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Introducing Suma: An open source tool to aid in assessment of reference services Joyce Chapman North Carolina State University Libraries RUSA MARS Hot Topics in Electronic Records Group ALA: June 25, 2011 1

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Page 1: Introducing Suma: An open source tool to aid in assessment of reference services Joyce Chapman North Carolina State University Libraries RUSA MARS Hot

Introducing Suma:An open source tool to aid in

assessment of reference services

Joyce ChapmanNorth Carolina State University Libraries

RUSA MARS Hot Topics in Electronic Records GroupALA: June 25, 2011

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Page 2: Introducing Suma: An open source tool to aid in assessment of reference services Joyce Chapman North Carolina State University Libraries RUSA MARS Hot

Problem statement

• Many libraries perform manual counts of patron activities (reference transactions, headcounts, group study, laptop use)

• The process involves tedious collection mechanisms, lots of paperwork, and much room for error

• There is no coordinated effort to help departments analyze their data

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Page 3: Introducing Suma: An open source tool to aid in assessment of reference services Joyce Chapman North Carolina State University Libraries RUSA MARS Hot

Our solution

An open source tablet and web-based application to aid library staff in gathering, storing, exporting, analyzing, and visualizing data about patron activities across spaces/activities/time and around events

One of our first use cases:• Reference transactions

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Page 4: Introducing Suma: An open source tool to aid in assessment of reference services Joyce Chapman North Carolina State University Libraries RUSA MARS Hot

Why do we care?

With data about different patterns in reference transactions across library spaces we can– Improve staffing models– Make informed technology purchases– Improve signage– Take an evidence-based approach to planning

future services and spaces

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Page 5: Introducing Suma: An open source tool to aid in assessment of reference services Joyce Chapman North Carolina State University Libraries RUSA MARS Hot

Missing skill set

• Data analysis: often an unmet need• Everyone is asked to perform analysis, often

no additional staff or training are provided to build the necessary skill set

• Many departments would love to be able to do more in depth analysis, but just don’t have the staff support

Page 6: Introducing Suma: An open source tool to aid in assessment of reference services Joyce Chapman North Carolina State University Libraries RUSA MARS Hot

Our current practice

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Page 7: Introducing Suma: An open source tool to aid in assessment of reference services Joyce Chapman North Carolina State University Libraries RUSA MARS Hot

What do we track manually?

• Space: Transactions by different reference desk locations

• Time: Date and hour of the day• Content type: Directional, print/copy,

research, or computing• Medium: In-person, phone, chat, direct, email

Page 8: Introducing Suma: An open source tool to aid in assessment of reference services Joyce Chapman North Carolina State University Libraries RUSA MARS Hot

Problems of current practice

• Interpreting other people’s handwriting• Re-entering data, duplication of effort• Data on the file system is messy• Information spread across many spreadsheets• Missing data, data that is not interoperable• No tracking of central “events”

Page 9: Introducing Suma: An open source tool to aid in assessment of reference services Joyce Chapman North Carolina State University Libraries RUSA MARS Hot

Problems of current practice

• Inconsistent data• Decentralized data storage • Uncontrolled vocabularies• No dedicated staff to help with data analysis

= High barriers to analysis and data reuse

in the current system

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Page 10: Introducing Suma: An open source tool to aid in assessment of reference services Joyce Chapman North Carolina State University Libraries RUSA MARS Hot

SumaA pocket data analyst for every librarian

Page 11: Introducing Suma: An open source tool to aid in assessment of reference services Joyce Chapman North Carolina State University Libraries RUSA MARS Hot

Tablet-based data collection tool

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Page 12: Introducing Suma: An open source tool to aid in assessment of reference services Joyce Chapman North Carolina State University Libraries RUSA MARS Hot

What is the system?

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Page 13: Introducing Suma: An open source tool to aid in assessment of reference services Joyce Chapman North Carolina State University Libraries RUSA MARS Hot

Staff as stationary data collectors

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Page 14: Introducing Suma: An open source tool to aid in assessment of reference services Joyce Chapman North Carolina State University Libraries RUSA MARS Hot

Staff as mobile data collectors

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Page 15: Introducing Suma: An open source tool to aid in assessment of reference services Joyce Chapman North Carolina State University Libraries RUSA MARS Hot

Count via “thumb thump”

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Page 16: Introducing Suma: An open source tool to aid in assessment of reference services Joyce Chapman North Carolina State University Libraries RUSA MARS Hot

Data collection tool demo

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Page 17: Introducing Suma: An open source tool to aid in assessment of reference services Joyce Chapman North Carolina State University Libraries RUSA MARS Hot

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Page 18: Introducing Suma: An open source tool to aid in assessment of reference services Joyce Chapman North Carolina State University Libraries RUSA MARS Hot

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Page 19: Introducing Suma: An open source tool to aid in assessment of reference services Joyce Chapman North Carolina State University Libraries RUSA MARS Hot

Data collection tool demo

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Page 20: Introducing Suma: An open source tool to aid in assessment of reference services Joyce Chapman North Carolina State University Libraries RUSA MARS Hot

Browser-based data dashboard

• “Chart wizard” will lead staff through a series of choices to produce charts comparing different aspects of data

• Charts can be exported for print or web• Data in charts can be downloaded as

delimited/Excel files

Page 21: Introducing Suma: An open source tool to aid in assessment of reference services Joyce Chapman North Carolina State University Libraries RUSA MARS Hot

What kinds of data analysis?

Compare an activity across multiple spacesCompare multiple activities in one spaceAnalyze trends over…• Fiscal years• Academic semesters• Weeks of the semester• Days of the week• Hours of the day

Analyze aggregate ratios

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Page 37: Introducing Suma: An open source tool to aid in assessment of reference services Joyce Chapman North Carolina State University Libraries RUSA MARS Hot

Timeline

Private beta testing releaseAugust 2011. We are looking for enthusiastic and involved

testers who want to try out the data collection client and provide detailed feedback.

Open beta testing releaseLate fall 2011

Incremental updatesThrough 2012, adding visualization capabilities, events, etc.

Page 38: Introducing Suma: An open source tool to aid in assessment of reference services Joyce Chapman North Carolina State University Libraries RUSA MARS Hot

Suma project team

• Jason Casden (project lead) • Joyce Chapman• Eric McEachern• Rusty Earl • Rob Rucker• Hill Taylor

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Page 39: Introducing Suma: An open source tool to aid in assessment of reference services Joyce Chapman North Carolina State University Libraries RUSA MARS Hot

Thanks!

ContactJoyce Chapman – [email protected]

More infohttps://github.com/cazzerson/SpaceUsageCensusToolkithttp://www.lib.ncsu.edu/dli/projects/spaceassesstool

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