Improving GIS consultations: a case study at Yale University Library.

ABSTRACT

For the last decade and a half, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) services in academic libraries have been developing, and GIS librarians have been experimenting with different ways to provide these services. However, there has been virtually nothing in the literature with respect to GIS consultation statistics. One goal of this article is to discuss a four-year case study on the use of GIS consultation statistics to give a better understanding of what GIS librarians might typically expect as far as number of patrons, their characteristics, amount of time spent with them, and the amount of data distributed to them while running a GIS service at an academic library. Techniques for reducing the amount of time spent with patrons while developing a higher degree of efficiency and effectiveness in conducting GIS consultations will also be explored. Finally, a juxtaposition of GIS consultations with other types of library reference services will reveal significant differences between them.

INTRODUCTION

What kind of workload can a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) librarian expect from GIS consultation services? How much time will he or she be spending on this activity, or what average amount of time will they spend on a single consultation? How much data will they be distributing to patrons on average? What can be done to make consultations less time-consuming and more efficient and effective? Answers to these questions will be explored through the use of GIS consultation statistics that have been collected for a four-year period at the Yale University Library Map Collection GIS Service. However, a brief review of the current literature on reference statistics will prepare us for this exploration.

With the progression of digital technology over the last decade and a half, librarians have been able to provide patrons with access to a larger array of digital data and information more rapidly and have used electronic sources more often for reference (Cardina & Wicks, 2004). This progression has allowed an increase in the capability of what can be provided through reference, but it has also created an increase in the demand for reference information via these new technologies (Tenopir, 1998). Even though the number of reference interviews has decreased during this time, they now take longer (Mayfield, 2000; Warner, 2001).

Even with an evident trend toward providing reference for digital services and content in academic libraries, there is not much in the library literature on detailed statistics for reference services. Spencer and Dorsey (1998) identify total and average times for reference interviews broken down by affiliated and nonaffiliated patrons for an Arizona State University West study over the span of a year with one week a month selected randomly for data collection. They cite an overall mean of five minutes per patron and identify reference exceeding eleven minutes having occurred only 27.2 percent of the time. Most other studies had smaller samples and even less distinction among types of patrons.

The library literature for GIS reference in particular was even sparser. Kinikin and Hench (2005) present a weekly GIS service utilization table based on a survey of eleven libraries; the survey identifies one GIS user per week for four libraries, one to two users per week for another four libraries, no libraries with three to four users a week, and five or more users for one library. This fails to provide a clear picture of different types of GIS users and the actual time spent on consultations. This article will reveal more detailed statistics for GIS consultations based on a case study at Yale University Library. First, however, a preliminary review of the differences between GIS consultations and other types of library reference is warranted to set the stage for understanding these statistics.

It can be argued that the growth of digital technology has had a greater impact on GIS services in libraries compared to other emerging services that incorporate electronic resources since GIS depends completely on this type of technology. It follows that GIS reference or consultations can be much more involved and time-consuming not only because they completely depend on computer technology but also because of the more complex structure and variety of GIS software and geospatial data.

Robust GIS software is not as simple to use as a software program that may display a textual source of information such as a digitized journal article or a raster image such as a digital photograph. Patrons must learn how to interpret spatial data and create information from this data via manipulation through GIS software. This software can contain hundreds of tools, extensions, and additional scripts that can potentially be used to manipulate GIS data. This means that a GIS reference librarian must take into account a much broader range of service issues when conducting consultations for patrons, which add significant challenges that exceed those of general library reference.

These challenges include first and foremost providing training for patrons to enable them to use the GIS data they acquire. GIS software has a steep learning curve and takes an individual with a variety of abilities to successfully employ the technology (Deckelbaum, 1999). For robust GIS software such as ArcGIS, it can take a minimum of fifteen hours just to learn the basics. There are also many different applications of the software that span many…