1. Information Desk Case Study at NUI Maynooth ANLTC – Information Desk Skills - Dec 1 st 2005

2. Contents Desk layout Staff changes Student changes Statistics Initiatives Future

4. Staff Changes Who Cost Rota Backup Training Turnover

5. Student changes Profile Modularisation Stress Immediacy Culture of University

8. Desk Usage Modularisation Peak times – afternoon – except in December Variety of queries Reference Vs Non reference

9. Statistics 2004-2005 Total number of queries 13,207

10. Top 5 queries 04-05 OPAC 5168 Borrower Account 1831 Directional 1345 PC/Laptops/Network 923 Photocopiers 780 (night) [Subject Referrals 269]

11. October 04 Vs October 05 Going down…

12. Initiatives Digitise forms Electronic Services Extra training courses Information Literacy sessions Catalogue training throughout the year Helpsheets Off campus access Electronic noticeboard

13. Future… Admissions Desk Controlled Access Growth ? Less passive – more virtual reference services? Help Desk consolidation?

14. Future of our Information Desk

15. References Grodzins Lipow, A. ( 2003) “The future of reference: point-of-need reference service: no longer an afterthought”, Reference Services Review 31 (1) pp31-35 Gessesse, Kebede (1997) “Re-examining the role of the public service librarian in the new Information Age” Library Review 46 (2) pp 90-98 Middleton, Iain (1997) “In need of support: the academic help desk” Campus Wide Information Systems 14(4) p 120-127