What's the Most Important Criterion You Use to Measure Success at Your Library?

Cathy Rex, Head of Library Services, University of the West of England, Bristol, UK

Put simply — user satisfaction with the services and facilities provided. In today's world it is positive user feedback that will enable a library to retain institutional support. It is user feedback that is looked for to endorse any statements a library might make about the quality of its service. In the past, libraries have been fixated on quantitative measures: How many journals? How many books? It is not “how many” that is important. What is important is that services and facilities meet the needs of users. To achieve this we must listen to users to inform decision-making. We must be:

• Responsive to changes in those needs.
• Pro-active in anticipating how changes in the wider environment will influence service development.
• Able to prove what users think of the service offered.

We must systematically consult with users and gather feedback from users by any means possible.

Carol Hansen Montgomery, Ph.D., Dean of Libraries, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA, USA

Library evaluation is a multi-faceted art, not a science. And it should be continuous. Users can be surveyed only so many times and in so many ways and the results can be difficult to interpret. So, what I depend on primarily is unsolicited comments, mostly from users, but also from staff. Do faculty tell me at social events or meetings how pleased they are with the subject librarian assigned to their area? Do they send unsolicited emails or memos expressing appreciation for a librarian’s assistance? How are comments regarding controversial issues such as funding for electronic versus print collections balanced? Are repeat unfilled requests mostly for improvements that we either cannot make or cannot justify as cost-effective, e.g. longer hours, higher or lower temperatures, and less noise from other users? Do staff members express satisfaction and look for ways to do better? Experience has taught us that most of our user satisfaction surveys do little more than confirm what we know already from this unstructured feedback.

Mr. Jianzhong Wu, Director, Shanghai Library, Shanghai, China

There is a multitude of ways to assess the success of a library but in our experience the most important contributor to the library's success is the staff. There is a popular slogan in China that the human resource is the “first resource” or the “first productive force.”

This is particularly true for the knowledge intensive library profession. The experience of the Shanghai Library has shown that the most important wealth of the library is not its grand building, or its advanced hardware, or its numerous resources, but its talented people. It is the creative team, who makes the best of the grand building, the advanced hardware, and the numerous resources, for meeting the fast growing demands of the users locally and internationally. By evaluating the abilities, accomplishments and performance of our staff, we understand the success of our library.

Dr. E. Rama Reddy, Librarian, University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad, India

At our university, we focus assessment on how well we support — via provision of information and resources — our community members’ teaching and research needs. Success of the library is always measured by achievement of this key objective.

The Indira Gandhi Memorial Library at the University of Hyderabad is a highly successful university library. How exactly are we measuring our success? In this ICT age, when good infrastructure exists, as in the case of our university, high usage is a hugely important and defining factor in assessing a library’s success. High utilization of resources implies that our users’ information needs are being met and reflects the accuracy of our resource selection policy. How do we ensure high usage of our e-resources? Running frequent user awareness programs, sometimes in coordination with publishers, providing adequate and relevant information, and more importantly providing accurate linking from the library website are some of the support activities carried out by our library.

Madeleine Lefebvre, University Librarian, St. Mary's University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

The most important criterion I use to measure success at our library is the terms in which the library is described, whether by word of mouth or in print. Positive word of mouth from students, faculty, staff, administration and the external community signals our general approval rating.

The comments might be about resources, services or the whole operation, but when they are expressed in other contexts as well as directly to the library, I know this positive image will keep our profile high and benefit us in budget and strategic planning discussions.