Listening to the Customer: Using Assessment Results to Make a Difference

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Johnson & Wales University

• Multiple Campuses – North Miami, FL – Providence, RI– Denver, CO– Charlotte, NC

• Business, Culinary Arts, Hospitality• Career-Oriented

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Assessments

• LibQUAL+ - North Miami data (conducted system-wide in 2003/2004)

• Annual Surveys – Charlotte (from 2004/2005 - Present)

• SAILS (Standardized Assessment of Information Literacy Skills) – Charlotte (from 2007/2008 – Present)

• SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) – Charlotte (from 2005 – Present)

• Focus Groups (2009)

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Johnson & Wales Campuses – Library Staffing

• North Miami – 4 Librarians, 1 Library Assistant, 12 Workstudy Employees

• Charlotte – 6 Librarians, 1 Student Assistant, 12 Workstudy Employees

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LibQUAL+ 2003/2004 – Service Adequacy Scores

North Miami - Undergraduates

Affect of Service - Employees who instill confidence in users -1.84

Library as Place - Library space that inspires study and learning -1.7

Information Control - Easy-to-use access tools that allow me to find things on my own -1.64

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• I feel that we should have more computers

• Needs more books about business

• Books about business and recreation topics

• The library website should be more widely published…

• Need more computers!!!• I would enjoy some more

literature.

LibQUAL+ Results 2003/2004

North Miami – Undergraduates – Comment Samples

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What have we done (Florida campus)?

• McNaughton collection• Publicized business databases, partnered

with Career Development Office to emphasize databases

• Added computer terminals and wireless• More work-study training, spread over

time more• More structured study room usage• Created a blog and IM to emphasize

online services

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Charlotte Campus – A New Library

Strategic Plan

Goal 3

Create a library focused upon the idea of continual assessment which views the entire academic community as key customers. Enhanced preparation for re-accreditation will serve as an inevitable byproduct of this goal.

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Annual Surveys (Charlotte)

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What did we learn?

• Not enough accessible hours – specific needs in this regard

• Need for greater functionality in library computers

• Desire for popular fiction and movies• Need for more comfortable setting and

furniture• Students valued quiet over access to their

phones• Loan periods too short in some cases

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What have we done?

• Additional weekend and evening hours

• Additional full service PCs in the front area (provides extra access when lab in use)

• “Percolator” collection• Added décor and soft

furniture• Crafted more strict noise

policy• Increased loan periods

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How do they know we hear them?

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SAILS (Standard Assessment of Information Literacy Skills)What did we learn?

• We are relatively “average” overall.• The scores of our students were better

than average on Standard 2 (accessing information effectively).

• The scores of our seniors were only slightly higher than average on Standard 4 (evaluating resources) despite significant efforts on our part to address this standard.

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SAILSWhat did we do?

• We completely revamped our required IL module on evaluating resources providing additional examples (one hour session became a two hour session).

• We incorporated clickers into the standard two-hour session we do to test better for understanding (i.e. more formative assessment).

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SWOT (with staff) – Sample Weaknesses (Charlotte – 2004)

• Non-culinary Collections: Business collection lacking in specialization and bulk; Limited physical resources in non-culinary areas and low numbers in culinary even until the other collections are phased in; Business Collection; Fashion Collection; Sports and Event Management collection; Number of books available for class projects

• Workstudies: Workstudy students and their lack of motivation; Poor workstudies; Limited staff – one person lost and we struggle to maintain day to day (will be worse as student body increases)

• Hours: Lack of Saturday and late evening hours; Reasonable but limited hours

• Purchasing Process: Sometimes cumbersome purchasing process; YBP takes too long sometimes

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What have we done?

• More money dedicated to the business collections

• Greater emphasis and planning with regard to training work-study employees

• Additional hours - Saturday and evening hours• Changed to Ingram and in-house cataloging

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Focus Groups (2009) – What did we learn?

• Still concerns about hours but especially during finals weeks

• Need white boards in the student study rooms• Need to “get the word out” about what the

library has even more

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Focus Groups – What have we done?

• Met with President of Student Government Association – initial planning for “finals week experience” starting fall 2009

• Installed white boards• More outreach done at the end of the academic

year and more planned for fall 2009

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Other Efforts

• Best/Worst exercise with students• Study of IL session quiz scores

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What did we learn (bigger picture)?

• Need for multiple assessments and to look at the needs of different groups separately at times

• Nationally-recognized assessments don’t always work best for us

• Triangulation is important – Hearing the same thing from multiple sources strengthens the need for change

• It is possible to get a fairly accurate picture of user needs and make changes if you are willing to change

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Contact Information

Dr. Richard J. Moniz, Jr.Director of Library ServicesJohnson & Wales University, Charlotte Campusrichard.moniz@jwu.edu980-598-1603