"Thank you for an awesome service!"

"Thank you for an awesome service!" is just one of the positive statements that make the library feel proud after the survey that was carried out this spring among DTU's employees and students.

The complex questionnaire has provided us with plenty of very useful input to our ongoing efforts to meet the expectations from employees, students and the university as a whole. Thank you for taking the time to reply to the questionnaire – we always appreciate the feedback we get from the users which will should result in quality improvements.

Generally, you seem to be happy and satisfied with DTU Library and the services you expect from us and that is of course nice.

The questionnaire was divided into three main groups, i.e. "Library as Place", "Information Control" and "Affect of Service", each covering different aspects of our services. Below we present some of the things we will work with as a result of the survey, divided into these three groups.

Library as Place
That the number of group rooms and quite areas does not obtain a very high score, does not surprise us, but the framework  conditions are pre-determined, so together we must try to make the best of it. With focus on fire safety we will examine the possibilities of creating a better and quieter second floor. We will work with acoustics, ventilation and light as described in the visions for SMART Library, and we will be in dialogue with the student association Polyteknisk Forening, PF. 

That you are pleased with our 24/7 opening hours is no surprise, and we will work on maintaining these opening hours.

However, your dissatisfaction with the Wi-Fi in the library surprises us, as we have collaborated with DTU-it to expand the capacity, and we tried to optimise the equipment at the beginning of the year. Maybe it is the bad reputation of the past that sticks to the users’ minds, maybe we have a real problem. Never the less, we are now looking into the matter again to see if the equipment can be used more optimally and if the capacity can be further improved.

And the toilets have been thoroughly cleaned, and we have increased the cleaning efforts.

The replies to the questionnaire naturally depend on the respondent. For instance the employees are very pleased with the events and exhibitions in the library hall in Lyngby, whereas the students are less enthusiastic because of the disturbance caused by the events. We are aware of the problem, but would like to support everybody’s interests.

Information Control
Part of this has to do with the resources we put at your disposal, and there are certain indications that the many e-books we have access to, are lost in the crowd. We will therefore improve our information about e-books.

Another part is about our online communication, and there is no doubt that our flagship when it comes to literature searches and dissemination, DTU Findit, can always be optimised to new standards, user requirements and expectations. Together with the results of the usability test we carried out earlier this year, the answers from this survey will be included in the development of the interface. Presently we are working on highlighting the personalisation options such as bookmarks, alerts and tags.  In addition, important improvements have already been made to avoid annoying duplicates in the system that contains more than 200 million academic references from a variety of different sources.

Affect of Service
When it comes to the personal services provided by DTU Library, the satisfaction is generally high, so we will continue along the same lines with focus on maintaining the high standards.

The prize
Finally, the drawing prize, a Pebble Time Steelsmart watch, was won by the Chinese master student Kai Feng.

If you want to know more
If you want to know more about the library’s survey, you are welcome to contact librarian Peter Hald, phal@dtu.dk