iPad winner Grace Chun (third from left) celebrates with friends at the Ourimbah Library

High Satisfaction - the outcome of the library survey

Thank you to everyone who completed the Library Client satisfaction survey in August.

The survey gives staff and students the chance to tell us what you think about the library and where we can improve. This year a record 7233 staff and students responded. 2536 people (or 35.1% of those who completed the survey) also took the time to give us a massive 4196 separate comments!

The results demonstrate a high level of satisfaction with the library. The survey is administered externally by Insnyc Surveys and allows us to benchmark our performance against thirty-eight other Australian and New Zealand Universities.

In 2012, the Library scored an overall weighted performance figure of 81.4%. Insync describes this as 'an impressive increase' of 2.6% in overall performance from 78.8% in 2010. This builds on progress of a similar increase (also described as impressive) of 2.9% 2008-2010. These results place the University of Newcastle Library well into the top quartile for both performance and client satisfaction.

More importantly, the results indicate satisfaction with the changes the library has made in response to previous feedback. Results across all campuses and Faculties were very similar with some minor differences.

What staff think is important, and how we are doing

371 academic and general staff responded to the survey. 752 postgraduates also responded. Staff and postgraduates believe the most important things are access to online resources and that library staff are approachable and able to provide accurate answers to questions.

Staff and postgraduates gave the highest performance scores to library staff, opening hours and face-to-face enquiry services. Staff thought the library could improve the library catalogue and website, and the availability of online and physical resources. Postgraduates also thought these things could be improved, but like undergraduates, were most concerned about the availability of computes and quiet study areas.

What next?

The Library will promote the survey results and outline our proposed actions in response to areas of concern. We'll continue to crunch the numbers and analyse the comments for each of the libraries and specific cohorts (including Faculties, staff and postgraduates) in detail.  We've started to develop a survey action plan and will incorporate the information we've received into all of our planning.

But it doesn't stop there

While we conduct our major survey every two years, the library is happy to receive feedback at any time. Go to http://uon.altarama.com if you have something you'd like to tell us.

Full survey results are available at
http://www.newcastle.edu.au/service/library/our-libraries/library-survey.html