How do you track research requests?

[Norma Jean Hewlett]

We've been using Gimlet for the past two years, and it's working very well
for us.

We have it set up to track the type of request (reference, circulation,
directions etc), the patron type (student, faculty, staff, guest),
submission method (live, email, phone) and time required, as well as
request date and time. I believe all these options can easily be configured
to fit whatever suits a particular library.

I'm the librarian at a small branch campus, located about 50 miles from our
main campus. This Gimlet account is shared by my whole workgroup, which
includes staff at 4 branches (usually a librarian and an assistant at each)
plus our supervisor and her assistant at the main campus. The account
belongs to our supervisor and the online input form includes information
about which location is answering the question and who worked on it. The
main campus library has a separate but similar Gimlet account that they
use, with slightly different categories for their questions.

My supervisor like this a lot, because it allows her to easily compile and
track statistics for each campus or the entire workgroup, and to compare
them with the statistics from the main library.

Jean Hewlett
Librarian, Santa Rosa Branch Campus
University of San Francisco



On Fri, Jun 5, 2015 at 2:49 PM, Zoe Friedlander <zfriedlander at oscars.org>
wrote:

>  My company’s (special) libra*r*y, which serves both Academy staff and
> external patrons, keeps track of research requests in a variety of
> different ways, but would like to consolidate on a single way. Research
> requests come in through one of these methods: an e-reference form (for
> external patrons); a staff-only form; by phone; by email; or in-person
> (walk up to the reference desk). For the requests that are
> non-form-originated, staff receiving the requests manage them either in
> email or in another method of their own devising.
>
>
>
> I am considering using Google forms to capture the requests, and I would
> create one interface for patron requests, a second one for staff requests,
> and possibly a third one for staff who are handling the requests; all
> request and resolution data would go to the same place.
>
>
>
> Before I do that, I would like to hear what methods or systems are in use
> at other special libraries, or any libraries with similar requirements.
>
>
>
> Thanks in advance for your suggestions and apologies for cross-posting.
>
>
>
> [image: Δ] <http://www.oscars.org/>
>
> Zoe Friedlander
> Head of Library Systems
>
> Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
> Information Technology
> 333 S. La Cienega Boulevard • Beverly Hills, CA 90211
>
> 310.247.3000 x2239 • zfriedlander at oscars.org
>
> =========
>
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> 2015-06-05
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2015-06-06
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