Abstract:
Developments in the economy lead to the fact that no institution will maintain a library just because it is «nice to have». We are expected to produce documented results which support the institution’s core activities. This means an increased focus on learning analytics in order to improve the services we offer and to prove our impact and significance to the institution.
In the presentation I will discuss what sort of statistics we have, what we need to produce, and how to use it.
We have conducted a «traffic-counting» in one of our libraries which reveals important data on how the library is actually used.
We have installed «smiley» machines where users can register their degrees of satisfaction after using the localities. These show very high degrees of satisfaction. The ones registering discontent were the ones who were asked to leave at closing time!
Students all over Norway area able to take part in annual surveys to register their feedback on their studies. Our library registered just below the average here, which is explained by responses from students on a campus without library.
In the autumns of 2016, owing to the need for more documentation, we carried out a survey amongst the 24.460 students at the university.
669 replies to the survey, a response rate of 3,7 %. Regarding gender and faculty, we found a slight overrepresentation of women and library students.
The survey consisted of three parts, including the library as a physical entity, the internet library and a section about teaching and learning.
The survey gives us data on the use of the library premises, how many and how often, and how the users evaluate the premises. We also got data on how they are using the library, and their evaluation on material and staff. The surveys documents the use of the internet-library, their assessment of guidance, courses and teaching. The most important data comes from the users that do not use the library.
