THE REMOTE USER OF AN ACADEMIC LIBRARY IN THE PUBLIC HEALTH AREA

Abstract

A study was conducted to investigate the use of eletronic mail reference service, in a academic context, in the Library/CIR: Reference and Information Center in Public Health of the School of Public Health of the University of S. Paulo . The goals of the study were to know who the remote users in an academic environment are, what information they need and what subjects they asked for. A survey of 751 internet eletronic mails and web site mails sent to the Library/CIR, was carried out from August 1999 throught August 2001. The study found that almost all the remote users were in Brazil (97,3%), being 42,6% of the senders from the State of São Paulo and 26,7% from the city of São Paulo. 33,8% of the remote users were from the academic area, 28,8% of wich were students and 5% were teachers. With respect to types of questions, 47,5% of the users needed some subject searching, and 20,5% wanted document delivery services. The most frequent subjects asked for were those of Public Health Area (58,6%), according to the DeCS - Descriptors in Health Sciences, developed by Bireme. Other DeCS categories were demanded, such as Category C (Diseases) - 14,6%. The study also analysed the complexility of the questions, qualifying them as "simple", "of medium complexility" and "complicated". The study suggests that a significant investment in the Library/CIR web site could be done to answer the simple questions by means of a FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions). For the other ones, the expansion of the role of librarians, including assistance with sophisticated searches, and the relationship with the faculty members and the library are needed, thus improving the quality of the service, increasing user´s satisfaction.