Britiske studier

Se kapittel 6, avsnitt 6.1.: Information enquiry counts, i England (1995), s. 115-122

A national standard for user surveys (CIPFA)

The Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) is the leading accountancy body for the public services providing education and training in accountancy and financial management. The Institute sets and monitors professional standards in the UK and is regularly called upon to advise and comment on government policy.

Enquiry

Any question, however received (e.g. in person, by letter, by phone) leading to the active involvement of staff in identifying and answering problems posed by library users (CIPFA, 1992).

A LISU Survey in 1993, asking librarians in nine authorities to decide which of the fifty sample queries should be included and which excluded (using the CIPFA definition) revealed astonishing inconsistency in tyhe practical application of the definition.

Two projects for master`s degrees in the Department of Information and Library Studies at Loughborough University.

Type of enquiry

Directional and Administrative

enquiries are about "elementary and routine matters" and "make no call on the bibliographical expertise of the staff, merely a basic general knowledge of where things are and how things are done in a particular institution" (Grogan, Practical reference work, 1992).

Author/Title enquiries

where the user is seeking a specific work.

Fact finding enquiries

Material finding enquiries

are more "open ended" and less specific. Here, users require "the presentation to them of a range of information on the topic of their query" (Grogan, 1992).

Research enquiry

... for questions that need "more specialized tools of research such as deduction, hypothesis, experiment, statistical analysis ... and the like" (Grogan, 1992).

Miscellaneous

• Oppgaver ved skranken
• Tidsbruk ved henvendelser

Revidert 4. august 1998
Ansvarlig: Tord Høivik