In the spring of 2010, we launched a survey of the Drew Community to explore both what you thought about the Library, and where you thought we should be putting our energy – and you responded! Almost 450 students took the survey (about 17% of all students currently enrolled). Most of the responses came from CLA students (56% of all student respondents), followed by the Theological School (23%), and the Caspersen School (15%). About a quarter of both faculty and staff completed the survey as well.
What did you tell us?
- You use the Library!
- Among student responders, 65% said that they came into the Library at least once a week, and another 19% visit us about once a month.
- 90% of students reported using the Library’s online resources at least monthly (not quite as often as you use Google . . . )
- The public computers are important to you: 75% of those who responded said that they used our workstations at least once a semester, while 45% use them once a week or more.
- Most students who come in the library also use the wireless – and more than 5% of you complained about how well it functions (or doesn’t).
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- You’re forward-thinking about technology and the Library’s part in that.
- We were urged to get more electronic books, and to find a way to enable users to access the collection through e-readers.
- You thought a deeper integration of the Library into your courses’ Moodle pages would be helpful.
- You want to be able to access our resources through iPhones and other mobile devices.
What are we doing in response?
- We’re providing additional group study spaces on the main level, and adding large monitors that can be connected to student computers to facilitate your work on group projects.
- We’ve added the ability to use our chat reference service through text messaging, and have implemented a mobile-friendly interface link for four of our most popular EBSCO databases.
- Instructional Services has added a link to the Library’s resources as a default for Moodle course pages.
- The Library’s wireless is being upgraded (thank you, CNS!).
- We’re continuing to advocate for increased resources to improve our collection and to add more hours of service.