The University libraries are in the process of measuring the effectiveness of service to the UNM community. Monday, April 8, we will be sending out an electronic survey, LIBQUAL+, to a sample of students and faculty. We encourage those of you who receive it to spend 10-15 minutes of your time to help us identify how well you think the libraries meet your expectations of service.
The data will be used to identify what the library is doing right and where improvement is needed. This information is very important because only you can tell us how well the services meet your needs. The survey results gathered at 167 other university libraries in the United States and Canada, together with ours, will further assist in improving the quality of the General Library's services.
The Association of Research Libraries recognizes that measuring library quality based solely on collections is becoming obsolete and is supporting new ways to determine service quality. The survey we are using, which was developed at Texas A&M University, evaluates service quality based on industry's SERVQUAL. During the first year, 13 Association of Research Libraries tested the instrument and in 2000-2001, more than 20,000 library users completed surveys for 43 libraries in the pilot phase.
As a member of ARL, UNM conducted its first survey last March. Respondents to the survey on library services agreed with the national group on two important issues. As a group, students, faculty and staff in 43 libraries felt that their library's catalogs, borrowing and overdue records needed to be more accurate.
In addition, these respondents rated libraries as lacking in complete runs of journal titles. At UNM, JSTOR provides a large number of complete journal runs in electronic form and the library has completed a project to add catalog records for the last 125,000 books to LIBROS, making the card catalog obsolete.
In the UNM survey, respondents also rated the libraries as less than satisfactory in complete print collections, convenient business hours and modern equipment that lets users easily access the information they need.
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Finally, UNM respondents said the libraries did not meet their expectations when it came to adding resources to the libraries on request. UNM respondents did agree that the libraries met their expectations in all other areas. Each of the areas shown to be of concern will be carefully examined and steps taken to address the issues identified by the survey. Of the 43 libraries participating in the United States and Canada, UNM had the best participation by faculty in the survey, was higher than average when it came to the number of times respondents said they visited the libraries and accessed the libraries electronically.
The UNM General Library is one of 168 academic libraries conducting the survey in 2002. The survey, conducted from April 8-15, focuses on the affect of library service, the library as place, user's personal control of their library activities and the library's scope. More than 3,800 undergraduate and graduate students and faculty will be asked to provide input on what the library is doing right and where improvement is needed. A report on the findings of the survey will be available in the fall. Professor Johann van Reenen is the project coordinator and is working with Michael Rivera and others in conducting the survey.
Thank you for taking this opportunity to assist the library in serving you better.
by David A. Baldwin
General Library Columnist
Professor David A. Baldwin, director of Zimmerman Library, has worked in five libraries in four states during his 34-year career. He is the author of six books on library management, the latest scheduled for publication in 2002.
