Library Snapshot Day

On Wednesday, April 13, the library participated in Library Snapshot Day, a statewide event scheduled to coincide with the American Library Association’s National Library Week. On Snapshot Day, libraries throughout Massachusetts collect statistics and other information to illustrate a typical day in the life of the library—a snapshot, as the name implies. Snapshot Day shows the value and contributions of libraries to communities around the commonwealth, whether the community is a school, a town or city, or a college campus.

For this year’s Snapshot Day, the Bentley Library’s first, we compiled statistics about library use on Wednesday, April 13. Like most other libraries, we collect these numbers every day, but they’re mostly for internal use. Last week they were meant to be shared.

Here’s a picture of April 13, a typical Wednesday at the Bentley Library, according to our usage statistics:

• More than four thousand people visited the library—4,495, to be exact.
• It’s late in the semester, so our group study rooms were busy with students working on projects and, well, studying in groups. We had a total of 353 reservations throughout the day.
• The circulation desk processed 490 items: 294 items borrowed and 196 items returned, including course reserves.
• The interlibrary loan department received 70 requests for materials from Bentley patrons and those at other libraries, including 34 borrowing requests and 36 lending requests.
• The reference staff fielded 37 questions, including 26 questions about research or academic help and reference sources. The total of 37 includes questions asked in person and those that came in over the phone and through instant messages or email.

We also asked patrons using the circulation and reference desks to complete a short survey telling us how they were using the library that day. Without knowing what people are doing here, we can’t interpret the usage data.

Here’s what a small, unscientific sample of 72 Bentley Library patrons had to say about what they were doing at the library last Wednesday.

What did you do at the Bentley Library today?

• Check out an item: 32
• Class visit: 2*
• Homework: 39
• Research: 24
• Quiet place to study: 25
• Read: 23
• Use the Internet: 22
• Attend a meeting: 16
• Attend a program: 2
• Other: 9

*This number would often be higher, but we didn’t have any formally scheduled class instruction sessions last Wednesday.

We’re here to serve the entire Bentley community, so we also wanted to know who was using the library on Snapshot Day.

What is your role at Bentley?

• Undergraduate student: 52
• Graduate student: 14
• Faculty: 4
• Staff: 2
• Waltham resident (includes those who selected other options): 2

We also asked about how the library helps patrons with their academic work, research, and teaching. Two of the major themes in your responses were quiet study space and access to resources such as books and databases, but that wasn’t all. Here are some representative highlights.

“Provides a space away from my room to get work done.” –Undergraduate student

“Place to study and collaborate.” –Graduate student

“Provides newspapers, resources, and a quiet place to study.” –Undergraduate student

“Self-advancement.” –Faculty member

“Quiet, printer.” –Graduate student

“I like to take the reserve books out.” –Undergraduate student

“The databases are great.” –Undergraduate student

“I get a great amount of help from the reference librarians.” –Faculty member

“Research guides are great! Make more!” –Undergraduate student

“[Reference] librarians help find useful resources.” –Undergraduate student

“Great resources and books for papers.” –Undergraduate student

“Headphones when I forget mine.” –Undergraduate student

“Great books, nice people.” –Staff member

The library staff would like to extend a big thank-you to everyone who helped out with Snapshot Day. We look forward to a bigger and better event next year.

Do you have ideas for ways we could make Snapshot Day more fun and more interactive? Please tell us, and know that your comments and suggestions about how you use the library are always welcome—on Snapshot Day and throughout the year.