Preliminare results of the survey "Virtual reference services in the library"

I have been studying the problem of Virtual reference for about 2 years, and came to a conclusion, that our library need this type of services. My boss said - you are welcome - do it if you want.
So, to learn our students', staff and faculty's opinion we started a poll.

Yesterday I received some results and decided to compare the answers of 110 students (55 internal students and 55 external students).

Here they are

How often you need to get information without coming to the library?

• 24 internal and 15 external students need such help very often
• 26 internal and 33 external - sometimes
• 5 internal and 7 external don't have such need at all

If you have a question, what will be easier for you to do?

• 9 internal and 13 external students have chosen to write an e-mail
• 9 internal and 11 external preferred to fill in a web-form
• 12 internal and 11 external have chosen IM
• 11 internal and 20 external will use a telephone
• 28 internal and 16 external will come to the library to ask the question at the reference desk

What kind of information do you usually need?

• 45 internal and 42 external students want to know whether there is a particular book or a journal in the library
• 12 internal and 14 external students are interested how to search the Internet
• 18 internal and 35 external students want to know about different aspects of the library activities, such as:
• working hours (5 and 10 students correspondingly)
• services (7 and 8 students)
• resources (6 and 9 students)
• library rules (8 external students)

Would you prefer to get a concrete answer?

• 40 internal and 47 external students prefer to get a concrete answer
• 15 internal and 6 external students prefer to get a consultation on search
• 2 external students prefer to get both - an answer and a consultation

Do you know, what the virtual reference is?

• 32 internal and 35 external students answered "YES"

Have you ever used virtual reference services?

• 39 internal and 42 external students have no experience with virtual reference
• 12 internal and 10 external students used such service, provided by libraries
• 4 internal and 4 external students used such service, provided by organisations

Do you think our library needs this type of service?

• 38 internal and 41 external students think, that our library should have virtual reference services
• 17 internal and 14 external students said, they don't know.

The fact that nobody answered "NO" for this question was predictable, but nevertheless - very pleasant.

The survey continues - so the complete results and analysis will be posted here later.