Customer Opinion Survey
In September, the Library conducted a Customer
Opinion Survey on the university website and using the University's
email service. There was an
excellent response from Monash staff and students - 1,723 online replies
and 119 print replies. The
majority of respondents showed high levels of satisfaction with the
Library.38% reported their
level of satisfaction as extremely high (6 or 7 on a scale of 7) with only
6% (1 or 2 on a scale of 7) being extremely dissatisfied.
The quality of service provided by library staff was very highly
regarded. Monash University Library was perceived to be performing on
or above average in all of the survey variables when compared with other
Australian university libraries on the database of the Rodski Behavioural
Research Group who managed the survey.
Based on the responses received, library managers used a variety of
strategies to implement improvements.
Full survey results are available at www.lib.monash.edu.au/surveys/customer2000/
Lending Services
The Library reversed the steady decline in loans to
all categories of patrons, with an increase of 3.0% in items borrowed over
2000 figures. Renewals
increased by 22.8%.In 2001,
92.3% of renewals were via the web, initiated by patrons using Voyager
library catalogue. Improved
building access, extended opening hours and a more attractive study
environment all contributed to increased use of traditional print
resources alongside the increasing use of electronic materials.
After some initial problems with software, the patron
self charge machine at Caulfield Library routinely issued 30% of that
site's loans. This is of
great assistance in preventing queues at the service counter.
Monash University Library has participated in the
National Borrowing Scheme for Australian university libraries since its
launch in August 2001.This
scheme allows staff and students from Australian Vice-Chancellors
Committee (AVCC) member universities to obtain borrowing privileges from
any university library in Australia.
Document Delivery
Monash staff and postgraduate students submitted
43,213 requests to the Document Delivery Unit for items in 2001 compared
to 44,841 in 2000.Desktop
delivery of electronic articles was introduced in April using Prospero
software to enable digital images of supplied articles.
This popular new service reduced delivery time and increased
significantly the convenience for users.
The DocDel service benefited from the installation of Zetafax
software, which improves the performance of the fax server which transmits
requests to suppliers from the Filemaker ILL management system.
Australian and overseas libraries were provided with
a reciprocal service to support their own research staff and students.
In 2001, these libraries were supplied with 11,561 items from
15,412 requests.Main reasons
for non-supply included items in high demand, out on loan, missing from
shelves, part not held and incorrect citation.
A national Document Delivery benchmarking study was
carried out at the end of 2000 and the results analysed and reported in
2001.Monash's Document
Delivery Unit performs well in processing requests for Monash staff and
postgraduate students when compared to similar units in other Australian
university libraries.
On the supply side of DocDel operations, that is
supplying other libraries with a reciprocal service, performance on fill
rate compared less favourably. At
the time of the survey Monash University Library's serial holdings
information was not up to date. From
the time Voyager and Kinetica were installed, adding Monash information to
Kinetica (whether new titles or changes to holdings), was not possible. This was rectified by May 2001, with programming commissioned
by Monash to make our data compatible with Kinetica requirements.
Regional Electronic Access and Delivery of Serials
(READS) Project
The READS resource sharing project jointly funded by
the libraries of the University of Melbourne, La Trobe and Monash
universities to deliver an online collection of selected physics and
chemistry journals (held by at least one of the three libraries) continued
to supply requested material to academic staff and researchers who do not
have access to a print copy of the journals at their own libraries.
During 2001, much effort was put into restructuring
the READS database so that it would be more easily managed on an ongoing
basis. From the user's
perspective, search screens were improved and speed of data retrieval was
improved. From the systems
end, improvements were made to tracking of requests, ease of data
inputting and detection of duplicate records.
The number of journals available to users was 316.
There were 384 user logins to the system, with 180 requests made
for retrieval of full text articles.
114 of these requests were supplied by Monash University Library.
Library User Committees
The General Library Committee (GLC) met four times in
2001 to provide advice and guidance to the University Librarian
principally on proposed library policy changes and to discuss matters
relating to the book and materials budget.
Major agenda items included the report of the first year of
operation of the Digitisation Centre; the revised lending services
practices; the Staff Opinion Survey; and amendments to the Library
Regulations. The three
faculty subcommittees of GLC each met 3-4 times and minutes of their
meetings were included as GLC agenda items. |
