In fall of 2024, UT Libraries assessment team administered a campus wide survey to understand the perceptions, experiences, and needs of users across the campus.
A random sample of undergraduates, graduates, faculty and staff were invited to participate in the survey, which was designed on Qualtrics and sent via email.
The results were drawn from 1878 respondents who completed at least half of the survey. The breakdown of respondents included 43% undergraduate students, 18% graduate students, 14% faculty, and 24% staff.
The data from the survey were analyzed using SPSS for the quantitative part and NVivo for the qualitative part (open ended questions). The final results are available to the public through an interactive Tableau dashboard.
Here is an infographic capturing some of the 2024 UTL campus survey highlights.
We are delighted to report that the overall satisfaction with the libraries has remained consistently high since the last campus survey administered in 2022. The majority of all respondents felt that UT libraries is a welcoming place (88%) and that the staff is friendly and approachable (83%).
The results indicated that quiet (whispers) was the most preferred noise level. UT libraries offers access to multiple quiet study or work spaces across various branches around the campus.
This year, we also asked our participants about the new and evolving spaces within the Perry-Castañeda Library (PCL). 42% of respondents who had been to PCL, visited the new Scholars Lab (the digital scholarship center at entryway) since it opened in fall 2023.
The new space is timely, given that survey results showed a growth in the perceived importance of scholarly communication, research data, digital scholarship, GIS, and geospatial data since the 2022 survey administration.
We also asked the participants about their primary reasons for visiting the libraries. The top reason for students to visit the libraries was to access a quiet study/work space. Undergraduate students rated access to study/work space as very important.
In contrast, faculty and staff, most often visited the libraries to borrow physical material from the libraries’ comprehensive physical collection. Additionally, online library resources were rated as very important for graduate students, faculty and staff.
Respondents were asked to share a time that UT Libraries staff, services, resources or spaces had a positive impact on them.
Here are some impact stories, in their own words:
“It would not be an understatement to say my research has depended almost entirely on the library’s incredible resources and accessibility!” – Graduate student from the College of Liberal Arts.
“I’m able to request research articles from 50 years ago and get a scan sent to me in a week!” – Graduate student from the Cockrell School of Engineering.
“The UT library has offered private rooms for studying which has helped my academic success.” – Undergraduate student from the College of Natural Sciences.
“I’ve pinged subject experts last minute for help and they were very responsive to my needs.” – Staff member form the College of Liberal Arts.
These stories serve as vivid reminders of how central the libraries are to success at UT. We are excited to see the impact of UT Libraries on patrons’ academic and professional growth.
While the feedback was largely positive, the survey also highlighted some areas for improvement. Results indicated that some participants find physical library spaces challenging to navigate. In response, we are actively working on a signage improvement project aimed at improving wayfinding and making it easier for users to find their way through our spaces.
We thank all of the library users that participated in the survey. We value the feedback and appreciate the continued engagement as we work to improve the library experience for everyone.
