Clarion University's Carlson and Shur Libraries will ask its patrons to evaluate its services through a survey being conducted Nov. 6-Dec. 9. Those completing the survey will be eligible for prizes.
Those wishing to participate will find the survey at www.clarion.edu/libary or paper copies may be obtained from Basil Martin, associate professor and librarian for Carlson Library. The survey measures 22 core qualities of libraries, focusing on effectiveness, information access, and whether the physical facilities meet the needs of the patrons, and should take approximately 10 minutes to complete.
Participants must be a Clarion University student, staff member or faculty member and at least18 years old to take the survey and enter the drawing to win a $100 top prize, $50 second prize, $25 third prize, and 25 entrees will win a $5 Starbucks gift card. This is an anonymous survey. E-mail address are not linked to a response. All participant e-mail addresses will be discarded immediately after the winners are drawn.
This is the second time Clarion University libraries has conducted this survey, with more than 800 participants in 2006. "The data we collect this year gives the library longitudinal data to see if there has been an improvement since 2006," said Martin.
The goals of LibQUAL+ are to foster a culture of excellence in providing library service, help libraries better understand user perceptions of library service quality, collect and interpret library user feedback systematically over time, provide libraries with comparable assessment information from peer institutions, identify best practices in library service, and enhance library staff members' analytical skills for interpreting and acting on data.
"We are hoping to have as many participants as possible so we can improve services to meet the needs of the university libraries' users," said Mary Buchanan, Clarion University librarian. "The more responses, the better the results."
LibQUAL+ is a suite of services that libraries use to solicit, track, understand, and act upon users' opinions of service quality. These services are offered to the library community by the Association of Research Libraries (ARL). The program's centerpiece is a rigorously tested Web-based survey bundled with training that helps libraries assess and improve library services, change organizational culture, and market the library.
"The survey will help the university libraries develop a better understanding of where the "gaps" are in the service quality," said Martin. "Service superiority gaps scores and Service adequacy gap scores of the LibQUAL+ protocol can tell the library where the services are in relation to the users desired or minimal level of service and quality and what services need improved the most."
Today, over 1,000 libraries have participated in LibQUAL+ survey, collecting over 1,000,000 library user responses. Over 300 libraries participated in the survey in 2006. In addition to Clarion, five other libraries in the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education, will be participating in this year's survey.
For more information, contact Basil Martin at: or visit www.clarion.edu/library.
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