E-Reference in Public Libraries: Phoenix Public Library Case Study, Our Website is Your 24/7 Reference Librarian

Background

To put Phoenix Public Library in to context for this case study, it is a system of 16 branches¹ and a large central library serving a population of 1.5 plus million in a metro area of 4.5 million. The metro area also includes 11 independent (some multi-branch) systems and a county library system serving the unincorporated parts of the county. In fiscal year 2009/10, the library housed 1,736,000 items; offered 78subscription databases; circulated 14,447,111 items; counted 230,822 active customers (card used in the last year); had 850,940 customer-initiated public Internet PC sessions; provided 4,111 programs attended by 102,242 customers; and staff taught regular basic computer classes in five library training classrooms. They did this with a total staff of 330 FTE of which 22 percent were librarians.

The Phoenix Public Library approached the development of its e-reference library using a staff-developed ten step methodology. The process has been refined over the last 15 years, but the basic concepts have not changed.

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  Know your community's needs. Facts and figures are better than assumptions and anecdotes.

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  Develop an ideal collection development plan; review it annually.

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  Review the marketplace which will take the plan from ideal to “what is available now.”

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  Arrange for both staff and public testing of the resources. Testing must also be done by the IT staff whose input will help eliminate any technical implementation pitfalls.

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  Evaluate for content quality, ease of use (intuitive use without training to access the most relevant information), and technical/maintenance issues.

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  Select resources based on a set of defined criteria. Criteria will evolve over time.

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  Implement, bring the resource(s) live on the library website.

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  Market every product to both the public and staff.

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  Continually evaluate both from the usage/cost per search perspective and public satisfaction. This equals your return on investment (ROI).

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  Repeat the process continually.