LibQUAL+ Service Quality Survey
How well is McConnell Library meeting the needs of students, faculty, and staff? In the spring semesters of 2005 and 2006, we sent service quality surveys to the Radford University community. More than 1,600 participants responded, with more than 30% taking the time to provide additional comments. The results give us insight into what users expect. They also help us determine staffing, training, materials and service needs for the future. We gave away prizes as incentives for completing the surveys, including 40 and 60 GB iPods, free coffee for a semester at Stacks, the library coffee shop, and dinner for two at a popular local restaurant.
You Spoke. We Listened. We Acted.
McConnell Library began administering the LibQUAL survey in 2002, when we sent the survey to faculty, staff and students. In 2005, we surveyed all students. In 2006, we sent the survey to faculty and staff.
Here are some of the ways in which we have responded to your feedback.
Hours
Starting Fall 2005, we expanded hours as follows: open until 7 p.m. on Fridays (+2 hours); open 10 - 7 on Saturdays (+1); and open Sundays noon to midnight (+2). We also open earlier Monday - Friday, at 7:45 a.m., to accommodate students who need to print papers before class! We are now open more than 100 hours per week during the Academic Year. We also have extended hours several days before and during all final exams.
Collection
We continue to work on improving our collections, particularly electronic journals, which faculty and graduate students express great interest in. During the past year, we have added more than 3,800 journal titles and more than 4,000 e-books.
Places for Study and Collaboration
Students wanted a quiet place to study. We have designated Level 5 as the quiet floor. We are working to improve the enforcement of the quiet policy, and during the next few years we will rearrange the layout of the seating and the stacks to invoke and enhance quiet for concentration and study. Classroom A becomes a quiet zone when there are no scheduled library instruction classes.
Both Classrooms A and B have "no cell phone use" policies all year long.
During the summer of 2006, we added six small group study rooms to Level 2, facing the Alumni Garden. These are available on a first come, first served basis. We hope to "beautify" the rooms in the near future, and also add tools like white boards. Wireless networking is already available throughout the building.
Computing and Technology
All public computers are up-to-date with the latest university build, including software and hardware. We have scanners available, new reader/printers for microforms, two classrooms filled with computers, and wireless access all over the building. We added more networked printers: from Level 5, you can retrieve your print job from Level 4 (instead of running to Level 3), and from Level 1 you can print to Level 2. We may add more printers in the future. You can also print from your laptops.
Publicity and Promotions
We received some requests for services and resources that we already have. For example, faculty, yes, you may send a student proxy to the library to pick up materials for you. These kinds of comments let us know that we need to do more to inform our customers about the services and resources we provide. So, we created a Library Marketing and Promotions Committee, which has a Communications Plan that will help us keep you better informed (we hope). For the 07-08 academic year, we have an Outreach Librarian pilot program, which is basically built on the College Librarian model. The Outreach Librarians will focus on promoting our services to new faculty during the pilot phase.
We have also added a Library News and Events Blog to our website; we feature special events and resources prominently in "cubes" on the Library's webpage; and we added two large screen monitors in the library that promote events, services and resources.
What We're Still Working on:
We know we need to update our website to make it more user-friendly. Our delay has been primarily due to critical staffing shortages in the Library Technology department. As soon as we get the personnel, we will start that project and ask for your input.
We know that McConnell is looking a bit "down at the heel." We have a team working on proposals to enhance the library learning spaces, and we'll be asking for your input about that, too. And, say, if you'd like to make a donation to the cause, click on the "give now" image below.
compiled and created by Eric Ackermann and Ericka Patillo, Summer, 2007
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