The 2010 LibQUAL+® implementation raised two key challenges: Firstly, how can the library improve the response rate of the survey? Secondly, how will changes made to library services impact future LibQUAL+® results? Improving Response Rate Owing to the relatively small population at the School of Defence and Security with the majority of courses conducted during one academic year, the survey has always been sent to the whole population, no sampling has been applied. All students and staff members receive an invitation to complete the survey through a generic university-wide e-mail message. Since the introduction of part-time distant-learning courses in 2006, the response rate had been declining annually, from 26% in 2006 to 8% in 2009. Although the part-time students are issued with a university e-mail address, many do not use it, preferring to communicate via their work or personal e-mail addresses instead. Therefore, many have never read the general invitation to complete the LibQUAL+® survey. Supplementary to this, concerns regarding the complexity of the survey coupled with survey fatigue had been raised by both staff and students alike. The first strategic challenge to improve the response rate led to two changes for the 2010 implementation. Firstly, non-university e-mail addresses were obtained from the student records system for the part- time students. This data was coupled with the students’ full name enabling a personalized mailing to be sent rather than a generic invitation. The message emphasized the importance of the customer feedback and how the results have been used in the past. The link in the e-mail directed the customer to the library website with a subsequent link to the LibQUAL+® survey to emphasize the anonymous nature of the questionnaire. Secondly, the new shorter LibQUAL+® Lite2 protocol was used for 50% of the surveys, in line with an agreed-upon approach with other SCONUL participants. The 50/50 approach was adopted by members of the SCONUL consortium who had previously used LibQUAL+® to collect baseline data for the comparability of the long and Lite versions of the LibQUAL+® survey. This enables further analysis of the implications of the Lite protocol on the scores received. RLI 271 22 Service Quality Assessment with LibQUAL+® in Challenging Times ( C O N T I N U E D ) AUGUST 2010 RESEARCH LIBRARY ISSUES: A BIMONTHLY REPORT FROM ARL, CNI, AND SPARC
Previous Page Next Page