HSU Library User Satisfaction Survey Results
The Library conducted user satisfaction surveys utilizing a survey instrument developed by the Association of Research Libraries and Texas A&M University called LibQual+. It is a nationally normed instrument which has been used by more than 300 universities and has been taken by more than 100,000 students. The survey was most recently administered in March 2006.
Survey Participation has been very good:
- 1071 Student responses
- 882 undergraduates (14% of student population)– divided fairly evenly amongst the disciplines, although the social sciences/psych had slightly higher representation
- 189 (29%)- graduate students – fairly evenly divided with somewhat higher proportion of education students
- 90 faculty responses ( 24% of the faculty) – generally representative, although slightly higher physical sciences/math and social sciences/psych with a lower representation in nursing and sport sciences.
The results were reported in two different ways. From the numerical information we found that –
Most of you continue to be pleased with the services provided by the Library and to find the library to be a comfortable place to be in. There was less satisfaction with our print and/or electronic journal collections but you said that our electronic resources, web page, and equipment exceeded your minimal levels of desired service.
For both faculty and graduate students, the area of greatest concern is with deficiencies in printed library materials needed for work and print and/or electronic journal collections required for work. Faculty are also concerned about making electronic resources accessible from their home or office; the library web site enabling them to locate info on their own; modern equipment that lets them easily access needed information; easy-to use access tools that allow them to find things on their own (this was also an issue in 2002 when we did this survey previously).
In addition, 49% of you took the time to write comments on our services. There were many positive comments on good service, good Interlibrary Loan, and helpful staff. We were able to identify several themes which we will try to address over this next year. The themes were that the library is too noisy; the building and the furniture need improvement; more options for group and individual study are wanted; expanded hours were desired; users want more and better quality help from staff and students; shorter turn around times for Interlibrary Loan requests; some found the electronic resources confusing to use; the print Library collection is rapidly becoming dated and deficient.
If you would like to read the comments for yourself in greater detail they are available --