UCI READ Scale
Reference Effort Assessment Data
ONE
- Answers that require only “pointing” users to a resource. (Any interaction beyond that in which we ask any question becomes a level 2+)
- That resource could be anything: stapler, restroom, call number sign, SC&A, libguide, webpage.
- Does NOT require interpreting a question (e.g. a user’s affiliation with UCI.)
Examples
How to print, in any iteration, is always a level 1.
Service point locations, study rooms, and hours.
Rudimentary machine assistance.
TWO
- Answers that require some minimal interpretive reference interaction.
- Consulting policy pages administered by library staff. (Broadly speaking, we define a policy page as something administered by library staff that does NOT connect a user to reference resources.)
- Consulting catalogs (Library Search and Melvyl, etc.), and libguides.
Examples
Where is the book with X title?
Borrowing / ILL / Course Reserves/ Lost shelf items.
Directing a user to a specific LibGuide, without suggesting content within it.
Minor equipment assistance: Wireless printing, WI-FI setup.
THREE
- Not necessarily an “answer” but enabling a user to find their own information.
- Consult a single reference resource/interface. This is regardless of whether the resource is “scholarly,” or “primary source,” or “popular”, etc. Can include catalogs, e.g. Library Search and Melvyl.
- Requires generating at least one topical keyword search in a reference resource, whether the librarian or the user generates the keyword(s).
- Assisting users in, defining, clarifying, focusing, or broadening search topics.
- A question you readily know that cannot be answered.
Examples
Where is the book on X subject?
WR39C topics
FOUR (normally this would be the maximum that people do in an on-the-desk shift.)
- The definition includes everything in Level 3, plus:
- Consulting multiple (two or more) reference resources.
- Subject specialists may need to be consulted, and/or referrals may be made.
Examples
WR39C topics
FIVE
- The subject liaison readily knows how to point their users to information, but it may take some effort, and requires consulting multiple resources.
- For interdisciplinary research, other internal subject liaisons may be consulted/referred.
- More substantial effort spent assisting with research and finding information.
- Efforts are cooperative in nature, between the user and librarian and/or working with colleagues, internal to the institution.
- Dialogue between the user and librarian may take on a 'back and forth question' dimension.
Example
Looking for a list of how often a particular journal has been cited over the last 50 years.
SIX
- The subject liaison does not readily know how to point their users to information.
- May require consulting with subject specialist colleagues, in the same discipline, at external institutions.
- May require consulting with vendors for specialized knowledge of their resources.
- Collaboration and on-going research with faculty. In this case, each interaction in the research process could be marked as a 6.
- Questions that seem very out of the ordinary, information-gathering, text-mining, and such.
Example
Consulting with a vendor on behalf of a professor on how to extract a large amount of data from a database.
Record Data to RefStats
