"I'll Have What She's Having": Generating New Reference Questions by Blogging Old Ones

Increased off-site reference traffic has prompted the need for good tracking mechanisms, but why keep the subject of the reference question a secret? Why not use one researcher's question to aid another? At Dickinson College, we developed a reference blog using Drupal that combines a public side, for sharing with a global audience the reference questions we've received and how we've responded, with a private side, for recording information about the transaction. We can now track off-site usage more effectively. Meanwhile, new patrons can discover our resources through blog entries of previous requestors.