San Diego State University                                        Library and Information Access

LibQUAL+ Survey Asks for Users' Feedback

This fall, the SDSU Library will begin a strategic assessment survey called LibQUAL+. LibQUAL+ is a suite of services that libraries use to request, track, understand and act upon users' opinions of service quality. At the heart of the program is a rigorously tested Web-based survey, which measures user perceptions and expectations in three areas of library service: affect of service, information control and library as place.

SDSU students, faculty and staff will be sent an e-mail from the dean introducing LibQUAL+, requesting their participation and providing them with the site URL. Here they will find the LibQUAL+ survey, the e-mail addresses of library employees who are able to respond to their questions, as well as FAQs to preemptively inform them and respond to questions. After completing the survey form, their answers are sent to a central database, where the data are analyzed and presented in reports describing the users' desired, perceived and minimum expectations of service.

LibQUAL+ benefits library users by giving them the chance to provide feedback regarding where services meet expectations and where improvement is needed. It also enables management to compare the SDSU Library's data with that of peer institutions and to examine the practices of those libraries that were rated highly by their users. LibQUAL+ will provide Library and Information Access with the opportunity to listen and respond to user perceptions of library services. Objective performance measures provided by LibQUAL+ also will support and enhance Library and Information Access' ongoing strategic planning initiatives.

More than 500 libraries around the world have participated in LibQUAL+. Participating libraries have found LibQUAL+ to be effective on many levels. The Director of Public Services, Duke University, characterized LibQUAL+ as a "transformative experience," "helping to shape a vision of the public services that questions traditional library functions in light of user-driven perceptions." Washington State librarians envision LibQUAL+ becoming "increasingly important in the complex world of academic library management." The services are offered to the library community by the Association of Research Libraries.

Library users who complete the survey will be eligible to win one of numerous prizes, including iPods and gift certificates.