Unobtrusive Data Analysis of Digital Reference Questions and Service at the Internet Public Library: An Exploratory Study.

THISARTICLE PRESENTS THE RESULTS OF AN exploratory study attempting to establish a methodology for the unobtrusive analysis of a major digital reference enterprise.Logs of over 3,000 questions asked of the Internet Public Library in early 1999were analyzed on the basis of questions asked (subject area, means of submission, self-selected demographic information), how those questions were handled (professional determination of subject and question nature, questions sent back to users for clarification), and answered (including time to answer) or rejected.In addition, answers that received unsolicited 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 were often overridden by question administrators.The median time to answer questions was just over two days, and about one in five answers received thank-you messages from users.