Library user survey 2014: prize draw results

The winners of the library survey 2014 prize draw are announced! Congratulations go to Charlotte Godridge, Lisa Hands and Natalie Purnell, who have each won a £10 ‘Love2Shop’ High Street voucher.

Over 200 people completed the library survey. The feedback received will help us shape the library service to meet your teaching and learning needs. Many thanks to everyone who took the time to share their views about the library.

For a breakdown of the 2014 survey results, click here.

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Library user survey 2014: finding information in the library

Our Library User Survey 2014 asked the question “Are you able to find the information you need in the Library?” Your responses showed that, more often than not, you do! 85% of people who took the survey said they found the information they needed either always or often.

This tells us that our resources, while not being able to cover all aspects of all subjects, satisfies our student and staff needs the majority of the time.

The survey also asked if you had been given a Library induction, showing how to use the Library catalogue, e-books and e-resources. This proved an advantage when finding information in the Library – 20% more of you found what you were looking for after attending an induction.

         

Library user survey 2014: suggestions from students

In our recent survey we asked staff and students how the college library could be improved. As always, students were our strictest users. There have been a lot of comments and suggestions made – over 100. Here is their representative digest:

Hinckley

• Journalism and photography students want Apple Mac computers and access to Photoshop, and generally better access to PCs
  (Library: We will raise this with our IT colleagues)
• Noise is the most common comment from the students in Hinckley: “Sometimes the volume of some groups gets too loud and causes it hard to work.”
  (Library: We will discuss this at the library team meeting and invite the Estates colleagues help in adjusting the facilities to make the library space more in line with your expectations)
• Missing books replaced – requested by a photography student
  (Library: We will review all the missing photography titles and discuss with tutors the need of replacing them)

Library user survey 2014: suggestions from staff

In our recent survey we asked staff and students how the college library could be improved. This is a comprehensive list of suggestions from staff members:

• More books (Arts, Hinckley)
• New windows it can be cold sitting next to the windows facing the staff car park (Childcare, Nuneaton)
• Magazine selection for the public services (Public services, Nuneaton)

Library user survey 2014: best things about library

In our recent survey we asked staff and students what were the best things about the college library. Here is a snapshot of your responses:

• A community feel to it (Member of support staff, Nuneaton)
• The availability of a suitable workspace for me to plug in my own equipment (Student, Access to HE, Nuneaton)
• ClickView very useful (Member of teaching staff, Nuneaton)
• Getting all my studies and coursework completed on time and there is always a computer spare (Student, Hairdressing, Nuneaton)
• Friendly staff, non term-time opening (Student, Access to HE, Nuneaton)

Library user survey 2014: resource awareness

A number of questions in the library survey related to how aware our users were of various resources and services the college library offers. Here are the results:

As in previous years, books are by far the most used library resources across all our users. Despite a high level of awareness, comparatively few students (20.6%), but more staff (44.8%) said they were using ebooks often or occasionally. This will certainly be a topic of our further investigation into the reasons for students’ reluctance to use ebooks. Staff are also more likely to use newspapers and magazines. This year’s survey shows that students are well aware of the variety of resources and services available to them; they are extermely selective in their choices of resources and services.

More survey results to follow.

First results of the library user survey 2014

Thank you to all who responded to an invitation to take part in the annual library user survey last month. The main chunk of the data is still being analysed, but the first results can be shared already – the questions we share with other FE colleges which are members of the Council for Learning Resources in Colleges. These three questions allow us to benchmark our library performance against similar libraries in Britain.

(And just in case you’re wandering about prizes… the names of the lucky winners will be announced next week.)

As in recent years, about 90% of the library users say the library is very much or partly helps them with their courses. This is in line with the average figures for other college libraries in Britain.

Less favourably, our users perceive the support they receive from library staff for their college work. Just under 81% say this support is very or quite useful. It is worth noting, however, that the survey was open to support staff too; being focused on supporting teaching and learning, the library doesn’t explicitely aim to address the needs of our collegues from support departments. We hope to see the clues for improving the service in the further comments in the survey which are about being analysed and published soon.

On the whole, these results are encouraging taking into account the budget pressures and the notably increased expectations and needs of our learners as many of them feel they cannot  afford learning resources themselves anymore and have to rely on the library and tutors to provide even the core textbooks and course materials.

More survey results to follow.

Library survey 2013: you said, we did!

Recently, the library ran a survey to see what people think about the service we offer. 118 staff and students completed it, and a range of opinions and ideas were collected. Comments which appeared several times are outlined below, along with the library’s response (see also Library Survey 2012-2013 – Results):

You said, we did:

• ‘Longer time on computers.’
Computers were bookable in one hour slots using MyPC software. We have now increased this and computers are bookable in two hours slots.

• ‘More computers to enable more access.’
5 additional computers have been allocated for the library in Nuneaton. Hopefully these will be transferred during the May half term break.

Library Survey 2012-2013 – Results

Last February, the Library asked its users to evaluate the service and its impact on their college experience. 119 learners and members of staff responded to the survey published online and on paper. It was promoted via direct emails to library users, as well as on this blog, the college extranet, and on the library’s Twitter and Facebook feeds.

We are extremely pleased that in all three criteria evaluated by the Council for Learning Resources in Colleges (CoLRiC) the NWHC Library has performed above the national benchmark – for the fourth year in a row. It is great to see that over 80% of learners agree that the Library positively contributes to their learning.

The results of the prize draw will be announced in April on this blog, as well as on the Library’s Twitter and Facebook feeds.

 

NWHC Library (2013):  very good – 61%, quite good – 29%, not particularly good – 5%, not at all good – 5%.
National benchmark (2012): very good – 53.5%, quite good – 36.4%, not particularly good – 7.5%, not at all good – 2.7%.

NWHC Library (2013):  very good – 55%, quite good – 39%, not particularly good – 5%, not at all good – 1%.
National benchmark (2012): very good – 45.7%, quite good – 42.3%, not particularly good – 8.7%, not at all good – 1%.

NWHC Library (2013):  very useful – 49%, quite useful – 33%, not particularly useful – 16%, not at all useful – 2%.
National benchmark (2012): very useful – 36.7%, quite useful – 43.1%, not particularly useful – 14.6%, not at all useful – 5.5%.

Library Survey

We’d love to know how we are doing. Please tell us what you think and enter a prize draw to win one of five £10 iTunes vouchers. The results of the survey will be published on the Library blog, Facebook and Twitter in March 2013.

Start here! – Login into Moodle, then go to the Short Library Survey.