Unobtrusive data analysis of digital reference questions and service at the Internet Public Library: An exploratory study

THIS ARTICLE PRESENTS THE RESULTS OF AN exploratory study attempting to est ablish a methodology for the unobtrusive analysis of a major digital refere nce enterprise. Logs of over 3,000 questions asked of the Internet Public L ibrary in early 1999 were analyzed on the basis of questions asked (subject area, means of submission, self-selected demographic information), how tho se questions were handled (professional determination of subject and questi on nature, questions sent back to users for clarification), and answered (i ncluding time to answer) or rejected. In addition, answers that received un solicited thanks were analyzed separately. Users seem to have difficulty in assigning subject categories to their questions, and to determine whether they are factual or require sources for assistance, and these decisions wer e often overridden by question administrators. The median time to answer qu estions was just over two days, and about one in five answers received than k-you messages from users.