An information contact that involves the knowledge, use, recommendations, interpretation, or instruction in the use [or creation 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 non-printed materials; (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. Do not count purely directional transactions. Do count transactions with a reference and a directional component.
Consultations
Consultations are one-on-one or small group appointments (i.e., scheduled) with a library staff member outside of the classroom. Include consultations conducted in a physical or digital/electronic manner. Include appointments made with special collections or archives staff. This does not include any walk-up transactions, no matter what the length or topic discussed
Instruction / Presentations to Groups
Report the total number of sessions during the year of presentations made as part of formal bibliographic instruction programs and through other planned class presentations, orientation sessions, and tours. If the library sponsors multi-session or credit courses that meet several times over the course of a semester, each session should be counted. Presentations to groups may be for either bibliographic instruction, cultural, recreational, or educational purposes. Presentations both on and off the premises should be included as long as they are sponsored by the library. Do not include meetings sponsored by other groups using library meeting rooms. Do not include training for library staff; the purpose of this question is to capture information about the services the library provides for its clientele.
Engagement (Internal Use)
The goal of the engagement record is to answer the following questions:
What were your engagement activities for the semester?
What impact do you think they had?
What numbers do you have that can help tell that engagement story?
These are core tasks for some positions, and it is important that we can articulate this
effort. Fill out as many/few fields as helps you to answer the above questions. Use the other/notes fields liberally, there are many engagement activities that are not part of these categories and we need to know about them. The categories given are given to make it easier to report common activities, not to be exhaustive.
Engagement work is often intertwined with consultations/instruction. If you counted it as part
If your instruction/consultation statistics it does not need to be counted here again, but you may still wish to use other/notes fields to further explain.
For the e-mail category, please give an estimate of materials tweaked, or written entirely by you, as well as ones forwarded on.