Telephone Reference Questions: A Characterization by Subject, Answer Format, and Level of Complexity.

Abstract

During the week of April 20-25, 1981, 429 general and in formational and 219 subject-specific telephone reference questions were analyzed at the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Bicentennial Library, a medium-sized public li brary in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Sixty-six percent of the telephone questions were informational. Analysis of the subject-oriented questions revealed little relationship be tween the subject of a question, the format of the answer, and the level of complexity. However, a significant corre lation appeared between answer format and level of com plexity, and this relationship varied significantly within such Dewey Decimal numbers as the 300s, 600s, 800s, and 900s.

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