Initiative Review Group I Final Report June 30, 2001

Analyze needs of users and develop the services and technical infrastructure to ensure that needs are being met.

Members:

Diane Baker, Elaine Contant, Norma Johnson, Beth Juhl, Sandye McCraw, Terri McMillan, Kathy Riggle. Admin liaison: Alberta Bailey

1. Briefly describe the background, present setting/structure

Our group examined three different areas in respect to background and current setting:

A. Defining Users

B. Previous User Surveys

C. User Needs Assessment at Other Libraries

1A. Defining Our Users

Users of the University Libraries can be defined in multiple categories, including on campus and remote patrons; those affiliated with the University and those not affiliated; scholars and students conducting serious research and those pursuing recreational interests.

Traditionally, the University Libraries have specified that primary users are current students, faculty, and staff and that those patrons present in the Library should be served before those seeking assistance via phone call or letter. However, mandates to assist in the land grant mission of the University by reaching out to students and citizens beyond the campus, combined with the possibilities of new technologies for distance education and remote use of library resources and services, have combined to blur earlier distinctions between primary and secondary users. For unique materials, such as those housed in Special Collections, all users are primary users, regardless of location or affiliation.

Other factors that have served to create new library users groups, or to foster the growing expectations of all user groups include:

Increased consumer attitude in higher education, which is at times in conflict with the teaching role of librarians and library staff

Growth of area two-year colleges, private colleges, distance education programs offered by other institutions, and increased business and educational emphasis on continual training and recertification draws many unaffiliated adult learners and college students to our collections, the largest in the state

New consortium-building efforts, which draw on librarian and staff expertise to collaborate with colleagues around the state and nation and also increase Interlibrary Loans to other libraries

The presence of free web technology in the Libraries is attractive to many community users who have no other affiliation with the University

The availability of information about library collections on the web, and the coming availability of digitized collections themselves, creates interest among potential new users all over the world

All users and potential users are potential donors

A working list of major users categories is given in Appendix 1A. An important consideration is that, given the wide array of user groups, the needs of those groups can often be very different and, occasionally, even in conflict. For example, a loan rule to keep important microforms in-house does not serve Interlibrary Loan users well. Special programs and services developed for distant students dilute staff resources for those who are on campus. Full text resources are popular with most students but have their opponents among faculty members who feel that print resources are more reliable and permanent. All of these conflicts serve to emphasize the importance of prioritizing user needs and verifying that each new initiative, service, or collection fits within overall library priorities.

1B. Previous User Surveys and Needs Assessments

A summary of recent library-wide user surveys and related reports are attached in Appendix 1B. In addition to these broad-based surveys, several departments routinely collect information on user satisfaction with collections and services. User response forms (collected by Alberta Bailey), InfoLinks and web page suggestion boxes (forwarded to Alberta Bailey and Ann Waligorski), and other home page links provide ongoing mechanisms for capturing user comments and complaints.

In analyzing these broad surveys, the group was able to identify several top user concerns. These are listed in section 2 of the report.

Although IRG#1 concentrated on library services rather than collections, mention should also be made of efforts to assess our collections and user satisfaction with them. Usha Gupta has been particularly active in this area, with numerous use studies for periodicals and reference tools to her credit. Recently, Usha Gupta and Luti Salisbury have begun conducting comparison users studies with print and online versions of scholarly journals in the fields of Chemistry and Mathematics. Frequent, targeted user surveys are conducted by librarians on specific online products, such as Luti's CARL/UnCover stufy in 1999/99, or the Walton E-Text Committee's study on JSTOR and MUSE in 1999/2000. The CLIO ILL system, added in 1999/2000, has allowed the Libraries to begin compiling useful data on gaps in the collections. Routine program reviews for new degree programs, or for those programs seeking reaccreditation, allow librarians to assess use patterns and to identify holdings of peer libraries. However, in many cases, these studies are most often evaluations of collection effectiveness after the fact, rather than an analysis of user needs prior to purchase. It was sometimes difficult for our group to deterimine what parts of collection development belong to IRG#1 and which aspects would more appropriately be addressed in other groups such as IRG#2 (evaluate effectiveness) or IRG#6 (collection development).

