LibAnswers FAQ - Questions about LibAnswers? We'll solve 'em!

Reference Analytics

Reference Analytics Module is part of LibAnswers - it's great for capturing contextual information about the questions you're answering through the LibAnswers system. It gives you 10 multi-choice fields with up to 30 options each to log data about reference transactions, and the READ scale is built right in. The biggest benefits are that all your reference reporting is kept in one place, and data capture is integrated right in the LibAnswers and LibChat workflows, so you don't have to go to a separate system to record data.

For some people, 10 multiple-choice fields also works for capturing other contextual statistics, like Instruction Stats, etc. But many folks let us know they'd like more flexibility with the information they capture, and would like more capabilities than Reference Analytics offers, like:

• Free-text fields
• Numerical / Sliding scale fields
• Option to make some fields required
• Form widgets, to allow data capture by non-librarians (for things like survey data)

LibAnalytics

This went beyond the scope of Reference Analytics, so we built LibAnalytics, which is its own, separate standalone system (not integrated with LibAnswers).

Many institutions choose to use both systems - Reference Analytics for capturing reference statistics as part of the LibAnswers workflow, and LibAnalyticsfor capturing everything else - like  instructional stats collection, database evaluation trials, all sorts of surveys, foot traffic count,  etc. People especially love the possibility of public-facing surveys for people to fill out - because otherwise, you would need to give people an account in the system to add transactions.

With LibAnalytics you'll have:

• Multi-Choice Select fields as you do in Reference Analytics,
• Numerical Fields;
• Text Fields;
• Multi-Select Fields;
• Time/Date Timestamp Fields;
• Scale Fields.