Patron Type

• Yale Student - any Yale student
• Local Student - for med or law, a med or law student
• Yale Faculty - any Yale faculty
• Local Faculty - for med or law, a med or law faculty
• Yale Other - staff, spouse, librarian, alum
• Other - unaffiliated patron
• Unknown - unknown status

Location of Librarian

This list is customized to each unit and represents where the librarian is when the question is received. Office means the librarian's office. Use "other" for locations not on the list.

Mode of Receipt

• Virtual - this is reserved - do NOT record Ask!Live transactions
• Phone - questions received over the telephone
• In Person - questions received directly from the questioner
• Email - questions that arrive by email, direct or from the form
• Fax - questions send by fax
• U.S. Mail - questions that come in the physical mail

Duration

The approximate length of time spent on the question in minutes. For questions longer than one hour (60 minutes), record 60 minutes and then edit the transaction to reflect the total time.

When editing the duration, you will notice that the duration is recorded in whole and decimal hours. This allows computations on the duration. To convert minutes to decimal hours, remember one tenth of an hour is six minutes. So one and a quarter hours would be 1.25 hours (75 minutes). An hour an twenty minutes would be 1.3 (60 + 18 or 78 minutes). Round up or down as appropriate to make tenths of an hour, don't worry about a minute here or there, these are estimates anyway.

Question Type

Reference An information contact that involves the knowledge, use, recommendations, interpretation, or instruction in the use of one or more information sources by a member of the library staff. The term includes information and referral service. Information sources include (a) printed and nonprinted material; (b) machine-readable databases (including computer-assisted instruction); (c)the library's own catalogs and other holdings records; (d) other libraries and institutions through communication or referral; and (e) persons both inside and outside the library. When a staff member uses information gained from previous use of information sources to answer a question, the transaction is reported as a reference transaction even if the source is not consulted again.

Directional A directional transaction is an information contact that facilitates the logistical use of the library and that does not involve the knowledge, use, recommendations, interpretation, or instruction in the use of any information sources other than those that describe the library, such as schedules, floor plans, and handbooks.

Machine Questions include assistance with the operation of a printer, computer, microform reader, photocopy machine, or other equipment. If the question requires you to explain how to configure information for downloading or printing, count this as a reference question.

Circulation Any question involving circulation policies or procedures, document delivery, including interlibrary loan and Borrow Direct.

4/11/2005.