We also discussed examples of user needs that have been successfully addressed by various library departments, including:

Various attempts to adjust library opening hours in response to student requests. During 1994/95, Mullins Library experimented with late Friday night hours, opening later on Sunday mornings to compensate. Beginning in 1999/2000, Mullins stayed open later during finals periods, and began finals hours earlier in the semester. Also in 1999/2000, Circulation undertook to staff the East door during intersession and non-holiday weekdays. In all cases, student spokespersons were appreciative but library census counts remained extremely low, making the extended hours difficult to justify in all cases.

In an attempt to improve copier service, the Libraries took over management of public copiers in Mullins in 1997 as part of a reconfiguration of the new Periodicals Room.

Interlibrary Loan has been very active in soliciting patron opinions about service, and has constantly tried to balance student wishes for free document delivery with faculty and researcher needs for quick delivery times. ILL participated in user studies conducted by RLG and by the Big 12+ in 1997/98. Results from those survey contributed to the Libraries' acquisition of high-end scanners, the CLIO ILL software, and other technologies to improve turnaround times. Article copies began to be delivered online in 1999/2000 and today almost every photocopy is accessible via the web. The department continues to look for user input, most recently in a survey of "we own" requests in 1999/2000.

Despite a drop in the number of student workers, Circulation/Stacks made great strides in shelving turnaround several years ago. Even though most books are now reshelved within 48 hours, patrons continue to complain about shelving. The group feels that these complaints seem to stem from a memory of past practice more than current reality. This area is an example of how important it is to demonstrate to patrons how the libraries can and do respond to suggestions and complaints.

In Audiovisual, several projects have been undertaken to provide Music faculty and students with better access to scores and recordings, including an innovative project to provide brief cataloging records in InfoLinks for UA concert recordings, as well as a new series of handouts and instructional materials.

As part of increased security procedures in Special Collections, public user lockers were installed so that patrons would have a safe a secure place to leave their belongings.

Periodicals moved "reserve" magazines and microfiche out to the public stacks where patrons could browse them.

Fine Arts installed a public scanner so that art and architecture students could digitize visual materials without taking them out of the building.

Acquisitions no longer requires that book orders be typed and in fact encourages faculty to submit requests via email, on database printouts, and on publisher's flyers or catalogs. Unfilled orders are now returned to book reps at the end of the fiscal year.

Binding now provides patrons with a form that can be dropped off after hours so that in-process materials can be pulled and ready for use the next day.

Patrons continually request more, newer, and faster web access. In less then 10 years, the Libraries have advanced from less than a dozen standalone CD-ROM stations and a limited number of public dumb terminals for InfoLinks access to more than three dozen high-end public web stations. When workstations in the General Access Computer Lab and anticipated thin client stations and laptops are added to the overall number, the Libraries now offer more than 100 public web stations.

In response to patron requests for better off-campus access to online databases and electronic journals, the Innovative Interface's Web Access Management module was purchased and implemented in 1999/2000. Since that time, there have been more than 80,000 proxy server sessions.

Reference librarians work to continually revise instructional programs in light of changing student and instructor needs. For example, the basic composition program was completely revised in 1999/2000 to provide more hands-on time in class to and to teach a limited amount of material directly relevant to the students' assignment.

Although there is much work yet to be done to mount all departmental policies and procedures online, almost every public services department now makes various request forms (Reserves, ILL, Reference Questions, Book Suggestions) available online.

In addition, several departments, such as Government Documents, ILL, Reference and Special Collections, routinely receive high marks in user surveys for good customer service. Patron perceptions of good customer services usually correspond to the availability of professional and full-time staff at a service desk. Reference librarians also create more user needs by promoting library services, such as ILL, in instruction sessions.

1C. Assessing User Needs at Other Libraries

Articles, survey results, and related materials can be found in Appendix 1C. Common trends or themes that can be identified in recent library literature include:

-The current emphasis on "customer" satisfaction in higher education is often in conflict with libraries' academic instructional mission; in responding to needs or wants expressed in user surveys, libraries must continually refer back to their core mission and respond appropriately

-Surveys, focus groups, and other methods of collecting user input have significant value as public relations and instructional tools.

