How do you measure the quality of reference service given?
Much has been written about ways to assess the quality of reference service given. One of the more well-known studies was Peter Hernon and Charles McClure's "55% correct" article ( Unobtrusive reference testing, Library Journal, April 15, 1986, pp. 37-41).
John V. Richardson, Jr., summarizes a few of the assessment "formulas" in his article Reference is better than we thought, Library Journal, April 15, 2002, p. 41.
Richardson wrote that quality reference service is most often defined in three ways: accuracy, utility, and user satisfaction.
He also summed up other's writings on the topic, thusly:
Herbert Goldhor: Performance = Accuracy = Staff Ability + Library Colletion
Charles Bunge: Performance = Efficiency = Accuracy/Time = Staff Ability + Library Collection
Terry Crowley: Performance = Accuracy = Library Collection + Staff Ability = Budget
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