1. GATHERING MEANINGFUL STATISTICS
Laura Connaughton
Assistant Librarian
Library Information Services
Laura.Connaughton@nuim.ie
Using KnowAll Enquire at John Paul II Library
NUI Maynooth
ARLG Conference
June 24th 2014

2. NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF IRELAND, MAYNOOTH
 While formally established as an autonomous university
in 1997, NUI Maynooth traces its origins to the
foundation of the Royal College of St. Patrick in 1795,
drawing inspiration from a heritage that includes over
200 years of education and scholarship
 The University community comprises over 9,000
students and 800 staff from more than 20 countries
 Two Libraries
 Russell Library, Special Collections and pre-1850 material
 John Paul II Library

3. South Campus
St. Patrick’s College
South Campus
New Library

4. TODAY’S PRESENTATION
 Discuss the shift in JPII Library from paper based enquiries to
online based enquiries
 What KnowAll Enquire is and how it was adapted for practical
use in JPII Library
 How KnowAll Enquire can improve the user experience
through the process of tracking the enquiry from origin
through each stage of the enquiry handling process
 Challenges and opportunities presented by an online enquiry
management package
 Advice for others considering a similar model

5. ENQUIRY MANAGEMENT @ NUI MAYNOOTH LIBRARY
 Metrics are becoming more and more important in terms of
demonstrating library work and value
 NUI Maynooth Library – new building, new facilities, new
resources – we want to be able to demonstrate our value and
commitment to teaching, learning and research at NUI
Maynooth
 First academic library in Ireland to purchase KnowAll Enquire
 KnowAll Enquire helps us monitor enquiries and generate
meaningful statistics which means we can monitor and
improve our service and prove our value

6. WHY INTRODUCE A ENQUIRY MANAGEMENT PACKAGE?
 Opportunity to streamline all our enquiries into one central
point
 Ability to measure customer enquiries, for example, amount
of enquiries, time taken, busy/quiet times etc.
 Opportunity to improve the customer experience by having a
bank of knowledge/FAQs
 Provide clarity for library staff – ability to see if enquiries are
answered/resolved, what the answer is for future reference
 With our new library, we expected library usage to increase
and were being proactive in terms of gathering metrics

7. NEW LIBRARY
NEW SERVICES AT NUI MAYNOOTH
NEW OPPORTUNITIES!

8. WHERE OUR LIBRARY ENQUIRIES COME FROM
Chat
Email
Walk Ins
Appointment
Online form
Phone
Enquiries by Type
June 2014

9. Pre-2014 Paper Based
Information Desk Statistics Sheet

10. Pre-2014 Paper Based
Admission Desk Statistics Sheet
Where did these statistics go? ...

11. EXCEL
Cons:
 Data Entry
 Laborious
 Time Consuming
 Requires
knowledge &
ability to
manipulate figures
How do we collate
these figures in
one go?

12. KnowAll
Enquire

13. KnowAll
Enquire

14. KNOWALL ENQUIRE
KnowAll Enquire is an enquiry tracking software package which tracks all types of enquiries right through
from initial enquiry to meaningful statistics and reports with a view to improving the customer
experience and track the enquiry from origin through each stage of the enquiry handling process.
How does it work?
 It captures initial enquiries made at the Information Desk, via walk-ins, online form, email or library chat
 We can assign queries to people i.e. share the workload according to location, specialist subjects and
availability
 By monitoring the enquiries we can ensure that questions are answered
 We can search answers thus sharing knowledge and see how similar enquiries were answered
previously
 The software is capable of providing very accurate statistics and reports which means we will be able to
improve our service
 We can publish FAQ’s meaning enquirers can help themselves with straightforward queries

15. TIMELINE
 Autumn 2012 - Enquire purchased
 Autumn/Winter 2012 - New library move
 Spring 2013
 Visit to University of Warwick, UK
 Beginning initial design of NUIM Library prototype
 Working closely with Bailey Solutions in setting up the technical
spec of Enquire
 Summer 2013
 Dedicated staff member - Edel Cosgrove, Library Assistant
 Software design & testing
 Autumn/Winter 2013
 Staff training and launch
 Spring & Summer 2014
 Continuing roll-out to all library staff
 Software changes and updates

