RefTracker Example Uses
Every library using RefTracker will find immediate benefits from reference queries being recorded and allocated, and so no longer able to be forgotten. However the most important immediate benefit for all libraries is that your "standard" responses to reference queries are all in one searchable place, the tolls that you use to search for responses, the standard text and forms that you use for answering questions, and the workflow tools bring these all together, are all accessible from the one RefTracker screen making the answering process easier, and so, more efficient. Responses will no longer have to be re-created by each librarian or as shifts change.
In particular RefTracker helps libraries with external user populations - it extends an equitable reference service to those who cannot physically visit the library, and to those attending branches not large enough to warrant a full time reference librarian.
RefTracker is particularly effective in public libraries where efficiency and quality of response must be retained even when queries have to be handed on to another shift, or branch, for resolution. Special features are currently being developed for university and state libraries with high reference workloads.
Research libraries will appreciate the capacity to reuse search strategies recorded in the history of knowledge database questions, with just a single click, and the ability to keep their client informed during an extended research period.
In short, any library with more than one reference librarian, or more than one location in which to deliver reference, will obtain service and efficiency benefits from using RefTracker, that exceed its cost.
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