Hesburgh Libraries uses:

Main Library Reference Department: 
Desktracker 

Mahaffey Business Library:
FootPrints (BMC Software) 

In the past we instituted Pendragon Software (input via Palm OS form into Access Database).  Since Business Library didn't have means to accommodate staffing accordingly, I did a bit of pattern recognition on what types of questions were asked at different time intervals during the day.  Interestingly enough, through the granular enough data model, we found out that:

-  most printer, fax and copier questions were coming early in the morning and during lunch time (evidence that students are mainly printing their work, getting materials ready and will need light technical support and less library/research assistance)

- majority of research questions were coming in in the afternoon and early evening hours (evidence of the students' behavior patterns related to their work days on campus)

This data allowed us to ensure to have adequate staffing for the morning and afternoon/evening hours to accommodate the types of inquiries received.

If  you are interested in more details and/or would like to see the pictorial data representation of this study, please email me directly:

[log in to unmask]

Best of luck.

Beata

---------------------------------------------------------
Beata Frelas

IT Support Coordinator
Library Information Technology Program
University of Notre Dame 

220 Hesburgh Library
Notre Dame, IN  46556
Phone:   (574) 631-7176





-----Original Message-----
From: Code for Libraries [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of William Denton
Sent: Thursday, August 22, 2013 2:20 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] Desk Statistics Software Question

On 22 August 2013, Brian McBride wrote:

> I am curious what other institutions are using for tracking desk stats? 
> We are evaluating our current solution and wanted to see what what 
> other solutions are available either commercial or open source.

We use LibStats (GPL) at York U:

 	https://code.google.com/p/libstats/

It appears to be moribund, but it works.  It's pretty bare bones but it's easy to enter in what you want.  It generates some reports but not many, so I wrote an R script to make a lot of prettier charts.

Springshare's RefStats is similar but looks more up to date and has better reports, but it's proprietary and commercial.

It probably doesn't matter too much what program you use so much as how you analyze the data and make that part of your thinking about how to make the ref desk better (whatever better means for you).  We all enter our ref desk work into our system, but it's pretty much a one-way system and nothing much happens with the data except for some numbers in annual reports.

Bill
-- 
William Denton
Toronto, Canada
http://www.miskatonic.org/