Triage assessment and management measures for access services

Most libraries record a wide variety of numerical measures and descriptive statistics in an attempt to measure the use of their collections and services and to track any changes in those patterns. Nevertheless, if this information has no practical applications, then the entire data collection process is of little utility. In this article, the concept of triage management (which separates tasks into categories of “can wait,” “hopeless,” and “urgent”) and the use of descriptive statistics are discussed in terms of how they relate to various functions of access services. Examples of the use of simple numerical measures to better manage changing patterns of work loads between areas of access services are examined from the University of Montana, Mansfield Library.