Results of Library WebSite Survey

As part of the trial of the new Library website, the Library conducted a survey of 100 Library customers.

Most of the respondents were undergraduate students (73) with a smattering of postgraduate students (12), University staff (14) and one alumnus.  The Schools of Education (34), Law (17), Arts and Sciences (13) and Medicine (10) were most heavily represented.

Positive Feedback

The feedback was generally very positive, with most respondents make supportive statements about the site being easier to navigate (49), looking better (33), being more informative (12).  A number of respondents liked the new 'databases' page and the ability to quickly access a 'Style Guide'.

Negative Feedback

The negative comments were considerably fewer and few of them had more than one person making the comment. 

Responses

One that comment that did occur a few times was a request for easier access to the 'My Account' feature in the 'library portal'.  This seemed such a sensible suggestion that we added a link on the home page below the 'search' box (by the way you can launch a keyword search into the portal from this 'search' box).

Likewise a number of respondents asked where the Law and Business subject guides are.  These are currently being drafted and will be added to the site in the Winter break.  We apologise that these have not been available to date.

Some respondents stated that they found that there is too much information on the site and that it is 'confusing'.  In designing the site we tried to 'flatten' it down to reduce the number of clicks to get at individual services or 'bits' of information.  As you will appreciate Library service have become very complex in the age of the internet and we can only reduce the volume of information so far without leaving out vital services.  As always there is a balance between too much and not enough information.  If you can't find what you are looking for please ask at one of the libraries either in person or via email . You can also provide feedback about the site in this way.

Conclusion

Thanks to those who provided us with the feedback.

The two websites will continue in parallel until July 2009, when the old site will be decommissioned.