LibQUAL Results 2006 Workshop

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LibQUAL Results 2006 Workshop

• The Saint Marys University Experience
• Madeleine Lefebvre
• New Orleans, June 26 2006

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• Focus of this presentation
• How we promoted the process

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• A few facts about Saint Marys
• Halifax, Nova Scotia
• www.smu.ca

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• The world in one city block
• Approx. 9000 students
• 15 international
• Undergraduate, Masters and PhD programs

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• Approx. 4 million budget
• 10 FTE prof 41 FTE support
• 600,000 user visits per year
• 385,000 volumes
• CRKN and Novanet member

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• Background to LibQUAL Decision
• Academic Plan
• growth of research agenda

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• Concerns about the process
• amount of local resources needed (i.e., time, IT
  help)
• quality of email addresses

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• Consulted other local campuses
• University of New Brunswick
• Dalhousie University

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• Established LibQUAL Committee
• 3 librarians plus the University Librarian as
  Chair

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• First steps
• -Chair attended ARL workshop
• -Committee analyzed procedures, divided
  responsibilities and established a timeframe

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• Emphasized promotion from Day One
• within the library
• outside of the library
• enlisted support of Academic VP and Public
  Affairs staff

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• Within the library
• -kept all staff informed about the purpose and
  the process
• encouraged staff to fill out the survey
• assured staff it wasnt a punitive process

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• Outside of the library
• -discussed at Deans meetings
• Senate Library Committee
• Student Reps Council of SMUSA
• Senior Administrators meetings

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• The food factor
• Discussed enthusiastically in coffee shop line,
  at faculty lounge, etc

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• Chose survey dates carefully
• -at start of winter semester, letter
• from Academic VP went to entire university
  community

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• End of week before survey went live
• - global voicemail from
• Academic VP went to entire university community

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• Week survey went live
• email to entire university community
• dedicated webpage with FAQs
• www.smu.ca/library/survey

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• -news release on university homepage
• -tent cards on carrels
• -button on library homepage
• -bookmarks

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• -Emphasized the planning process and the need for
  input
• Be part of the solution
• -Emphasized everything from the user point of
  view, not the librarys

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• Our Philosophy
• -make it clear and concise
• -user friendly
• -visually appealing promotional material

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• -emphasized prizes!
• -placed ads in student newspaper
• -large banner by coffee shop
• -Students Centre marquee

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• During the survey period
• -monitored survey progress
• -follow up global emails
• -follow up targeted phone calls
• -final global voicemail from VP

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• After the survey period
• -wide publicity of winners
• -thanks everywhere

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• -Publicized our success rate
• 1537 participants
• 717 substantive comments
• Statistically relevant coverage

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• Next Steps
• begin planning process from results
• attend follow up workshop at ALA

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• Recommendations for smaller campuses
• -have involvement at senior levels
• dont sample
• monitor the survey progress closely
• use all the excellent resources from ARL

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• -make it exciting!
• make it fun!
• -make your users feel you care about them!

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• Most Important
• Plan what you are going to do with the results,
  and tell your users!

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• Thank you!
• Were happy to help others
• Madeleine.lefebvre_at_smu.ca
• Ron.houlihan_at_smu.ca