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ERIC Number: ED415913
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 1997-Sep
Pages: 34
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0160-3582
EISSN: N/A
After the User Survey, What Then? Issues and Innovations in Transforming Libraries, No. 4. SPEC Kit 226.
DeCandido, GraceAnne A.
This Systems and Procedures Exchange Center (SPEC) Kit reports on eight Association of Research Libraries (ARL) members that were interviewed in July and August 1997 about how they have addressed the results of user surveys conducted between 1992 and 1995. Although libraries have recognized the importance of user surveys, sometimes the surveys get filed and forgotten. Through the use of user surveys, the institutions have discovered what their users want, and this report reveals the institutions' strategies and struggles to meet and anticipate their users' needs. While institutional differences require context-specific user surveys, a disturbing fact consistently emerged from the survey results: library users, faculty, and students are often unaware of programs and services that their libraries already offer. The ARL members interviewed represent a range of stages in the libraries' responses to their user surveys. Some have transformed their cultures into user-centered ones, some are striving to meet newly discovered needs, and some are just starting to formulate responses to their user surveys. Reports are provided on interviews with library staff at the following institutions: (1) MIT; (2) University of California at San Diego; (3) University of Arizona; (4) North Carolina State University; (5) University of Virginia; (6) University of Connecticut; (7) Ohio State University; and (8) Rice University. (Contains 11 references.) (SWC)
Publication Type: Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: Association of Research Libraries, Washington, DC. Office of Management Services.
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A