Сurrent level satisfaction in Granary Library Essays

Ð ¡urrent level satisfaction in Granary Library Essays Ð ¡urrent level satisfaction in Granary Library Essay Ð ¡urrent level satisfaction in Granary Library Essay The Business I have chosen to base my work on is the Granary library. I am going to investigate and analise the current level of satisfaction within the library, both users and non-users. An interview will be conducted with an executive librarian from the Library, Deirdre O Dea. Quantitative research will involve the use of a questionnaire with a combination of closed and multi-choice questions. The report examines whether users satisfaction with the library services is affected by certain objectives. The surveys suggest some recommendations and conclusion. Introduction Kotler (2000) defined satisfaction as: a persons feeling of pleasure or disappointment resulting from comparing a products perceived performance (or outcome) in relation to his or her expectations1. In other words the satisfaction can be associated with feelings of acceptance, happiness, relief, excitement and delight. There are many factors that affect customer satisfaction. This research involves a survey on the Granary Librarys level of satisfaction. Factors include friendly, knowledgeable and courteous employees, service quality, and good value. In this case satisfaction is the state that results after the library user has positively experienced a service. The survey was planned to assess usage of and satisfaction with resources and selected library services. Many researchers have looked into the importance of customer satisfaction. In this case it is important for users to get an acceptable library service, whether it is to be used for a personal research or for a personal pleasure. Because satisfaction is basically a psychological state, care should be taken in the effort of quantitative measurement. Therefore in order to achieve customer satisfaction, the Library must be able to satisfy their customers needs and wants and represents the adequate service level. Background The Library is located in the Limerick city Council on the Michael Street. Its mission statement is We are committed to giving a quality service to everyone in a safe and secure environment. Our staff will make sure that services are delivered properly, fairly, openly and impartially2. Use of the facilities in the Library is open to all and there are no charges except for photocopying and printing. A full-time librarian is available at the reference department to assist people with queries and research. In addition to the many historical reference materials available there is an extensive collection of Limerick-related materials held here. This local collection is an essential aid for anyone researching the history of Limerick. The Music Library, stocks over 5,000 items including: In order to get a profile of users, those surveyed were asked to state their gender and age. There was a range in age from high school, undergraduate and graduate students (20%) to adults (72. 5%). Age group was an approximately equal e. g. male (42. 5%) and female (57. 5%). Appendix 1 As many of the questionnaires were completed in the library, it was not surprising that (87. 5%) respondents stated that they were members of the library. Those (12. 5%) who were not members of the library stated that newspapers were cited as the principal source of information by this group. The 70% of respondents said that they visit the library a weekly, 25% -monthly and just 5% visit the library rarely. The primary uses of the library refer to respondents are: personal pleasure which topped the list (35%), followed by personal research (22. 5%) and school related (17. 5%). More less percent use the library for work related purposes (10%) and an equal amount for childrens and social purposes (7. 5%) Appendix 2 The 80% of users declared that they always found what they were looking for when searching for materials. The 15% indicated that was less easy and for the rest 5% of users it was not easy at all. Appendix 3 Question ? 10 was asked in relation to staff and services of the library. These related to staff helpfulness, security, convenient hours, areas for reading etc. The overall response to this was very positive with 45% of respondents offering favourable opinions on staff helpfulness, knowledge and friendliness. 30% of users indicated a good level of satisfaction with areas for reading. The rest of respondents were not satisfied with existing library services such as: security (7. 5%), convenient hours (12. 5%) and parking (5%). Appendix 3 Finally, the list of comments was analysed, using five main categories, into positive and negative comments. These are displayed in Appendix ? A high level (32. 5%) of adult and childrens books (27. 5%) was rated and confirmed by the survey. The 30% were satisfied with reference materials. Some respondents identified a need more for audio tapes. The areas where lowest satisfaction levels were recorded were: films (5%) and internet access (2. 5%). The 65% of members indicated that the library is fairly important to them and for the 32. 5% is extremely important. Overall the 65% are satisfied with existing library services and the rest of respondents (35%) are extremely satisfied. Appendix ? On the other hand people were asked what improvements they would like to see in the public library services. The respondents included a wider selection of books and audio materials and improvement of internet facilities. Some of them said the weekend hours are too short. Some respondents called for extended range of events and exhibitions. Conclusions The main conclusions of the study may be summarised as follows: Barriers to public library service included a lack of suitable stock and limitation on library budget. The major issues also flagged as a barrier to further use were: opening hours, stock, internet access and parking. The survey suggests that if they were improved in these areas, use of the library services would increase. The arrival in Ireland of significant numbers of foreign nationals has provided a new challenge for public library services. The survey of foreign nationals also indicated a need for newspapers. A lot of foreigners use the internet facilities were the service must used in public library. The majority used them to communicate by e-mail with family and friends back home, to learn new languages and to look up general information queries. Lack of language skills is a barrier to library access. Recommendations The results of these evaluations served as a basis for the final recommendations. They need improve their stock. This included: quality and quantity of books, reference, historical and archival publications, magazines, video/tapes, audio books. To identify and meet the needs of growing culturally diverse population that communicates in an increasing variety of languages the management should provide an appropriate training for staff to enable them to interact more effectively with foreigners. Translated materials on library service should facilitate it. The library needs to update commercial relationships with suppliers of library books. More use of new technology to enhance the efficiency of traditional library services such as book issues, access to library catalogues and provision of reference information. The staff needs to be honest with library users in educating/informing them as to what libraries can or cannot provide. Therefore I would recommend the library to improve the methods to learn about the library resources and services in future: e-mail links to (in-depth), short notices about resources and services.