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

Faculty: Frequency of Use

Faculty report less than weekly use of library and technology services and resources.  No area in the survey scored in the 4.0 or higher range.  The most frequently used services and resources had means in the 3.0 to 3.9 range, meaning use was one to three times a month or so.  Of the areas in this most frequently used range, there are no library or technology services – all seven areas are resources.

Technology in meeting spaces / classrooms is the resource with most frequent use, followed by the course management system, off-campus access to online resources, and four other web resources.  Of the seven most frequently used resources, all but technology in meeting spaces / classrooms come from the ability to research and learn anytime, anywhere.

Services emerge among the less frequently used areas: library circulation services, help desk, ILL, library reference services, and support for technology in meeting spaces / classrooms are all used once or twice a semester.  It is worth noting that while higher frequency of use is desirable for some services, like library reference services, it may not be desirable for others like help desk, support for technology in meeting spaces / classroom, or even ILL.  Use alone is not a sufficient gauge of a resource or service’s value to faculty.

Infrequently used areas fall into two categories: niche services and resources, like digital image collections and borrowing technology equipment, and location-based resources like public computers in the library or quiet work space in the library, that are perhaps less relevant to faculty who have computing resources and quiet space in other locations.

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

Faculty: Importance

Every most frequently used resource is considered to be more important, in the 3.0-4.0 range.  In addition, all of the services mentioned previously in the less frequent use range are considered to be more important by faculty.  In contrast, only one of the three less frequently used resources – wireless access to the internet – is considered to be more important.  Even though faculty do not use these services more than a couple of times a semester, they consider these services vital to their research and teaching.

Almost every other service or resource is considered somewhat important by the faculty.  Only two resources, borrowing laptops and video conferencing, are considered less important by faculty.  Both resources were reported to be least used by the faculty as well.

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

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

Faculty: Satisfaction

Faculty report high satisfaction overall. No service or resource received a mean response of anything less than somewhat satisfied (3.0).  Faculty report high satisfaction (3.5 or higher) with 15 services and resources.  Of these 15, 12 are library services and resources, with library circulation services and ILL at the top of the list.

Satisfaction for all other services and resources is in the moderately high (3.0-3.49) range, with many computing services and resources close to the high satisfaction (3.5) mark.  Infrastructure items, such as networking and e-mail, as well as communication and engagement items, such as input into computing decisions and support for specialized computing needs, are found toward the bottom, but even in these cases, faculty are somewhat satisfied.

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

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