-It is crucial that libraries follow through on surveys and inform users how their suggestions are to be incorporated or not into library services and programs. Make survey results widely available to all constituents.

-Libraries conducting surveys should have a clear vision of what information is wanted from users and how user input will be used. Set priorities for surveys.

-Survey fatigue is real; while it is important to develop ongoing mechanisms for collecting user opinions, libraries should be very cautious about multiple surveys in a single year.

-Different user groups (students and faculty, on-campus and off-campus users) will often list different library priorities.

-Environments (both physical and online) often elicit more patron complaints and comments than any other service area. Comfort, convenience, and customization (Barnes and Noble meets Amazon.com) are paramount.

2. Develop an inclusive list of issues that must be addressed / considered.

After reviewing previous library-wide surveys and talking with colleagues, the group developed a list of critical user needs that have come up as suggestions over and over again.

1. Collections

Repeatedly, faculty and students praise good library services while despairing over the inadequate collections. This is consistently the #1 user complaint from previous surveys. A particular request from freshman surveyed in Composition courses is to get more materials (journal articles) online.

2. Difficulty in locating materials

This is expressed in a number of ways ("more maps/ floor plans," "more signs," "use Dewey Decimal," "make it less confusing" ). It is difficult to know how best to respond to this complaint. Most of the surveys were conducted before the new signs and floor plans were installed in 2000/2001. Research libraries are fairly complex systems - even though Mullins has only one major call number sequence and the University Libraries taken together have far fewer branches or locations than larger academic libraries. It is clear that students receive very little preparation for "traditional" library research and that the ready availability of online full text materials only exacerbates their reluctance to venture into the stacks.

3. Library hours and doors

The Libraries are already addressing the problem of the East Door hours and have been testing later hours for a longer period prior to finals. Students still want and ask for later hours, even though user counts indicate that very few take advantage of extended hours.

4. More lenient food and drink policies

Part of a comfortable study environment includes food and drink. Users ask frequently for a study lounge with vending machines, a coffee bar, and other food venues.

5. Better trained, more polite, and more knowledgeable staff at all service desks

Help on every floor. Staff that will take you to the book, not tell you how to find the book.

6. More computers, with more software

Students do not understand why the General Access Computer Lab has word-processing, spreadsheet, presentation, and other office software while the library computers only offer web access.

7. Better copiers and related copying/ scanning technology

Even though the libraries are doing a better job of maintaining the public copiers, the equipment is aging and the copy quality is not comparable to staff copiers. Students frequently request color copiers and printers, as well as more scanners to make digital copies of library materials.

8. "Convenience"

Run the library more like a service, e.g, accept Razorbuck$ for fines and copiers, accept charge cards and cash checks, page books from the stacks, send digital copies from stacks, provide more office supplies (or a vending machine with office supplies).

9. More spaces for group study; more quiet study areas

 

10. Make microforms easier to use and to copy; replace microforms with another format

After identifying these overriding user concerns, the group organized a more comprehensive list of issues in broad thematic areas: collections, services, environments, instruction and outreach, and technology.

1. Students, faculty, and staff need adequate collections, in print, online, and in other formats.
1. Kinds of Collections
1. Research collections to support teaching and research mission of the University
2. Enhanced digital collections and services, especially for remote users
3. Maintain and increase exhaustive collecting of regional history and culture; manuscript and rare book collections
4. Enhanced collecting in audiovisual formats (video, audio) for both instruction and recreational use
5. Collections and adaptive technologies for disabled users
6. Collections to support recreational and lifelong learning activities (music, art, fiction, film)

1. Issues relating to assessing user needs in collections include:
1. Leadership in and organization / training for collection development
2. Funding and Private Support
3. Continual monitoring of degree programs and changes in curricula
4. Thoughtful use of statistics supplied by various systems: circulation figures in InfoLinks, database use statistics, and CLIO ILL / Copyright figures

To provide access to these collections, the Libraries must provide services, pleasant and easy-to use environments (both built and online), the technical infrastructure to deliver content in all formats, and adequate user assistance and instruction.

