December 9, 2020 Meeting of Library Assessment Committee

A working and discussion meeting. No agenda.

Jen-chien Yu, Kirsten Feist, Megean Osuchowski, Geoffrey Ross, Erin Kerby, Rebecca Smith, Yali Feng, Ruthann Miller, Shuyong Jiang, Tricia Lampron, John Laskowski, Lindsay Taylor

Working meeting to address new data reports (in box) that have been published recently

(1) Ithaka S+R US Library Survey 2020 Report

• Is another one coming out? Address the question: what weren’t librarians prepared to do that they have picked up during period of online services (ie, making instructional graphics, spending so much time on online email/zoom reference)?
  • Not sure when the next report will come out – Ithaka does triannual surveys for faculty and library directors; this one is a special COVID-19 report.
• If further questions, ask Jen so she can forward the question to the survey providers

(2) Library Satisfaction Survey student comments

• Overarching themes of wanting a centralized place to search for books or services, some disconnect about using the catalog
  Maybe users only want to search e-books
  Confusion could be the result of pandemic + learning the new catalog
  Our website still continues to be a challenge because we offer so many services – we continue to focus on the issue
• In response to concern about study spaces, we have responded to comments since the survey and made study spaces more bookable
• Is the writer’s workshop open [responding to comment about it]
  • yes, but online only
  • text and links about Grammerly from the bookstore shared in chat
• Survey responses lead to more questions to focus on what we need to make things better; this survey is the starting point, but not the ending point
• Looking at comment about information about study spaces being hard to get from staff, it’s difficult for everyone to keep up with changing information right now
  • using canned messages as a possible solution
  • looking for ways to alleviate frustration while policies are changing rapidly
• It’s a time of high frustration generally – comments in the survey may reflect stress that’s not caused by the library
  People are wanting to connect
  Working with students over reference chat, there’s limited time; unlike in-person service, we can’t always give all the information needed, give stress/emotional support in research, or express appreciation

[Comments data was anonymized and placed in Box after the meeting]

(3) Revisiting the Student Affairs Survey again – there is now a factsheet for the library-related data

• [In response to comments] we could make information about e-book licensing more evident – so students aren’t frustrated by us not having books on kindle, for example
  We have a page online about services that we could add this information to, maybe send an email
  Concerns about library jargon, email should be digestible, strategic communication – something people would be able to understand quickly
  Heather’s expertise could help, everything posted to the resource page goes through Heather

(4) LAC Committee Project 2020-2021

• Planning to do a photo journal study – another way to collect data, another form of evidence
• Aims to clarify some concerns in survey responses