LibQUAL+ at Cranfield University

Selena Lock

LibQUAL+ International Results Meeting17th July 2006

Who are we? What do we do ?

• An internationally renowned specialist institution

• Turnover £130m• 2000 employees• Entering our 60th

year –excellence in education since 1946

• Recruits exclusively at postgraduate level

• Promotes strong connections between teaching and research

• Uses our expertise to advance partnerships with industry

Cranfield University at DCMT• Cranfield University is

contract to deliver academic education to the MOD at the Defence College of Management & Technology

• Contract situation demanding high quality services

• Require separate LibQUAL+ campus analysis

DCMT Students

Subject range:• Defence• Management• Technology

• Mix of Military and Civilian

• ≈1000 students• 90% postgraduate and

post-experience• 100% postgraduate in

2007

DCMT Library

Physical Space:• 2,500 linear meters• ≈1000 meter2

Resources:• 16 million journal

articles• 1600 e-books• 116,000 books

Activity:• 60,000 Visits per year• 872 Active borrowers• 2,288 ILL requests• 115 general enquiries

a week• 136 research

enquiries a week• 68 staff hours spend

delivering training

Quality Management

• Twelve-year quality management programme

• Quality Performance Benchmarking system now a contractual requirement

• History of performance measurement inc:– Exit questionnaires– Priority Research– SCONUL Template– Benchmarking– LibQUAL+TM

LibQUAL+ at Cranfield University

• LibQUAL+ meets our need to measure service quality and benchmark our performance

• 2003– Stephen agrees to co-ordinate the SCONUL Cohort on

behalf of the WGPI – CU take part in the SCONUL Pilot

• 2005 – Cranfield University runs LibQUAL+

• 2006 – DCMT Library runs LibQUAL+ to measure impact of library

move

• 2007 – Cranfield University intends to run LibQUAL+

My Role

LibQUAL+ Local:• Marketing • Training • Analysis• Dissemination

LibQUAL+ (Inter)National:

• Organise events• Answer any

questions• Marketing• Additional

customised analysis• Seek funding

LibQUAL+ at Cranfield 2006

• Three month period Spring 2006• 333 responses

– 26.3% Response rate– Increase in responses by 40.5%

• Overall results improved again upon the previous excellent levels

• 205 comments received

DCMT Survey aims for 2005-06

• Test new Library building• Test launch of the new Library Web site• Test maintenance of other progress• Develop a new strategy in line with

changing academic needs

DCMT Overall 2006

Results of Action 2006

• New Library Building?– Improved in some areas and declined in others– Overall LP score is a little below 2005

• Launching the new Digital Library Web site?– Average increase of +0.14

• Progress largely maintained• Capability of data analysis and

presentation improved

Longitudinal Analysis

Overall

-1.00

-0.80

-0.60

-0.40

-0.20

0.00

0.20

Su

per

iort

y M

ean

Superiority Mean 2005 -0.07 -0.83 -0.33 -0.41

Superiority Mean 2006 -0.03 -0.70 -0.35 -0.35

Difference (05 - 06) 0.04 0.13 -0.02 0.06

Affect of Service Information Control Library as Place Overall

Start of an action plan…?

Users

Question Adeq.

UG Making electronic resources accessible from my home or office

-0.30

AS A library Web site enabling me to locate information on my own

0.00

AS The main text and readings I need for my work

-0.09

AS Ability to navigate the Web pages easily 0.05

LS Quiet space for individual work 0.00

LS Convenient service hours -0.17

LS Ability to navigate the Web pages easily 0.00

Comment AnalysisOverall commentary analysis

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

Affect of Service Information Control Library as Place General

Positive

Negative

General

Highlighting Issues

The only element that needs some work is the ability to interrogate library resources from remote desktops.

PostgraduateComputing & Information TechnologyDCMT Library31 - 45MaleFull-time

The new web page of the library (electronic access to various journals) is not as good or as easy to use as before.

Academic StaffElectrical EngineeringDCMT Library31 - 45MaleDoes not apply / NA

Changes over three years

Internal BenchmarkingAffect of Service

Information Control

Library as Place Overall

National Average External Benchmarking

-1.6

-1.4

-1.2

-1

-0.8

-0.6

-0.4

-0.2

0

Sup

erio

rity

Mea

n

DCMT Superiority Mean -0.07 -0.83 -0.33 -0.41

UK Superiority Mean -0.91 -1.32 -1.49 -1.20

US Superiority Mean -0.73 -1.37 -1.17 -1.09

Affect of Service Information Control Library as Place Overall

Peer-to-Peer Benchmarking

Dimension Summary

4.00

4.50

5.00

5.50

6.00

6.50

7.00

7.50

8.00

8.50

Affect ofService

Affect ofService

InformationControl

InformationControl

Library asPlace

Library asPlace

Overall Overall

DCMT Library 2 DCMT Library 2 DCMT Library 2 DCMT Library 2

Conclusions

• LibQUAL+ continues to be a strong marketing tool for Cranfield University, DCMT

• Additional analysis you do can be as big or small as you want it to be– The possibilities are infinite, your time may not be!

• Learn from your users, don’t just shelve their opinions

Shameless plug

Additional analysis available Contact me for details

Selena LockResearch & Development Officer

Cranfield UniversityDefence College of Management and Technology

Tel: +44 (0)1793 785561Email: s.a.lock@cranfield.ac.uk