1. Services: Users need to be able to find and make use of information held by the Libraries, or by partner libraries, regardless of format.

1. Kinds of Services
1. Stacks and Storage
1. Collections maintained on the shelves; shelf-read; inventoried
2. Delivery systems from offsite storage
1. on-campus same day delivery to offices
2. scanning of articles from storage site
2. Clear, up-to-date, and accurate information in InfoLinks
1. Those libraries (Chemistry, Physics, LRC) not already using automated Circulation need to be brought online
2. Uncataloged collections (LRC, microform sets) need to be reconned
3. Usability studies of the WebPac; location codes, etc.
4. Continued efforts to add new kinds of cataloging information to InfoLinks
1. Internet resources and e-journals
2. Images and digital collections
3. E-Reserves
4. Audio and Video files
3. Copying, scanning, printing, reprography
1. Public copying and printing need to be equally supported and staffed
2. Charge, but accept Razorbuck$; campus-wide debit card
3. Color images are increasingly important in many fields
4. Public scanners are needed for student reports, to save theft and mutilation
5. Many formats (maps, special collections) need oversized copy capabilities
6. The Libraries need a routine way to make microform masters and copies and to repair damaged films or fiches
4. User options well-documented and online
1. Clear instructions for placing searches, holds, recalls
2. Clear instructions for placing book or journal acquisitions requests online
3. Clear instructions for Interlibrary Loan and Document Delivery
5. Course Reserves
1. Uncopyrighted materials online and linked when possible (course notes, tests). This is regardless of whether library or instructor digitizes.
2. Consider purchasing 1 copy of all reserve texts for classes larger than a certain size
3. Investigate electronic reserves for music and video

1. Service Issues
1. Training: Services staff need formal and ongoing training to provide consistent and efficient service
1. Cross-training between service desks and departments
2. Every staff member an information point
2. The Libraries need routines and procedures for investigating and responding to each user request or complaint
3. Remote services are labor- and time-intensive and require a higher level of technological skill than onsite services

1. Environments: Users need welcoming and easy-to-navigate environments in which to find and make use of library materials.

1. Physical Environments
1. Hours
1. The Main Library building needs to be open and adequately staffed at hours convenient to students and faculty (library hours are most frequent student complaint)
2. Chemistry, Physics and especially the LRC need to be open longer and more consistent hours
2. Food and Drink are part of a comfortable study atmosphere
1. Consider a lounge area with vending machines, coffee bar, etc. Also office supplies
3. Mullins Library should offer more space for group work and more opportunities for use of the individual study rooms
1. More group rooms with computer access
2. Consider revising the graduate carrel policies to allow some to be checked out for short periods of time.
3. Place carrel (faculty, students) applications online
4. "Continual Renovation"
1. Better lighting in older areas
2. Better, more comfortable seating in older areas
3. Continual revision and updating of signs and maps
5. Safety and Convenience
1. Easy to find service desks on each floor of Mullins
2. Provide public lockers for students
3. Accept checks for copy cards, Razorbuck$, credit cards
4. Continue work on emergency plans and preparedness
5. Fix the clocks
6. Provide several stations with frequently requested office supplies (heavy-duty staplers, paper cutters, white out, scissors, pencil sharpers, typewriter)
2. Online Environments
1. Make the Home Page as easy to navigate as possible
2. Ditto InfoLinks
3. Improve Remote Access via the Proxy Server
1. Investigate alternatives such as EZProxy.
4. Ensure that online information, printed brochures, and policies given out at service desks are consistent
5. Investigate online help and reference options (chat, etc.)
6. Continue to check the Home Page and online resources for accessibility problems
1. Train more staff in adaptive software for web browsing

1. Environment Issues
1. Changing food and drink policies will affect preservation and housekeeping
2. The Libraries need to know more about how the study areas on levels 1, 3, and 4 (old side and new side) are used before redesigning or reconfiguring public areas
3. Wireless technology will change the ways in which students and faculty use the library.
4. Building effective online environments (real-time remote reference, interactive instruction) will dilute reference resources for in-person, in-library services.
5. Longer hours will mean more service desks staff with less trained student staff, in opposition to the user need for trained, skilled library staff

