Getting & Using Feedback from ILL Users: What Have We Learned?

Presentation by ILL Subcommittee members:

Stuart Frazer – Old Dominion UniversityBud Bennett – Radford UniversityKevin Unrath – Hollins University

• Measure user satisfaction.• Discover barriers to improving service.• Learn more about your users.

See:Littlejohn, Nancy and Barbara Wales. “Assessment Plan for Interlibrary Loan

Departments at Academic Libraries.” Journal of Interlibrary Loan, Document Delivery & Information Supply. v7 n2, 1996, pgs 3-18.

Why evaluate?

• Stand alone survey, or be part of a larger library survey.

• Survey complements other evaluation methods:– Analysis of statistics.– Informal feedback.

See:Perrault, Anna H. and Marjo Arseneau. “User Satisfaction and Interlibrary Loan:

A Study at Louisiana State University.” RQ. v35 n1, Fall 1995, pgs 90-100.

ILL Surveying – the context

Pitfalls of surveying

• False positives.• Asking the wrong question.• No follow-up.

See:Adamson, Colin. “How to Waste Money Measuring Customer Satisfaction.”

Managing Service Quality. v4 n5, 1994, pgs. 9-12.Applegate, Rachel. “Models of User Satisfaction: Understanding false

positives.” RQ. v32 n 4, Summer 1993, pgs. 525-539.

Guidelines for questions

• Keep questions to twenty words or less.• Each question should only ask about one

thing.• Participants won’t be sure how to answer

questions that contain double negatives.• Be alert to the potential for ambiguity.

Adapted from:Stein, Joan. “Designing user satisfaction surveys for interlibrary loan services.”

Performance Measurement and Metrics. v1 n1, August 1999, pgs. 45-61. Available online at: http://www.aslib.com/pmm/1999/aug/03.pdf

My library’s interlibrary loan service should deliver photocopies of articles to me quickly and electronically

My interlibrary loan requests should not take longer than two weeks to arrive: Agree Disagree

How many times have you used the Library’s interlibrary loan service in the past month?

Guidelines - continued

• Offer enough response alternatives with closed-ended questions.

• Don’t overtax your participants’ memories.

• Avoid hypothetical questions.

I Most often request the follow type of material through ILL:

____Books ____Articles ______________Other

How many times have you used ILL in the past year?

Guidelines - continued

• Avoid using jargon and acronyms.• Look out for words with alternative uses

or meanings.• Avoid using leading questions.• Be careful of loaded words or phrases.

When did you last use the library’s interlibrary loan request form on the web?

Interlibrary loan service should be free under any circumstances. Agree Disagree

Surveys at VIVA Institutions

• Some participate in LibQUAL+• Most others include interlibrary loan as

a part of their overall customer service survey.

• Only a few have given separate “interlibrary loan only” surveys to their users.

Overall satisfaction

• Users at VIVA libraries indicated a high level of overall satisfaction with interlibrary loan.

• Statewide, 90% of respondents rated ILL services as good to excellent.

Statewide Statistics

77%

62%

40%

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

Faculty Graduate Undergraduate

Awareness of ILL, by Patron Type

User comments

• “Most useful part of the survey.”• Helped motivate staff.• Suggested needed changes.

Thank you

• Thanks to the institutions who responded to our call for survey data:– Radford University– Old Dominion University– University of Virginia– College of William & Mary– Hollins University– Virginia Tech– Southside Virginia Community College– Northern Virginia Community College– Hampton-Sydney College