InfoEyes Usage Report 2004 03

InfoEyes Usage Report

April 2004

Compiled by Tom Peters (tpeters@tapinformation.com)

Note: The InfoEyes service had a soft launch on March 1, but activity did not really pick up until March 17, and the enhanced communication software was not utilized until March 22. On April 29 public access to the QuestionPoint Enhanced mode was discontinued. It will be replaced in May with iVocalize.

Definitions

Total Sessions: The sum of all the discrete sessions recorded in the set of closed interactions for the month being reported.
Countable Sessions: Two situations caused some sessions to be discounted:

1) If two or more sessions in close temporal proximity to each other were clearly from the same patron with the same information need, the cluster of sessions was counted as only one session.

2) If a session clearly displayed a failure to communicate (e.g., because of basic system problems, or the patron never responded and expressed the need), it was not counted as a session.
Real Sessions: Sessions that appeared to involve patrons with real information needs.
Interest Sessions: Sessions that appeared to be from non-InfoEyes team members who were more interested in just seeing or testing the software or service than in satisfying a real information need. Often these visitors were professional colleagues from other libraries.
Practice Sessions: Sessions that appeared to be test and practice sessions between two or more InfoEyes team members.
Timestamping: Sessions are timestamped when they commence. In the case of email questions, that means the time they are submitted, not when they are answered by an InfoEyes reference provider. The timestamp is GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) minus six hours. Evidently, no adjustments are made to the timestamp when daylight savings time commences in April and concludes in October.

Findings

	March	April	YTD	YTD
	2004	2004	Totals	%

Days in month	31	30	61
Days with activity	14	24	38
Total sessions	100	101	201
Countable sessions	72	73	145
Countable as % of Total	72.00%	72.28%	72.14%
Avg Total Sessions per Active Day	7.14	4.21	5.29
Avg Countable Sess. per Active Day	5.14	3.04	3.82
Total Real Sessions	46	75	121	60.20%
Total Interest Sessions	9	7	16	7.96%
Total Practice Sessions	32	18	50	24.88%
Total Unknown Sessions	13	1	14	6.97%

(total sessions)	100	101	201

	March	April	YTD	YTD
	2004	2004	Totals	%

Countable Real Sessions	39	51	90	62.07%
Countable Interest Sessions	9	6	15	10.34%
Countable Practice Sessions	19	15	34	23.45%
Countable Unknown Sessions	5	1	6	4.14%

(countable sessions)	72	73	145

	March	April	YTD	YTD
	2004	2004	Totals	%

Sunday Countable Sessions	3	1	4	2.76%
Monday Countable Sessions	5	15	20	13.79%
Tuesday Countable Sessions	10	6	16	11.03%
Wednesday Countable Sessions	16	8	24	16.55%
Thursday Countable Sessions	24	22	46	31.72%
Friday Countable Sessions	8	11	19	13.10%
Saturday Countable Sessions	6	10	16	11.03%

(days of week countable sessions)	72	73	145

	March	April	YTD	YTD
	2004	2004	Totals	%

midnight to 1:00 Countable Sessions	1	0	1	0.69%
1:00 to 2:00 Countable Sessions	0	0	0	0.00%
2:00 to 3:00 Countable Sessions	0	0	0	0.00%
3:00 to 4:00 Countable Sessions	0	0	0	0.00%
4:00 to 5:00 Countable Sessions	0	0	0	0.00%
5:00 to 6:00 Countable Sessions	0	0	0	0.00%
6:00 to 7:00 Countable Sessions	2	1	3	2.07%
7:00 to 8:00 Countable Sessions	2	0	2	1.38%
8:00 to 9:00 Countable Sessions	6	4	10	6.90%
9:00 to 10:00 Countable Sessions	9	7	16	11.03%
10:00 to 11:00 Countable Sessions	7	9	16	11.03%
11:00 to noon Countable Sessions	6	7	13	8.97%
noon to 13:00 Countable Sessions	7	9	16	11.03%
13:00 to 14:00 Countable Sessions	8	8	16	11.03%
14:00 to 15:00 Countable Sessions	0	5	5	3.45%
15:00 to 16:00 Countable Sessions	9	12	21	14.48%
16:00 to 17:00 Countable Sessions	3	4	7	4.83%
17:00 to 18:00 Countable Sessions	1	5	6	4.14%
18:00 to 19:00 Countable Sessions	2	1	3	2.07%
19:00 to 20:00 Countable Sessions	1	0	1	0.69%
20:00 to 21:00 Countable Sessions	3	0	3	2.07%
21:00 to 22:00 Countable Sessions	4	1	5	3.45%
22:00 to 23:00 Countable Sessions	1	0	1	0.69%
23:00 to midnight Countable Sessions	0	0	0	0.00%

(hours of day countable sessions)	72	73	145

	March	April	YTD	YTD
	2004	2004	Totals	%

Total email sessions	27	14	41	20.40%
Total text chat sessions	29	24	53	26.37%
Total enhanced sessions	44	63	107	53.23%

(total sessions by mode)	100	101	201

	March	April	YTD	YTD
	2004	2004	Totals	%

Countable email sessions	26	14	40	27.59%
Countable text chat sessions	21	17	38	26.21%
Countable enhanced sessions	25	42	67	46.21%

(countable sessions by mode)	72	73	145

	March	April	YTD
	2004	2004	Totals

FirstSearch Sessions	55
Average no. of searches per session	5.27

	March	April	YTD	YTD
	2004	2004	Totals	%

FirstSearch Searches

ABI Inform	0
ArticleFirst	91
Book Review Digest	2
Eric	30
FactSearch	24
General Science Abstracts	20
Health Information	0
MEDLINE	19
Periodical Abstracts	0
Readers Guide Abstracts	20
SIRS	0
World Almanac	13
WorldCat	71

(total FirstSearch searches)	290

	March	April	YTD
	2004	2004	Totals

Avg response lag for all email sessions (hrs)		15.261
Avg session length for all chat sessions (hrs)		0.105
Avg session length for all enhanced sessions (hrs)		0.066

Very Tentative Conclusions

InfoEyes appears to be meeting the anticipated need. We appear to be getting questions from both print-impaired and sighted individuals. The information needs expressed are a good mix of topics related to print-impairments and general topics.
Several repeat customers of InfoEyes already have emerged, which indicates that they are finding the service useful.
Activity measured in terms of countable questions by the day of the week seems to exhibit the typical bell-shaped curve, with the peak on Thursday.
Activity measured in terms of countable questions by hour of the day is beginning to indicate the usual peaks in the mid-morning and mid-afternoon hours, but it is too soon to tell.

Issues

Because the audio portion of a QPE session is not captured, it often is difficult or impossible to discern the subject and success of these sessions from the transcripts.