Drilling Down: LibQUAL Quantitative and Qualitative Data

1
Drilling Down LibQUAL Quantitative and
Qualitative Data

• Allison Sivak
• Assessment Librarian
• University of Alberta Libraries
• October 25, 2007

2
Assessment Challenges

• Gathering meaningful data
• Acquiring methodological skills
• Managing assessment data
• Organizing assessment as a core activity
• Interpreting data within the context of user
  behaviors and constraints
• Troll Covey, 2002

3
Major Trends

• Appetite for electronic access constantly
  increasing
• Access and content are the same thing
• Expectation that electronic access searching is
  easy and reliable
• I need it, now is when I want it, as easy and as
  quickly as possible, by myself, from wherever I
  am
• Library space solution a challenge of conflicting
  expectations not yet solved
• ILL service a problem with GSs, declining issue
  with UGs (specificity vs. satisficing?)
• Inconsistencies in customer service noticed and
  noted

4
How Weve Responded

• Strong focus on improving electronic access
• Proxy server replaced with seamless remote access
• Link resolver
• Aggressive e-collection development
• Hours
• Study space zoning
• Space planning and renovation
• Customer Service Standards
• Notifications / request services
• User-initiated online holds, recalls, renewal
• Retrieve and send material to library of choice
• Follow-up studies web experience testing,
  collections data, e-books survey, faculty
  /partnership investigation
• Ryan, 2006

5
Overall Quality of Service Satisfaction, 2002 -
2007
6
Overall Satisfaction with Library Support for
Learning, Research, and/or Teaching Needs, 2002 -
2007
7
Overall Satisfaction with Treatment at Library
2002 - 2007
8
(No Transcript)
9
Most Important Services Information Control
10
Most Important Services Information Control
11
Most Important Services Affect of Service
12
Most Important Services Library as Place
13
(No Transcript)
14
(No Transcript)
15
(No Transcript)
16
Number of Comments by User Group and Year
17
Number of Comments by Broad Category and Year
18
Total Comments by User Group and Broad Category
19
Library as Place Subissues
20
Library as Place Proportions of Criticism /
Praise
21
Affect of Service Subissues
22
Affect of Service Staff Courtesy
23
Size Matters

• Affect of Service wasnt as far from desired
  service level for UAL users in quantitative
  ratings
• Library as Place not ranked above 8.0 in
  importance (except for undergraduates)
• Length of comments suggest impact when
  unsatisfied!
• Unevenness of service Good but.
• Lengthy descriptions of outstandingly positive or
  negative experiences

24

• Although I get good service most of the time, I
  have occasionally encountered a library staff
  member who seemed reluctant to expend the effort
  in fully assisting me. The worst example of such
  happened this 2006 Winter term when I was trying
  to access my reserve material at Library.
  This was my first time doing so and I was unaware
  that there were call numbers for reserve
  material. I'd misplaced my syllabus (which
  probably had that info) but I thought I could
  just obtain some staff assistance in finding the
  reserve material instead of making another
  special trip to . The staff member I first
  approached at the reserve desk told me that I
  needed to find the call numbers. When I stood
  there looking confused, she showed me how to get
  to the webpage on her computer. Then she
  indicated that I should learn to find the call
  numbers on my own at a different computer (which
  were all full by the way). I would have
  appreciated it if she had walked me through ALL
  of the steps...especially considering that this
  was my first time, she was already at the right
  webpage to start searching, and there were NO
  OTHER STUDENTS IN LINE. In fact, I was the ONLY
  student being helped at that moment for the
  entire reserve desk and if the search had become
  longer than expected or if there were other
  people waiting for assistance, then I would have
  gladly taken myself elsewhere to continue it. I
  left the reserve desk feeling angry since I did
  not feel that circumstances warranted that type
  of treatment. Fortunately, when I finally
  returned to the reserve desk, I received better
  help from a different person the second time
  around. Not only did I obtain the reserve
  material, but she also helped me renew a couple
  of items on my account. I appreciated the fact
  that she didn't tell me to go somewhere else to
  do it on my own!

