Maybe the 55 Percent Rule Doesn't Tell the Whole Story: A User-Satisfaction Survey

For many years the evaluation of reference service has focused on the accuracy with which patrons' questions are answered. It has been suggested that an area that needs further study is the behavioral aspect of reference service, i.e., the interaction between reference librarian and patron. Patrons will judge the service they receive not only on whether or not they get what they came in for, but also on the reference librarian's attitude, behavior, interest, and enthusiasm. This paper discusses a survey done at the University Library of the University at Albany as a study of reference success based solely on users' satisfaction with librarians' behaviors and, most important, users' willingness to return to the same librarian for help another time. Results of this survey indicate that users' satisfaction with reference service does depend on more than the accuracy with which their questions are answered.