Comparative access rates for online documentation and human consulting
T. R. Girill, Chris Tull · OSTI OAI (U.S. Department of Energy Office of Scientific and Technical Information) · 1988
The National Magnetic Fusion Energy Computer Center has taken a strongly collaborative approach to user services, developing its consulting staff and its online documentation software as joint aspects of a unified effort to answer user questions. A fairly strong positive correlation between consulting-query rates and online-reading rates across many subject categories suggests that computerized passage delivery can successfully complement human contact as a way to provide information to users. We also found sharp discrepancies in rates for some topics. A few were artifacts of our system; others suggest an agenda for online documentation improvements as well as an enduring need for diverse responses to user inquiries. 10 refs., 2 figs.