1. Instruction and Outreach: Users need formal instruction, frequent updates on new library services and collections, and informal assistance at service desk to make the best use of our collections

1. Reference and Information Services
1. Point-of-Service instruction is often preferred to classroom sessions
2. Need more roving librarians or peer coaches (student helpers)
3. Reference Desk still has an important role; reference by appointment is not desirable, from the users' point of view
4. The level of technical assistance needed has increased dramatically in the last two years (printing, saving, manipulating information)
5. Every staff member needs to indicate a willingness to teach and to show
6. Users like the immediacy of email or phone answers and would probably enjoy chat or another real-time remote reference service.
2. Classroom Instruction
1. Task-oriented instruction is often preferred by students; only specific skills needed for current assignment. Students often report that too much information is given in a single class session
2. At the same time, freshman students express a need to know "more about the library" after one short session. Difficult to target instruction when there is no overall information literacy program to ensure that students get the "basics" in one class so that we can build on those basics in a later session.
3. Navigating the call number system is very difficult to teach and yet an essential component
4. Even after hands-on or online instruction, students still want a "tour" of the library
5. Distant education students have very different needs; much time in class spent on the mechanics of remote access
3. Faculty Training and liaison activities
1. Faculty enjoy liaison contact, a subject specialist who is attentive to their needs and who is attuned to research in their discipline
2. Faculty enjoy one-on-one instruction in their offices, n their own schedule, at their convenience
3. Promotion of new resources and services is a kind of faculty instruction
4. Reference and Instruction Issues
1. Proliferation of sources and technologies require more time for preparation and instruction
2. Speed of change makes it difficult to "can" instructional sessions or to keep handouts and web pages up to date
3. Students can perceive instruction at a desk as bad customer service (don't show me, just get it for me).
4. If librarians teach to an assignment, then they lose the opportunity to place library materials in the broader context of information literacy
5. Lack of an overall program structure results in duplication of instruction efforts for some students and missing others.
6. Online tutorials are time-consuming to construct and maintain; without a letter grade for completion it is difficult to determine how online instructional tools are used.

1. Technology and Equipment

1. Technology needs
1. "More computers" is the second most frequent student request

Students want more computers with software applications such as Word or PowerPoint. This has been outside the Libraries' mission but the students see no distinction between the Libraries and Computing Services

1. Need technical expertise and campus-wide infrastructure for networked printing, copying, and scanning and any cost recovery for those activities
2. Support for multimedia: Audiovisual, music, video online
3. Support for digitization
1. Expertise and equipment for in-library projects
2. Equipment for digitizing microforms
4. Continuing equipment upgrades and support for new features and modules of InfoLinks
1. Millennium migration for Acquistions, Serials, Cataloging, Circulation
2. New functionalities of WEBOpac
3. University ID and SAFARI issues
4. Remote access and authentication
5. Support for adaptive software
6. Support for GIS initiatives
7. Wireless: ability to use one's own laptop on the network
8. Scanning and equipment for e-reserves, including audio and video files
9. Continual and timely upgrades for library staff equipment and software

1. Technology Issues
1. Adequate systems staff is critical for the Libraries.
1. Time to investigate new technologies and applications, rather than just repairing current ones
2. Ongoing training for all library staff
1. Core competencies need to be defined
2. Technological abilities as a part of job description and annual review
3. Investigate partnerships with computer labs
4. Need a multi-year equipment budget and plan; priorities
5. More public technology will require more staff assistance

3. Briefly describe how the initiative fits into the long-tem goals and/or mission of the University Libraries

University Vision Statement: " a nationally competitive, student-centered research university serving Arkansas and the world."

Libraries Mission: "The University Libraries perform multiple roles on campus, supporting the information and reading needs of students, faculty, and staff in the areas of classroom assignments, independent learning, research, and public service. The University Libraries also serve as a statewide resource for other academic libraries, public libraries in the state, and the general public."

