2009 Benchmarks: Staff Frequency of Use, Importance, and Satisfaction

Staff: Frequency of Use

Less frequently used services and resources by staff 2007-2009. A mean score of 2 represents once or twice a semester, while a score of 3 represents one to three times a month.

Infrequently used services and resources by staff 2007-2009. A mean score of 1 means the item is never used, while a score of 2 represents one or two times a semester.

Staff do not use library and technology services and resources frequently.  With the exception of ERP self service (used monthly), staff report use of services and resources no more than once or twice a semester.  In contrast, students report use of some resources several times a week, and faculty report use of resources as frequently as several times a month.

With the exception of the Help Desk, all items in the Less Frequently Used tier are resources.  Help Desk ranks far above other services, with support for technology in meeting spaces and classrooms (the next most frequently used service) more than seven tenths of a point lower.

Library services and resources tend to be infrequently used.  The most frequently used of these is the library café and the library web site.  Circulation and Reference services, as well as ILL, are found toward the bottom of the Infrequently Used tier.

Frequency of use in the MISO Survey is set on a five-point scale:

1. Never
2. Once or twice a semester
3. One to three times a month
4. One to three times a week
5. More than three times a week

Staff: Importance

More Important services and resources for staff, 2007-2009. A mean score of 3 means Important, while a score of 4 represents Very Important.

Somewhat important services and resources for staff, 2007-2009. A mean score of 2 means Somewhat Important, while a score of 3 represents Important.

Less important services and resources for staff, 2007-2009. A mean score of 1 means Unimportant, while a score of 2 represents Somewhat Important.

Staff consider the Help Desk to be the most important of all the services and resources, and staff are the only population to consider a human-mediated service to be that important.   For faculty, the top ranking service was Circulation, which came in sixth.  No human mediated services were considered to be more important by students.

Absent in the top tier of importance for staff is wireless.  Staff are again unique in not consider wireless to be a more important resource.  Wireless is #1 for students and toward the bottom of the more important rankings for faculty.

Library items begin in the middle of somewhat important items, with the library web site, catalog, Circulation services, public computers in the library and library databases bunched together.

Less important to staff are academic resources including quiet space in the library, the course management system, and digital image collections.  Videoconferencing remains a niche service of less importance to most staff.

Importance in the MISO Survey is reported on a four-point scale:

1. Not important
2. Somewhat important
3. Important
4. Very important

Staff: Satisfaction

Satisfaction with services and resources for staff, 2007-2009. Mean responses above 3.5 are considered to be highly satisfied.

Satisfaction with services and resources for staff, 2007-2009. A mean response of 3.0 means Somewhat Satisfied, while a response of 4.0 means Satisfied.

Staff are highly satisfied with library and IT, as 24 items are rated in the high satisfaction range of 3.5 or higher on the four-point satisfaction scale.  Staff seem happiest with services they rarely use and consider less important: Circulation and Reference services are at the top of overall staff satisfaction.  Eight library areas are at the top of satisfaction despite having relatively low importance for staff.

Of the items with higher importance, staff report high satisfaction with three of the four – Help Desk, ERP self service, and access to online resources from off campus – only ERP data administration comes in with a moderately high satisfaction rating from staff.

Items with moderately high satisfaction are largely computing related.  Infrastructure resources including network speed and stability, as well as availability of wireless and spam protection, are slightly less satisfactory to staff.  Input items, including support for specialized computing needs and  input into library and computing decisions also score lower than other library and IT services.

Satisfaction in the MISO Survey is reported on a four-point scale:

1. Dissatisfied
2. Somewhat dissatisfied
3. Somewhat satisfied
4. Satisfied