Unobtrusive evaluation of the accuracy of telephone reference services in health sciences libraries

Six factual series were unobtrusively telephoned to fifty-one U.S. academic health sciences libraries and hospital libraries. Previous unobtrusive studies of reference services in public and academic libraries have shown that the accuracy of short answers to factual queries is approximately 55 percent. In this study, the majority of the queries, 63 percent, were answered accurately. Referrals to another library or information source were provided for 25.2 percent of the queries. Eleven answers, 3.6 percent, were inaccurate, and no answer was provided for 7.8 percent of the queries.;No significant relationship was found between the accuracy of answers and either the type of health sciences library, the region in which the library was located, the size of the monograph collection or the number of subscriptions. There was a correlation between budget and the accuracy of answers provided. While no significant correlation was found between the accuracy of answers and the total number of library staff, there was a correlation between the number of accurate answers provided and the presence of at least one staff member with a master's degree in library and information science. There was a significant correlation between employing a librarian certified by the Medical Library Association and the accuracy of answers provided by the library.;Although some referrals were to unspecified libraries or individuals, the majority were to specific sources for which the librarian provided a name, address and/or telephone number. If these "helpful referrals" are counted with accurate answers as correct responses, they account for 76.8 percent of the answers.;Four libraries answered all queries accurately. In a follow-up survey, five libraries (9.8 percent) stated that accurate answers were not provided because they did not own the appropriate source. Staff related problems were given as reasons by 17.6 percent of the libraries, while 25.5 percent indicated that library policy prohibited providing answers to the public.