Listening to the Customer: Using Assessment
Results to Make a Difference

Johnson & Wales University
• Multiple Campuses
– North Miami, FL
,
– Providence, RI
– Denver, CO
– Charlotte, NC
• Business, Culinary Arts, Hospitality
• Career-Oriented
2

Assessments
• LibQUAL+ - North Miami data (conducted system-wide in
2003/2004)
• Annual Surveys – Charlotte (from 2004/2005 - Present)
• SAILS (Standardized Assessment of Information
Literacy Skills) – Charlotte (from 2007/2008 – Present)
• SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and
Threats) – Ch l
Th ) Charlotte (from 2005 – P
(f Present)
)
• Focus Groups (2009)
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Johnson & Wales Campuses – Library Staffing
• North Miami – 4 Librarians, 1 Library Assistant, 12
Workstudy Employees
• Charlotte – 6 Librarians, 1 Student Assistant, 12
Workstudy Employees
o stu y p oyees
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LibQUAL+ 2003/2004 – Service Adequacy Scores
North Miami - Undergraduates
Affect of Service - Employees who instill confidence in
users -1.84
Library as Place - Library space that inspires study and
learning -1.7
17
Information Control - Easy-to-use access tools that
allow me to find things on my own -1.64
5

LibQUAL+ Results 2003/2004
North Miami – Undergraduates – Comment Samples
• I feel that we should have more
computers
t
• Needs more books about business
• Books about business and recreation
topics
• The library website should be more
widely published…
• Need more computers!!!
• I would enjoy some more literat re
o ld enjo literature.
6

What have we done (Florida campus)?
• McNaughton collection
• P bli i d business databases, partnered with
Publicized b i d t b t d ith
Career Development Office to emphasize databases
• Added computer terminals and wireless
• More work-study training, spread over time more
• M
More structured study room usage
d d
• Created a blog and IM to emphasize online services
7

Charlotte Campus – A New Library
Strategic Plan
Goal 3
Create a library focused upon the idea of continual assessment
which views the entire academic community as key customers.
Enhanced preparation for re-accreditation will serve as an
inevitable byproduct of this goal.
8

Annual Surveys (Charlotte)
9

What did we learn?
• Not enough accessible hours – specific needs in this
regard
• Need for greater functionality in library computers
• Desire for popular fiction and movies
p p
• Need for more comfortable setting and furniture
• Students valued quiet over access to their p
q phones
• Loan periods too short in some cases
10

What have we done?
• Additional weekend and evening
hours
• Additional full service PCs in the
front area (provides extra access
when lab in use)
• “Percolator” collection
• Added décor and soft furniture
• Crafted more strict noise policy
• Increased loan periods
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How do they know we hear them?
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SAILS (Standard Assessment of Information Literacy Skills)
What did we learn?
• We are relatively “average” overall.
• The scores of our students were better than
average on Standard 2 (accessing information
effectively).
y)
• The scores of our seniors were only slightly higher
than average on Standard 4 (evaluating resources)
g ( g )
despite significant efforts on our part to address this
standard.
13

SAILS
What did we do?
• We completely revamped our required IL module
on evaluating resources providing additional
l i idi ddi i l
examples (one hour session became a two hour
session).
session)
• We incorporated clickers into the standard two-
hour session we do to test better for understanding
(i.e. more formative assessment).
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SWOT (with staff) – Sample Weaknesses
(Charlotte – 2004)
• Non-culinary Collections: Business collection lacking in
specialization and bulk; Limited p y
p ; physical resources in non-culinary
y
areas and low numbers in culinary even until the other collections
are phased in; Business Collection; Fashion Collection; Sports and
Event Management collection; Number of books available for class
g ;
projects
• Workstudies: Workstudy students and their lack of motivation;
Poor workstudies; Limited staff – one person lost and we struggle to
maintain day to day (will be worse as student body increases)
• Hours: Lack of Saturday and late evening hours; Reasonable but
limited hours
• Purchasing Process: Sometimes cumbersome purchasing process;
YBP takes too long sometimes
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What have we done?
• More money dedicated to the business collections
• G
Greater emphasis and planning with regard to training
h d l h d
work-study employees
• Additional hours - Saturday and evening hours
• Changed to Ingram and in-house cataloging
16

Focus Groups (2009) – What did we learn?
• Still concerns about hours but especially during finals
weeks
• Need white boards in the student study rooms
• Need to “get the word out about what the library has
get out”
even more
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Focus Groups – What have we done?
• Met with President of Student Government Association –
initial planning for “finals week experience starting fall
finals experience”
2009
• Installed white boards
sta e w te boa s
• More outreach done at the end of the academic year and
more planned for fall 2009
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Other Efforts
• Best/Worst exercise with students
• S d of IL session quiz scores
Study f
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What did we learn (bigger picture)?
• Need for multiple assessments and to look at the needs of
different groups separately at times
• Nationally-recognized assessments don’t always work best
fo
for us
• Triangulation is important – Hearing the same thing from
multiple sources strengthens the need for change
• It is possible to get a fairly accurate picture of user needs
and make changes if you are willing to change
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Contact Information
Dr. Richard J. Moniz, Jr.
Director of Library Services
D fLb S
Johnson & Wales University, Charlotte Campus
richard.moniz@jwu.edu
i h d i @j d
980-598-1603
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