Online library survey October - November 2020

The Department of Library Services strives to give its users the best experience and provide a high-quality service. In light of our altered environment due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the virtual library became a vital part of the library. To ensure the relevance and quality of online resources and services, the library developed a survey study to assess how library users experience the virtual library.

The survey was open to all UP staff and students. Its primary objectives were to measure users' satisfaction levels and identify specific challenges that they experience with the online library. The survey was developed in Qualtrics and distributed by the Market Research Office in the Department of Institutional Planning from 16 October to 16 November 2020. Participation in the survey was voluntary and anonymous.

A total of 903 users completed the survey, 51% of whom were undergraduate students, 24% postgraduates, 17% academic staff, 7% professional staff, and 1% unclassified. Respondents included users from all UP faculties, with most of the respondents from the faculties of Engineering, Built Environment and Information Technology (EBIT), Natural and Agricultural Sciences (NAS), and Humanities.

Most of the respondents indicated that they use the library several times per month to weekly. 55% of the respondents indicated they find what they need from the online library most of the time. The online library's average level of satisfaction was 3.24 (out of 4), where 1 indicates extreme dissatisfaction and 4 indicates extreme satisfaction. Users are generally satisfied with the online library.

To improve users’ online experience, the library needed to give more access to e-books, past examination papers, quicker access to scanned material, access to study collection books, access to the Study Centre, training on how to use the online library, and access to different online material that respondents mentioned exclusively.

Respondents felt that library staff were going out of their way to assist them during the difficult time of the national lockdown. They expressed their appreciation for world-class service, innovation, access to e-books, digitisation and excellent access to online journals. Respondents also had a great experience using the Chat to a Librarian service, Ask a Librarian and the online booking system. The library's online presence and exciting initiatives, including online puzzles, were also recognised and appreciated by respondents.

Some grievances were however expressed, especially with broken links and too many clicks on the website, the complicated process of accessing e-books, material that appears to be available on the system but is in fact unavailable, and the fact that some online material was not accessible off-campus. Some of the respondents were also unhappy with the turnaround time of receiving print books.

Respondents also suggested that the library create "how-to" videos for all the online library features, to improve the search function to yield better results relevant to the search criteria, personalised suggested reading, alerts on publications relevant to one's research interests, allowing users to create folders of frequently used resources instead of searching for them each time they log in.

This article is but a brief summary of the results. The library will consider every suggestion when planning for 2021. Our aim is to improve our service quality and ensure a pleasant experience across all library services. The library thanks all the respondents who took their time to give feedback and the Market Research Office for facilitating the survey.