Presents a planning guide for implementation of online services at a public library, consisting of: (1) identification of public service goals and online reference objectives, (2) needs assessment, (3) manipulating the political environment, (4) project description, (5) time schedule, (6) preliminary budget, and (7) evaluation. (SW)

Five performance measures suggested for use in public libraries are discussed in relation to corporate information centers: corporate awareness of library services; clients as percentage of jurisdiction population; reference transactions per capita; reference fill rate; timeliness of information delivery. Planning and survey questionnaires for…

Reports results of unobtrusive testing of reference service (asking reference questions of library staff who are unaware of being evaluated) in government documents and central reference areas of 26 U.S. libraries. Accuracy of answers, interview and search process duration, referral, and use of catalog and technology are highlighted. (12…

Reports on the method and findings of a study which used unobtrusive testing to measure the accuracy and efficiency of search strategies by library personnel when dealing with the technical report literature. A copy of the test questions used in this study is appended. (CLB)

This preliminary study suggests that the same level of timeliness and accuracy can be obtained for answers to reference questions using resources in freely available World Wide Web sites as with traditional print-based resources. Discusses implications for library collection development, new models of consortia, training needs, and costing and…