Analyzing Reference Activities: The Affordable Solution

At the Northern Virginia office of Central Michigan University's (CMU) Off-campus Library Services' program, reference questions were analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences SPSS/PC + Studentware. A program was set up to examine data on each reference question received by the staff. The results provided totals for each variable examined (e.g., the subject of request, gender of requester) as well as tables showing relationships among variables (e.g., breakdowns of subject of question by course), with accompanying statistics. Such analyses can give a more precise picture of what is happening at the reference desk, and provide information useful in planning. The CMU experience is presented as an illustration of a process almost any librarian could adapt to meet his or her needs for more complex data analysis.