The Austin Public Library History Center changes lives everyday through their services and efforts to collect, preserve, and present the stories and materials that document Austin's unique history. As a research institution, the Austin History Center offers reference services to any person or group interested in exploring and researching the historical and ethnic heritage of Austin’s people, communities, and places. The Library’s History Center introduces these services widely through collaborative community outreach events and fulfills archival reference requests in person and through online resources.

The data included in this measure includes in-person, over-the-phone, video remote, and online research and reference-related questions and consultations. The data for a fiscal year October 1 through September 30 and is an annual year-end total. The Austin History Center staff responds to (fulfills) 100% of all requests received. Therefore, a percentage will not be shown.

Note: to see the underlying data for this chart, please select the "View Measure" link.

This performance metric was significantly impacted by COVID-19. Fulfilling archival (reference) requests is one of Austin History Center's core services. Library locations closed in March 2020. The History Center typically handles on average over 5,000 reference questions each year. The History Center reopened with reduced hours in June 2021 to offer remote reference (archival request) services.

1) Definition:  Archival requests are research and reference questions.

2) Calculation method: The number is a manual count of questions or requests. The percentage of requests will always be 100%.

3) Data Collection Process:  The staff manually count the number of questions and requests fulfilled.

4) Measure Target Calculation: This measure has no target.  It is a volume measure.

5) Frequency Measure is Reported: The single count is reported annually, the end of each fiscal year.

Date page was last updated: October 1, 2021