25

• This is a slightly difficult survey to respond
  to, because my overall concern is with the
  variability of service at Library. There is a
  core of highly professional and knowledgeable
  librarians and technicians who staff Rutherford
  these are highly capable professionals who have
  greatly enhanced my own research, the quality of
  research at the University of Alberta generally,
  and who clearly provide highly conscientious
  stewardship over library collections and
  services, respectively. I pray that my students
  get them when they go to the library. But I know
  very well that this is purely the luck of the
  draw, and that it is quite possible that they
  will be helped by someone whose qualifications
  and abilities are significantly lower than what I
  am evoking here. Thus I would suggest that the
  library make it a top priority to make the point
  of contact librarians more universally
  professional. This really will have a major
  impact on whether students seek out the help of a
  librarian in doing research, and will, I believe,
  have a major impact on the quality of work they
  are able to do in our libraries. I talk up our
  libraries whenever I can, as I really believe
  that they are a big part of what makes the U of
  Alberta a great place to work or to be student.
  But seriously. I feel undercut in this advocacy
  when I hear tales of library staff with very
  little academic or professional formation helping
  students or researchers. I have been helped by a
  fair number of such folks myself, so I know very
  well that this is more than just student
  bellyaching.

26

• I have primarily used the library and feel I
  have to comment on the staff in this library. Any
  time I have required information or assistance
  they have been more than willing to help and this
  is greatly appreciated by myself and others. I
  know of students, in at least two other
  faculties, that specifically come to the
  library because the staff is more helpful and
  they prefer this library on campus. I believe
  this says much about the staff and we appreciated
  the friendly, courteous manner in which we are
  treated by these individuals.

27

• My biggest concern, however, is the
  out-of-control situation regarding students. The
  library's decision to allow food and drink has
  been disastrous, not only for the long-term
  safety of the collections, but for those of us
  who use the library for working purposes. Even
  the allegedly "silent" areas echo to the sound of
  munching and crunching, fiddling with food
  wrapping, and the pervasive smell of chinese
  food/burgers/fries etc. It is unbelievably
  distracting at best, and for those of us brought
  up to worry about insect damage and grease on
  pages, it's a situation which is genuinely
  distressing. Add to this the endlessly ringing
  cellphones, computer games, high-volume iPods,
  etc. and you have something which resembles a
  high school cafeteria more than a library. Can
  we stop the political nonsense about
  "accessibility" please? There is nothing
  "inaccessible" about a library with sensible
  rules. As it stands, the library is become
  "inaccessible" for those who need it most
  students genuinely trying to study and faculty
  members desperate to make the most of that
  morning or afternoon of research time. We want
  our libraries back!

28
What Else?

• SLIS Studies
• Given, Lisa M. 2007. Faculty and librarians?
  perspectives on academic space Setting the stage
  for undergraduates? information behaviors. In The
  Library as Place History, Community and Culture,
  edited by John Buschman and Gloria J. Leckie,
  177-189. Westport, CT Libraries Unlimited.
• Given, Lisa M. In press. Emotional
  entanglements on the university campus The role
  of affect in undergraduates? information
  behaviors. In The Emotional Information
  Environment The Emergent Affective Paradigm in
  Information Behavior Research and Theory working
  title, edited by Diane Nahl and Dania Bilal.
  Medford, NJ American Society for Information
  Science Technology (Information Today, Inc.).
• Sadler, Elizabeth (Bess), and Lisa M. Given.
  2007. Affordance theory A framework for graduate
  students? information behaviors. Journal of
  Documentation 63, no.1115-141.

29
What Else?

• Internal Assessment Projects
• new service model
• Single help / access services desk
• Librarian and associate staff work side by side
• Research referral
• Self-sufficiency in circulation
• Self-serve reserve and e-reserve
• Delving deeper into website
• Assessment of user guides
• Assessment of digitized collections
• Creating web usability testing plan
• Usability testing of link resolver
• Talking to institutions that score higher on
  Information Control

30
Questions?

• allison.sivak_at_ualberta.ca
• 492.7324