This page includes data sources and analysis that tell us who our users are, about their behavior, and about their preferences.

Data discussed in the planning session included:  UCSC Office of Institutional Research, WebTrends Web server log analysis, customer surveys, vendor usage statistics, and statistics for usage of library services such as the reference desks, circulation, instruction, ILL, others?

Assigned:  CC, KS, ST, SCP (also LJ)

Data Sources for UCSC Users/Customers

UCSC Library Monthly Activity Statistics provides monthly reports since July 2006 with circ statistics, library instruction, ref questions, and more.

Results Summary for UCSC Library Web Survey Spring 2008.  Provided feedback from UCSC patrons on the most commonly features and services on the library website, along with their priorities for new services. 

Quick Highlights:

• A majority of the respondents use Facebook, Google, YouTube, and Wikipedia weekly or daily.  90% had never used Second Life or WOW.
• Users value simplicity and speed in a website. Many respondents also stated that they value access to more electronic content over presentation.
• Services that received a clear priority in the respondent’s eyes:
  • the ability to login in one place to renew, place hold, use off-campus access. 
  • A simplified, Google-like metasearch.
• Services that were ranked most often as “not a priority”:
  • subject guides that they could contribute to
  • staff recommendations for materials
  • “The ability to ask research questions through IM”. (Note "live chat support" and "a question box online" were suggested services in the open responses.  Perhaps some respondents did not understand this option.)
• Off-Campus access was mentioned several times as an especially important service on the site.
• Google Scholar and Web of Science were mentioned by several respondents as useful tools. 

Results of CUIP Intern Focus Group on Student Needs for Library Facilities.  These are rough notes taken from the focus group session with undergraduates, January 2008. 

Quick Highlights:

     Undergraduates want comfort and flexibility from the library building.  They dislike fluorescent lighting and prefer individual task lighting they can control.  They like swivel chairs and group study rooms to allow for conversation without interrupting others.  A coffee shop and food were mentioned several times.  Participants suggested online video tutorials for research help.  Safety is a major concern for students, especially at night.  Some participants had experiences where felt harassed by community members in the library during the evenings. 

     In group study rooms, participants suggested projectors and white boards, and access to office supplies such as staplers.  They like the ability to charge student accounts for services such as printing.  Students mentioned the website is difficult to understand.  Some participants felt the Reference staff were not very approachable, and were unclear about the services they offer.  One quote: “the reference desk should have a sign that says 'If you need help, come talk to me' with an arrow at the desk."

Several participants also had suggestions for making the stacks more browsable.

Results from Library Customer Service Survey Winter 2008
http://www.surveymonkey.com/sr.aspx?sm=f_2fRhz_2bPkB3TI_2bxvDbT3QdzLXA73_2fIV3h74bX9Di7btA_3d

For Questions 4, 5, and 6, select the View text box to read the text of responses. To view the a complete list of responses on one page, on the Comments Summary page for each of these questions select 250 responses per page from the drop-down text box at the bottom right side of the page.

UCSC Student Characteristics from the Institutional Research & Policy Studies group.  Provides data tables on student gender, ethnicity, college affiliation, regional origin, and more.

Faculty Rosters, Faculty Research Activity, and Profiles of UCSC Staff from the IRPS.

Usage statistics from licensed database vendors (Scholarly Statistics, JSTOR, and CSA).  See highlights and analysis (SCP).

Usage statistics from the library Web server (WebTrends).  See see highlights and analysis (SCP).

Data Sources for UC Users/Customers

UC Libraries Home > Universitywide Planning & Action > Assessment 

See in particular the UC Library Statistics at http://www.slp.ucop.edu/stats/.  Provides annual statistics on the number of ILL requests.

Student Experience in the Research University: Center for Studies in Higher Education

Many different reports, in particular see A New Generation: Ethinicity, Socioeconomic Status, Immigration and Undergraduate Experience at UC.  Provides a summery of UCUES 2006.  Another, shorter synopsis.

See also Use and Users of Digital Resources: A Focus on Undergraduate Education in the Humanities and Social Sciences. See section4, page 20 for actual survey results - what resources are faculty and using and how?

Data Sources for users/customers in higher education generally

Title: Are there common academic library customer values?  customervalues.pdf (lj)

Author(s):Susan McKnight

Journal:Library Management

Year:2008 Volume:29 Issue:6/7 Page:600 - 619

ISSN: 0143-5124

DOI: 10.1108/01435120810894581

Chronicle of Higher Ed's Almanac http://chronicle.com/free/almanac/2007/index.htm

"A look at the nation's college enrollment trends, demographics, faculty pay, tuition and fees, and more."

Perceptions of Libraries and Information Resources (2005)

OCLC study summarizes findings of an international study on information-seeking habits and preferences. (lj)

libraryassessment.info - A blog for and by librarians interested in library service assessment (lj)

Title:  The ECAR Study of Undergraduate Students and Information Technology, 2007

Authors: Gail Salaway (EDUCAUSE) and Judith Borreson Caruso (University of Wisconsin-Madison)

Abstract: This 2007 ECAR research study is a longitudinal extension of the 2004, 2005, and 2006 ECAR studies of students and information technology. The study, which reports noticeable changes from previous years, is based on quantitative data from a spring 2007 survey and interviews with 27,846 freshman, senior, and community college students at 103 higher education institutions. It focuses on what kinds of information technologies these students use, own, and experience; their technology behaviors, preferences, and skills; how IT impacts their experiences in their courses; and their perceptions of the role of IT in the academic experience.

