Information Scotland The Journal of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals in Scotland ISSN 1743-5471 Issue contents | Journal contents | About the online edition of the journal June 2005 Volume 3 (3)

CILIPS Conference

Listening to our users

For any library it is important to get feedback from their users on how the service they provide is perceived and if there are any areas they may need to improve on. User surveys can be a useful way of collecting this information but in-house design and collating of results can be time consuming.

In the MMITS strand Helen Dundell and Jacqui Dowd of Glasgow University Library explained their use of a commercially available option.

Developed in partnership between the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) and Texas A&M University LibQual+ was described by Jacqui Dowd as "a total market survey with 22 items and a box". Essentially LibQual+ provides a library with a ready made user survey on a specific url. The library can then direct their users to this url so they can complete the survey.

The 22 items are questions measuring user’s perceptions of services. Participants are asked to rate the minimum level of service they would be happy with, the perceived level of service and their desired level of service. These questions cover three main areas:

• Affect of service (the human element) e.g. responsiveness, empathy, reliability, etc.
• Information control e.g. scope of content, convenience, ease of navigation, self-reliance, etc.
• Library as place e.g. utilitarian space, refuge, etc.

The box allows participants to provide open-ended comments. This is an opportunity for them to elaborate their concerns and also lets them be constructive in their criticism and offer specific suggestions for action.

Once the survey period is complete LibQual+ collate the answers of the 22 items and send the library an extensive report of the results. Comments added in the box are collated by the library itself, essentially LibQual+ deal with the quantitative and the library deals with the qualitative.

Glasgow University Library has been using LibQual+ since 2003 and has recently completed their third annual survey. They have found it an incredibly useful tool for identifying services that need improvement (from the user’s perspective), comparing service quality with peer institutions and developing benchmarks and understanding of best practice locally and across institutions.

LibQual+ is now being used worldwide across various library sectors including academic libraries, public libraries, national libraries, special libraries, etc. Participating institutions have risen from 13 institutions in the LibQual+ 2000 survey to 240 institutions in the 2005 survey.

LibQual+ (www.arl.org/libqual/)

LibQual+ at Glasgow University Library (www.lib.gla.ac.uk/libqual/)

Caroline Stirling, Senior Library Assistant, Edinburgh University Main Library

Information Scotland Vol. 3 (3) June 2005

Information Scotland is delivered online by the SAPIENS electronic publishing service based at the Centre for Digital Library Research. SLAINTE (Scottish libraries across the Internet) offers further information about librarianship and information management in Scotland.