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The responses to the LibQUAL+™ survey have been extremely valuable to the Library in assessing its performance and gathering important feedback from Brown faculty and students. The results highlight one of the key challenges the Library faces in working to satisfy the requirements of library users ­ that different user groups have different needs.

What is LibQual+™

Brown Faculty

Like their colleagues at all of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) campuses that administered the survey, Brown faculty ex-pressed the greatest dissatisfaction about the coverage and depth of our collections. Faculty expressed the widest (negative) gaps between their minimum expectations and their perception of the Library's performance on questions relating to comprehensive print & journal collections. Brown's score, however, was significantly below the mean for ARL institutions.

Action taken: While some of the concerns can be viewed as a result of the Library's less-than-adequate acquisitions budget over the years, faculty members also expressed their frustrations with the "spottiness" of the collections, and the inability of the Library to develop, assess, and sustain coherent collections in important subject areas. In her Plan for Academic Enrichment, President Ruth Simmons provided an increase in the Library's base budget that will begin to address the Library's ability to acquire more materials. In addition, the Library itself will increase the number of librarians who will work with faculty to assess and development the collections.

The dimension of library service that our faculty felt was most important to them was personal control, which addressed the ease with which users can independently find the information they need. Here too, the Library's perceived performance rated below faculty minimum expectations.

Comments provided by faculty underscored their concerns and frustrations:

• I have to use the electronic journal resources several times a week and I often find it to be very difficult to find the articles that I need.
  
• A web site that was more easily navigated independently would be beneficial.
  
• It would be great if off-campus access to e-resources were more transparent and as functional as the on-campus access.
  
• There is a general need to increase education of faculty in the use of digital resources. So much has changed and is changing. Why not send out an email notice to give the web page listing the information [for new online journals] and also what is new at the library. Be more proactive in promoting the new services. Why not also promote the use of electronic reserves for courses.
  

Action taken: The Library will address these concerns by devoting permanent staff to: improve and maintain the Library's web site; develop and customize electronic collections; and create tools to meet the changing needs of researchers. In addition, librarians and subject specialists will place a greater emphasis on outreach to faculty and graduate students, including sharing information about new electronic resources and providing direct assistance as needed or requested.

Brown Students

Both undergraduate and graduate students focused much of their attention on improving the physical environment of the Library buildings (especially the Rockefeller and Sciences libraries). A comfortable and inviting location was the question on the survey for which students indicated the widest (negative) gap between their minimum expectations and their perception of the Library's performance. Graduate students were most critical of the facilities; their minimum expectations were not met for any of the items on the LibQUAL+™ survey in the library as place dimension.

Action taken: The President's Plan for Academic Enrichment provided a one-time allocation for "modest refurbishments of the in-teriors of the main libraries" to help immediately improve their public spaces. During the winter intersession period, work will begin to give the lobby areas of the Rockefeller and Sciences libraries a facelift. In addition, we will install new tables and chairs in the study areas in the Rockefeller (first floor periodicals reading room) and Sciences Library (mezzanine study area), new chairs in the John Hay Library reading room, and new carpeting in the Orwig Music Library. Other, long-term renovations to the Library buildings will be part of the University's larger capital campaign.

Brown faculty and students consistently gave the Library staff high marks in items relating to affect of service. Items such as willingness to help others, giving users individual attention, and employees who instill confidence in users received the highest scores for the survey overall. Along with a high level of sat-isfaction, the faculty in particular had higher expectations for affect of service than their peers at other ARL universities. One common criticism in this area, however, was the desire for service desks to be staffed by permanent staff (versus student assistant employees) for longer hours.

Action taken: The Library plans to adjust and expand the overall service hours and make a wider range of services avail-able during the hours that the buildings are open. Where possible, coverage will be provided by permanent staff.

These and other results from the LibQUAL+™ survey en-able the Library to identify areas where improvements need to be addressed. Moreover, they help the Library develop an action agenda to meet the needs and expectations of Brown faculty and students, and give us a tool for measur-ing our progress toward achieving the quality of service that Brown library users expect.

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