National Library for Health pilot

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• LibQUAL

• National Library for Health pilot

Cath McCafferty Mersey Care NHS Trust
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What is LibQUAL ?

• Survey tool for assessing quality of library
  services
• Developed by Association of Research Libraries in
  the United States
• Used widely in UK Higher Education
• 2250 per library around 1500
• First used in 2001 to date over 500 libraries
  have taken part

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A tool that enables the library to

• Solicit, understand, and act upon users opinions
  of service quality
• Foster a culture of excellence in providing
  library service
• Help libraries understand user perceptions of
  library service quality
• Collect and interpret library user feedback
  systematically over time

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Survey Data

• Poses questions in three sections effect of
  service, library as place and information control
• Identifies best practices, analyses deficits, and
  effective allocation of resources
• Enables the assessment of whether the library
  service is meeting user expectations
• Aggregates data and allows comparison of library
  performance with peer institutions

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NLH Pilot

• The pilot is part of the work programme
  developing the National Service Framework (NSF)
• The NSF will define what users should expect from
  library services.
• So can LibQUAL be used by NHS libraries as a
  tool for measuring user expectation?

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NLH Pilot sites

• Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS
  Trust
• Berkshire Shared Services
• East Lancashire NHS Trust
• Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Trust
• Hull and East Riding Primary Care Trusts
• Islington Primary Care Trust
• John Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust
• Leicestershire General Hospitals NHS Trust
• Merseycare NHS Trust
• Royal College of Nursing

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Mersey Care NHS Trust

• Mental Health Trust with 32 service points
• 4, 500 staff
• 3 library service points for staff
• Approx 2,000 library members
• 132 completed surveys/792 attempts

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The Pilot

• Questionnaire live for 3-4 weeks during April /
  May and one final site in July (pilot not yet
  ended)
• Promotional material raised awareness of the
  questionnaire

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Post Pilot

• Pilot sites receive a report from LibQUAL based
  on response data
• An SPSS file containing local response data, plus
  any qualitative data.

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The questionnaire

• Online or written (but if written library staff
  have to input the response online)
• Questions cover
• The library space
• Library staff
• Library resources
• The pilot questionnaire contained 35 questions
  divided into 3 sections

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What does it look like?
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Preliminary issues identified

• Questionnaire Sampling
• Demographic information
• Some of the questions not appropriate to all
  users
• Library as space inappropriate for community
  based staff or those accessing services remotely
• Usability of the online questionnaire
• Around 75 who looked at the questionnaire did
  not complete it
• Disappointingly small response rate

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Feedback the good

• Straightforward and easy to set up
• Having such rich data is amazing
• Comments made about library services very
  positive
• We have found out information that we might
  otherwise never have discovered.
• If the NHS could afford to get LibQUAL to tailor
  it more to our needs it would be brilliant

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Feedback the bad

• The concept of answering a question 3 times is
  hard to grasp
• Insufficient training from LibQUAL
• Not having an effective email base, we could not
  send out targeted email reminders
• Numerous telephone calls and emails asking for
  explanations and guidance on filling the form in
• Required quite a lot of staff time to set up,
  learn about, publicise etc

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Feedback the ugly

• I would be disappointed if LibQUAL became the
  survey tool for NHS libraries
• It is fine to pilot these tools, but I hope the
  NHS does not now feel duty bound to purchase the
  product
• It was absolutely awful and doctor couldnt
  do it.
• Too gimmicky.purchasing LibQUAL would be a huge
  mistake

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In a nutshell

• If the NHS could afford to get LibQUAL to tailor
  it more to our needs it would be brilliant

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Project Report

• The project report will be available in October
  2006
• Colin Davies
• Service Development Programme Manager
• National Library for Health
• 07880 772495
• Colin.Davies_at_cfh.nhs.uk