Report on LibQual Survey

February 25, 2009

We’d like to thank all those who have participated in the LibQUAL Survey conducted by the UMD Library last October.

Altogether, 1,497 people at UMD have succeeded in completing the Survey, of which 1,061 are undergraduate students (11.38% of the group), 144 graduate students (19.59%), 162 faculty members (30.11%), and 130 staff members (10.96%). The total participation rate is 11.38%.

We are happy to report that the Survey results show that the Library has met the overall expectations of our users. We’ve also noticed that each user group has its unique perception of the Library regarding its Affect of Services, Information Control, and Library as Place.

In addition to answering the questions in the Survey, 483 participants have taken time to write comments. The majority of the comments are very positive about the Library, including praises for individual librarians and staff, love for the Library as a comfortable and quiet place to study, and satisfaction of various services provided by the Library.

At the same time, we do see some gap between what our users perceive and what they desire regarding our library services. Here is a synopsis of what our users desire as expressed in their comments:

• [40] longer library hours, especially on weekends
• [36] quiet study space, including enforcing the quiet policy
• [24] more group study rooms
• [36] more information resources (from faculty members)
• [86] various services issues, e.g.,
  • Online room booking
  • Printer problems and costs
  • Database interfaces
  • Dated computers
  • Video on open stacks
  • Library fines
  • Library website

[Note: The number in square brackets indicates how many comments on the issue.]

The Library will further analyze the data collected through the Survey to identify our strengths and those areas that require improvements as well as to use the information in the Library’s strategic planning processes to make certain that our library services are aligned with user expectations.