to the errors that can arise from small sample sizes, would;

give a better understanding of the demand for information in the less well represented categories.

provide accurate information about the more time consuming and complex enquiries which also formed a small proportion of the recorded activity.

provide more enquiries from which rt would be possible to produce meaningful categories to replace the 'General' enquiries category used in this survey.

3. A large questionnaire survey of the recording methods and definitions used by library services would provide considerable valuable information about the present state of enquiry statistics collection.

4. The detailed logging by library staff of enquiries that take over five minutes to complete would provide detailed information about the longer transactions but may conflict with the customer care ethos during busy periods. This conflict is likely to result in under recording, a common problem with this form of data collection.

5. The effects of guiding, OPACs and CD-ROM electronic databases on the self­ help library user.

121 6. The effects of the quality of library guiding on the levels of internal referrals and enquiries.

7. An investigation of the various leaflet services available and more effective ways to handle and store stocks of leaflets in libraries.

8. Investigation of the adequacy of information provision relying on a mainly non­ professional staff.

9. An investigation of the types of query suitable for database responses.

10. Research into provision of Health and Community information, and formats available.

11 . An investigation into the provision of formal training for library users in terms of availability, user demand and success of implementation.

12. Research into library usage patterns by school children outside of school hours.

13. Investigation of the marketing strategies adopted by the various information providers and their impact on clients.

,.;i'

"

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