LibQual+ Charting Library Service Quality

Survey Results

LibQUAL™ Update for Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners
January 2008(1 page PDF)

LibQUAL™ Final Report to Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners
October 2006 (12 page PDF)

Comments Summary (6 page PDF)

LibQUAL™ provided results from survey questions (98 page PDF)

Questions?

Check our Frequently Asked Questions for LibQual+™

Learn to read the radar charts in the results:

Watch the LibQUAL+(tm) Presentation

Go Bananas: Let Your Voice Be Heard

Preliminary Report on LibQUAL+™ at WPI

Compiled by Pat Flanagan, Director of User Services

LibQUAL+™ is a national service quality survey, sponsored by the Association of Research Libraries. WPI’s Gordon Library administered the survey from January 30th to February 17th 2006. The project enables participating libraries to identify areas in which their users feel services need improvement.

The survey gathers minimum, desired, and perceived levels of services across three areas:

Library as Place

Quiet, comfortable and inviting
Space for individual and group activities
Retreat for study, learning and research

Affect of Service

Readiness and willingness to help users
Knowledgeable, courteous and caring assistance
Understanding of user needs

Information Control

Finding and accessing information on one’s ow
Appropriateness of collections
Hours that services are available
Equipment to support tasks

It will be several weeks before the full results for WPI can be analyzed. More information will be shared as issues are identified and plans for response have been developed.

Respondents

We want to thank all who took the time to participate here at WPI. The full community, rather than a sample, was surveyed. A total of 565 community members took the survey, as follows:

Group	Total Responses	Response Rate
Undergraduates	388	13.8% of the total 2806
Graduates	94	9.8% of the total 995
Faculty	47	14.5% of the total 324
Staff	36	7.3% of the total 490

Incentive Prizes

Incentive prizes were offered to encourage participation. The winners were all undergraduates and we congratulate them!

Prize	Winner
Banana Split Kit	Donna Davidson
Bananas Boogie Board Kit	Christopher Bartlett
The George C. Collection	Eric Wilusz
Go Bananas Movie Night	Khanhvan Nguyen

Survey Questions

Rated by respondents for minimal, desired, and perceived service levels.

Affect of Service	Information Control	Library as Place
Employees who instill confidence in users	Dependability in handling users' service problems	Library space that inspires study and learning
Giving users individual attention	Making electronic resources accessible from my home or office	Quiet space for individual activities
Employees who are consistently courteous	A library Web site enabling me to locate information on my own	A comfortable and inviting location
Readiness to respond to users' questions	Printed library materials I need for my work	A getaway for study, learning, or research
Employees who have the knowledge to answer user questions	The electronic information resources I need	Community space for group learning and group study
Employees who deal with users in a caring fashion	Modern equipment that lets me easily access needed information
Employees who understand the needs of their users	Easy-to-use access tools that allow me to find things on my own
Willingness to help users	Making information easily accessible for independent use
	Print and/or electronic journal collections I require for my work

Plus five questions added locally, selected by Gordon Library staff:

Making me aware of library resources and services
Teaching me how to access, evaluate and use information
Getting help when and where I need it when using library resources
Convenient hours of operation
Convenience of borrowing items from other colleges

Survey Results

Close to three hundred respondents provided comments in the box provided on the survey.

Comment Summaries (6 page PDF) - summaries categorized by major themes
LibQUAL+™ provided results from survey questions (98 page PDF)

More analysis and planning for action will take place and be announced later in the year. Please send any questions or further comments to Library Questions.

Acknowledgements

Thanks are due to the library staff that were involved in organizing, promoting, and administering the survey:

Joanne Beller, Reference Coordinator
Debbie Bockus, Access Services Manager
Christine Drew, Instruction Coordinator
Lynne Riley, Access Services Librarian

As well, thanks to the Student Government Representatives that assisted in promoting the survey.

Financial assistance for this special project is made possible with Federal Funds from the Institute on Museum and Library Services administered through the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners (MBLC).

Maintained by lib-webmaster@wpi.edu
Last modified: Jun 23, 2009, 07:52 EDT