16. LIBRARY DEPARTMENTS
1. Information Desk (11 staff)
2. Admission Desk (11 staff)
3. General Collections & Finance (12 staff)
4. Special Collections & Russell Library (7 staff)
5. Digital & Electronic Collections (3 staff)
6. Information Literacy (3 staff)
7. Subject Librarians (7 staff)
8. Library IT Development (3 staff)

17. LET’S TAKE A LOOK
 Admission Desk
 Information Desk
 Subject Librarian

18. INTERFACE – INFORMATION DESK

19. INTERFACE – ADMISSION DESK

20. INTERFACE – SUBJECT LIBRARIAN

21. SAMPLE FORM FOR AN ENGLISH ENQUIRY

22. Reporting

23. CUSTOM REPORTS

24. REPORTING – SOME EXAMPLES
NUIM INFORMATION DESK (BY HOUR)
SHOWS ENQUIRIES BY HOUR OF THE DAY AND GIVES PERCENTAGE

25. NUIM INFORMATION DESK (BY CONTACT METHOD)
SHOWS ENQUIRIES BY CONTACT METHOD AND GIVES PERCENTAGE

26. NUIM ADMISSION DESK
SHOWS ENQUIRY COUNT FOR ADMISSION DESK

27. NUIM SUBJECT LIBRARIANS (WORK IN PROGRESS)
SHOWS COUNT BY TIME AND SUBJECT

28. How we share information with
our library users
We let people know what we do
and how busy we are year round
Libraries need to proactively show
our value and KnowAll is key to us
demonstrating this in a variety of
ways
Library Infograph

29. Challenges
Benefits
Advice

30. CHALLENGES BENEFITS
 Cost
 Time
 Set Up
 Testing
 Rollout and Training
 Change
 Time
 Easy to access and see
previously answered
queries
 Demonstration of value
and time
 Clarity of workflows

31. BENEFITS FOR STUDENTS
 Self-Directed Learning
 When KnowAll Enquire is 100% customised, students and
library users will be able to search FAQs for self-service
answering of queries with instant answers
 Students can be assured that enquires will not be ‘lost’
in the process of referrals from desk to department
 Online Form – students don’t need to know exactly who
should get their query, less time consuming

32. BENEFITS FOR STAFF
 One dedicated system for receiving, tracking and
answering enquiries
 Do away with paper-based enquiries, all in a central
location
 Potential to enhance our customer service through
consistent answering and knowledge bank
 Each library team can monitor their own enquiries

33. BENEFITS FOR MANAGEMENT
 Reporting of metrics and statistics an excellent feature
 The level of detail in the reports has the ability to dig
down to both quantitative and qualitative information
 Ability to improve customer service, e.g., what is the
most asked question re. databases, do we need to do
more training/advertising?
 Gives an overview of busy/quiet time data to inform of
changes to opening hours etc.

34. ADVICE
 Having a dedicated person to work on the software set-up side is
not necessary but definitely an advantage
 You need the time to learn the product and how you want to use it.
The capability is huge, you need to be able to harness it
 Emerging body of literature about development of statistical
packages – we made our decision informed by practice and met
Bailey Solutions at LILAC 2012
 Visited site before purchase (A&L Goodbody) and after purchase
(University of Warwick)
 Remember it’s not an ‘overnight’ product. We still have lots of
work to do on it including student import, diversion of emails into
Enquire, more training and rollout. Be patient!

35. THANK YOU
Laura Connaughton
John Paul II Library, NUI Maynooth
Laura.Connaughton@nuim.ie
00353 (0)1 708 3429
http://library.nuim.ie

36. CONTACT
KnowAll Enquiry Management from Bailey Solutions
www.knowallenquire.com
penny@baileysolutions.co.uk

37. CREDITS
 NUI Maynooth KnowAll Enquire
 http://nuim.knowallenquire.co.uk/Home.aspx
 J. Gabe Gossett, Elizabeth Stephan, Rebecca Marrall,
(2012) "Implementing reference statistics collection
software at multiple library service points", New Library
World, Vol. 113 Iss: 5/6, pp.235 - 248
 All photos by kind permission of Alan Monahan, NUI
Maynooth Library