This initiative is critical to fulfilling the missions of both the University and the University Libraries. Academic libraries must be responsive to the changing user needs of students and faculty or they will be bypassed by other, for-profit information vendors and neglected by the University administration in funding decisions. Not only must the Libraries respond to and even anticipate user complaints and suggestions, but they must advertise how services have been retooled or enhanced in response to those suggestions.

4. Other initiatives that should be considered and coordinated with this one.

User needs are related in some way to all the IRG topics, but are most closely affiliated with:

2. Evaluate effectiveness of existing library programs.

3. Identify expertise needed; evaluate, define, implement, and effectively shift existing staff resources to support current, enhanced, or new programs.

5. Evaluate space requirements for the next fifteen to twenty years, including Special Collections, branch libraries (Fine Arts, Chemistry, and Physics), and remote storage facility

6. Develop and implement a supportive collection development program, which includes ongoing collaboration among teaching faculty, researchers, and librarians.

7. Provide access to full-text electronic resources in all fields where appropriate.

11. Develop and document a comprehensive plan for data collection and analysis.

14. Document all major operational policies and procedures, and place them on the Web as appropriate.

15. Create library departmental Web pages.

16. Create a staff development and in-house training program for library faculty and staff.

18. Support scholarly efforts of library faculty.

Numbers 2, 3, and 6 are critical.

5. Note any initiatives that are lacking.

Services, technologies, and collections for users with disabilities need to be addressed in a holistic manner, rather than piecemeal and on an ad hoc basis. Even though many of the issues related to adaptive technologies will be considered by various of the 18 review groups, the Libraries could make more progress more quickly by designating a committee or working group to examine this area comprehensively.

Similarly, library instruction and information literacy should be studied as a separate initiative.

6. Recommend the names of individuals who are essential to the subsequent phase.

While no one person is essential, the group feels that all public services departments should be represented, in addition to a member from Systems and representation from Technical Services. Alberta Bailey should remain as administrative liaison if not group chair.

7. Recommend the amount of time that will be required to effectively develop the implementation plan.

Assessing user needs is an ongoing effort, but assessment efforts need to be coordinated and the results of surveys or other studies distributed and discussed library-wide. Rather than more surveys, the implementation team should plan to prioritize survey efforts and to select one area to be assessed in the coming year. It is clear that analysis of the LibQual survey results will be a major task for the implementation group.

More important for the implementation group will be to determine how survey data and user feedback should be used by the Libraries. The plan should include recommendations for routine incorporation of user feedback in the re-engineering of every library service and collection. The Libraries should also be aware of user needs identified through contact at public service desk or through other avenues of direct contact with patrons, i.e., acquisitions staff working with the campus faculty. These day-to-day needs are not always identifiable via survey tools.

 

A realistic timeline might include:

Summer and Fall 2001

-review and report on LibQual survey results

-compare LibQual results to those from previous library-wide surveys

-identify user needs from both LibQual and previous surveys that should receive first priority

-short-term: discrete issues that can be resolved with a limited amount of concentrated effort

-long-term: programs or services requiring ongoing attention and enhancement

Winter 2001/2002

-develop feedback and publicity mechanisms for alerting users to enhancements or changes in library services

-online suggestions forms (done)

-online comments and responses archive

-press releases or columns for Daily Headlines and Traveler ("The Libraries Listen")

-suggest methods library administrative groups (Admin, Cabinet) can regularly discuss and respond to user suggestions across departments and divisions

Spring 2002

-identify user data that is currently collected and what additional data needs to be collected on an ongoing basis

-recommend standard mechanisms for collecting user feedback

8. Priority Level

We know that the most frequent user complaint over the last decade has not been services, it has been the lack of library collections. Although assessing user needs is a "mission-critical" task, we would like to propose that our initiative take a second place behind collection development efforts. Naturally, a large part of planning for collection development will include evaluation of current curricula and programs, assessment of current collections and use patterns, and activities related to user needs. Therefore IRG #1 is priority 1 within the area of collections.

In the other areas related to our report, certain frequent and perennial complaints (library hours, circulation in Chemistry, Physics, and LRC) should be addressed in the next year. Even if the Libraries cannot correct all of the "top ten" suggestions, the University community should be kept informed of our work in these areas.

Respectfully submitted,

IRG #1