10 minutes to help improve YOUR library.
The survey, called LibQUAL+ , asks students, faculty, and staff to give us feedback about many aspects of library service, including spaces, staff-mediated services, access to print and electronic resources and overall library performance.
The UConn Library, including its Storrs and Regional Campus Libraries, is running the LibQUAL library service survey November 14 – December 9, 2022.
Want to learn more? Keep reading!
LibQUAL+ is an online survey that measures the library’s service quality. Made available to libraries by the Association of Research Libraries (ARL), the survey asks users questions about many aspects of library services, including physical spaces, staff-delivered service, access to print/electronic resources, and overall assessment of the library’s effectiveness. Since 2000, LibQUAL has been run over 3000 times at more than 1400 institutions including UConn (we last ran it in 2010).
Survey Overview: The Basics
The survey takes 5-10 minutes to complete. Survey questions can be skipped or marked “NA” when they don’t apply. The bulk of the survey is made up of core scale (ranking) questions about library spaces, service, and access to online and print resources. In addition, the survey asks questions about your overall satisfaction with the library, how often you use the Library and other resources, and a few general questions about you, including your role at the university (student, faculty), your age, your status/role, and your area of work/study.
Optionally, survey participants may enter their email addresses at the end of the survey to be invited to a Meet the Dean reception that will take place early spring semester. For student participants only, submitting their email address will enter them in a drawing to win one of two AirPods. (Email addresses are stored separately from survey responses and cannot ever be connected to those responses. Students employed by UConn are not eligible.)
Survey Goal: Why are we doing this survey?
We’re running LibQUAL to assess how well the UConn Library is meeting its goal of being the best library for UConn. This survey measures not only how well we are doing right now, but also what users would find minimally acceptable (the “low bar”) and what level of service they desire (the “high bar”). The results of the survey will chart for us where specifically between those low and high bars we are, which will be enormously helpful in prioritizing our work over the next several years.
Survey Participants: Who are we asking to take the survey?
This year (2022), we will ask all UConn undergraduate students, graduate students, and instructors to participate. Library staff will also take the survey in order to measure our own perception of service levels. Survey participants will access the survey through an anonymous link included in the email inviting them to take the survey – or the link embedded at thee top of this page.
Privacy: How we’ll protect it
We value your privacy. Both the UConn Library and the survey host, the Association of Research Libraries (ARL), take data security seriously and are guided by ethical standards for the conduct of human subjects research.
Taking the survey is optional and the survey itself is anonymous. You consent to taking the survey by clicking the survey link. Once you enter the survey, you can exit the survey at any time. You may choose not to answer any individual question on the survey by simply clicking the N/A [No Answer/Non-Applicable] option. The survey itself collects no identifying information. Survey responses are aggregated (pooled) for the purposes of analysis and sharing. Optional write-in comments will be carefully reviewed for any identifying information before being shared with stakeholders in the UConn community. Other institutions participating in LibQUAL will have access to aggregated survey results from our survey (no comments will be available to them); the UConn Library will likewise have access to other institutions’ aggregate data for the purposes of benchmarking.
Access to securely stored original survey data is limited to study investigators (listed below) and select staff of ARL indefinitely for statistical purposes (analysis) only. IP addresses and any email addresses optionally shared for the purpose of entering the drawing/being invited to the reception are deleted by ARL several months after the close of a survey cycle (for this survey, that will happen in June 2023).
Confidentiality and the Optional Drawing
Email addresses submitted to take part in the optional drawing are stored in a separate database; they are never connected and can never be connected to survey responses. Email addresses will be deleted after they have served the purposes of choosing drawing winners and inviting those who entered to the Meet the Dean reception.
I Have Questions!
Feel free to contact either the Principle Investigator (PI) or study co-Investigator with any questions you have about this survey
Susanna M. Cowan, PhD, MLS (PI) – Assessment Strategist, UConn Library susanna.cowan@uconn.edu
Lauren Slingluff, MSLIS (Investigator) – Associate Dean, UConn Library lauren.slingluff@uconn.edu
Due to the internal focus of this survey, it does not require IRB approval or review.