The quality of academic and public library reference service provided for NTIS products and services: Unobtrusive test results

This article reports on the use of unobtrusive testing to gather data on a performance measure— correct answer fill rate. Personnel from 12 academic and public libraries participating in the U.S. Government Printing Office's depository program were asked 5 pretested questions and the accuracy and efficiency of their search outcome were measured. Although the article reports a pilot project, the findings and discussion of study results should have broad interest. They document the inability of a number of staff members to negotiate successfully reference questions pertaining to NTIS and technical report literature. Clearly, the study merits replication on a broader scale and library staff should review their search skills with the test questions appended to this article.