All responding libraries offer telephone reference service. Of those with another arrangement, most indicate that telephone service hours are shared between a reference desk and an information desk or a separately staffed telephone service. The machines are set to ring on average four times before picking up a call. Of those few libraries who allow callers to leave messages, only two out of ten promise to return the call within a certain amount of time. Four additional libraries anticipate implementing this service in the near future.
Staff offices are equally likely to be located away from reference as adjacent to it.
The same is true of information desks. Instruction classrooms equipped for demonstrations and electronic classrooms are, for the most part, not located next to reference areas. Just over half of the libraries do not provide word-processing for users. Those that do locate this facility away from reference. With few exceptions, library staff have access to Internet and e-mail.