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2009 Survey

The Survey
The Weinberg Memorial Library administered LibQual+™ in Spring, 2009. This assessment provides benchmark data against which libraries can compare users' responses to norms at peer institutions. Research articles and discussion sessions at the American Library Association Conferences enable the Library to digest the data to formulate an action plan for improvement.

LibQual+™ includes 22 core and 5 locally designed questions in three dimensions:

  1. affect of service questions focus on Library employees. Do they instill confidence in users, give individual attention, consistently behave courteously, show readiness to respond to users, have requisite knowledge, deal with users in a caring fashion, understand users' needs, willingly help and dependably handle users' service problems?
  2. library as a place focuses on the building itself. Does it inspire study and learning, provide a quiet pace for individual activities, a comfortable and inviting location, a getaway for study, learning and research, and/or a community space for group learning and group study?
  3. information control focuses on print resources, web content, and equipment. Does the Library make electronic resources accessible from home or office, does it enable the user to independently locate information, does it have the print and electronic sources users need, does it have modern equipment and easy-to-use access tools for users to independently find things?
  4. local questions, does the library contribute to the intellectual atmosphere of the campus, have the necessary non-print materials, reflect Jesuit ideals of social justice and respect for all persons and provide 24/7 chat assistance and access to archival materials.

There are also questions on information literacy, general satisfaction, user demographics and an open ended question that gives users the opportunity to provide feedback on any aspect that they chose.

For each question, a user gives three scores: the minimum level he or she would find acceptable, the desired level of service and the perceived service performance. The resulting data is provided to the library as gap, radar and bar chart scores. Gap scores indicate a "zone of tolerance" measure of the degree between the desired and minimum levels of service. Service superiority is reflected then perceived service exceeds desired service. The radar and bar charts display the data in colors that visually highlight how well users' perceive the library in the three dimensions.

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