Creating a Stir: Using Gimlet Desk Statistics in your Library

Abstract

The Access Services Department in the William H. Hannon Library at Loyola Marymount University (LMU) currently uses Gimlet (http://gimlet.us) to record statistics on all encounters at its Public Service desks. Gimlet is a web-based tool we license for a monthly fee of $10 per unit that offers unlimited staff user accounts and a searchable knowledge base of our data. Additional features include customizable statistical reports, the ability to measure difficulty level for each question, and social tagging. Gimlet records basic information about who asked what kinds of questions, and how and when they are answered. This presentation will discuss what Gimlet is, and how we use it to improve library services., In August of 2008, the William H. Hannon Library opened and we were transformed into the "Jewel of the LMU Crown" immediately. Our physical landscape changed and the traffic through our library increased exponentially. Patron expectations were different and we needed to find a way to upgrade our Customer Services., , In this evidence based era, we realized that we needed to upgrade our statistics gathering ways and become able to make decisions based on more than the traditional "chicken scratches"., , Because of the information we are able to gather from Gimlet, all the Public Services divisions (Reference, Archives and Special Collections, Circulation, Document Delivery and Media & Reserves) were able to suggest improvements for signage and patron requested items that were unavailable, such as overnight checkout of adapters and a scanner. We were also able to use the time of day and day of the week variables from Gimlet to develop optimal staffing schedules at the Desks. Another key element of information gathered from Gimlet is that questions can be sorted by staff login to evaluate student workers. Additionally, we added the Gimlet component to our Annual Pizza Party workshop for student customer service training., , The Hannon Library Reference Desk staff began using Gimlet at their busy Information Commons desk, in year one. We have just finished our second year, with all of our Public Services units using Gimlet. We continue to embrace it as a valuable tool for information gathering for Administrative decisions regarding service and staffing., ,