Demographics (KPS)

• UCSC staff and students are majority female
• UCSC staff and students are predominantly non-Hispanic white
• UCSC ethnic demographics are generally not reflective of the state of California's ethnic breakdown:
  • UCSC: white (52%), Asian Americans (14%), unknown (11%), Chicano Americans (11%), Filipino Americans (4%), Latino Americans (4%), African Americans (3%), Native Americans (1%)
  • California: white (45%), Hispanic (35%), Asian (12%), African American (6%), multiracial (2%), <1% (American Indian)
• UCSC undergraduate student population : the majority of undergraduates fall within the 17-24 year old range, followed by 21-24 year olds.
• UCSC graduate student population: the majority of graduate students fall within the 25-28 year old range, followed by 21-24 year olds.  Of note, however, is the fact that about a quarter of the graduate student population falls in the 33-55 year old range.
• Graduate student population has remained steady, on average about 9% of the overall student population (so, as the student numbers have increased, the overall percentage of graduate students has remained pretty constant)
• Upper Management positons at UCSC are predominantly held by males, middle management by females
• Faculty positions are predominantly held by males, females edge males out in lecturer positions
• Graduate majors in order of largest number of students to smallest number of students: Physical/Biological Sciences, Social Sciences, Engineering, Humanities, Arts
• Undergraduate majors in order of largest number of students to smallest number of students: Social Sciences, Physical/Biological Sciences, Humanities, Arts, Engineering

User Preferences

Based on the feedback provided in the McHenry Addition comment books, we can get a sense of what our users find helpful or otherwise important.  The comment books provide us with interesting information, but the data they provide are not as exhaustive or targeted as we might hope.  To summarize the feedback: Our users want comfort and convenience.  Library space needs to be flexible, to accomodate a number of preferences--some users need absolute quiet, others need a collaborative work environment that encourages conversation.

For more details on the comments we've received thus far...

stroy_customeranalysis_userprefences.pdf

(ST)

Use Patterns

• Circulation, Reserves, ILL, and Media statistics for FY05-06, 06-07, 07-08:  stroy_customeranalysis_usepatterns.pdf

If the numbers overwhelm you, here's what the document says in a nutshell: Our Circulation statistics are dropping, for both McHenry and the Science & Engineering Libraries.  McHenry Reserves Circulation is dropping, while it has significantly increased in S&E. Electronic Reserves statistics are dropping. ILL statistics are holding fairly steady, for both Borrowing and Lending.  In-house use of both audio and video materials has dropped significantly over the past three years.

Thoughts on the information presented above:

• Circulation statistics: I was not surprised to see that our Circulation statistics are dropping.  That seems to be the trend as students rely more heavily on electronic resources.
• Reserves statistics: It doesn't surprise me that traditional, hardcopy reserves statistics are dropping for humanities materials.  More professors are relying on Electronic Reserves (or similar services) to make course materials available to a greater number of students.  Given the nature of the materials used in the Sciences (they are quite costly and  large numbers of students need access to them...textbooks, for example), it makes sense that Reserves statistics for Science & Engineering materials are increasing.
• Electronic Reserves statistics:  I was very surprised to see that the number of ERes pages viewed had gone down.  I had assumed that our ERes statistics would continue to sky-rocket.  I wonder if they have gone down because similar services are available to students and professors elsewhere--some professors might opt to use a Learning Management System for posting course readings, while others might link to articles available online through our licensed databases.
• ILL statistics:  The McHenry Addition necesitated that we move a portion of our collection to off-site storage, and many of us thought that we might see an increase in our ILL statistics as a result.  It would appear that the items we relocated were truly in low-demand, and there has not be a clamor to get an inordinate number of those items back via Interlibrary Loan.
• Media statistics:  The in-house circulation of audio and video has declined. The audio statistics are particularly noteworthy.  The library has gone to great efforts to make music available to students electronically, which likely contributed to this drop in numbers.

During our discussion on Monday, 9/15, a few participants expressed interest in material pick-up statistics: 

(ST)

Instruction, Reference and Gate Count Statistics for FY05-06, 06-07, 07-08

See pretty graphs here:

librarystats.pdf

Instruction

The graph clearly shows the explosive growth of McHenry instruction. S&E Instruction shows an increase in 2006, with a decrease in 2007 compatible with the open staff positions from that period.  Collection Planning shows an overall increase in instruction since 2005, with a decrease in 2007 over 2006.

 

This instruction trend is correlated with outreach efforts. McHenry has developed a collegial relationship with the Writing program that has resulted in a very busy service point. The increase in the student body cannot alone explain the increase, as McHenry had a much larger rate of increase than did S&E or Collection Planning.

 

In spring 2008 the Reference Unit conducted an evaluation of Writing 2 Library Instruction, which were taken at the end of the quarter. We surveyed 598 students in their classes, the results were entered into Survey Monkey: http://www.surveymonkey.com/sr.aspx?sm=d33FV4hho6NeB6IKl9AtKek4HGpaYgulWx8SprHNkGE_3d - AM

 

Reference

The two libraries show a different trend for the reference desk, with the use of the S&E Library reference desk dropping off sharply overall. The reasons are unclear and worth examining. McHenry shows a slight decline overall.

 

Gate counts are only presented for S&E Library since McHenry’s gate counts are thought to be unreliable. McHenry’s gate count may be a moot point anyway, as any strange deviation could be caused by the addition/renovation. A piece of S&E’s sharply rising gate count could be students who feel displaced from the activity at McHenry. It could also partially be that buildings on Science Hill are mostly locked during non-business hours. In addition, the Library Lab in the Cowell Room has been a big pull for students. But the graph also shows a gradual upward trend over the last three years, making it unlikely that any recent event is largely responsible for the increase. That the increase is happening as the reference desk statistics are falling is worth noting and studying further. Attached is a photo taken during spring 2008 finals:

Busy Library Picture 007.jpg

(CC)