1. Trying to keep the customer
satisfied – how PDA can help
Jill Taylor-Roe,
Head of Planning &
Resources and Deputy
Librarian.
Newcastle University Library
JIBS Ebooks Seminar,
26 Nov, 2013
University Library

2. Topics to be covered
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Why we care about customer satisfaction
How we measure it
How we use what we learn
How PDA may help
Where we go from here…
University Library

3. Why we care about Satisfaction (1)
 We are an Academic Service which exists to:
 “support the University’s learning and teaching, research,
innovation and engagement by providing resources and
professional expertise to enable the effective discovery and
use of information and the development and
communication of knowledge”
 (Taken from Newcastle University Library Strategic
Planning Statement)
University Library

4. Why we care about Satisfaction (2)
 Because we are a SERVICE industry, so we should
care!
 Easier to argue for more resources if you can
demonstrate you are delivering service/added value
University Library

5. How we measure satisfaction with our resources and
services (1)
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External validation:
e.g.
Chartermark – 1st UK Uni Library to win one, 5 in total
Customer Service Excellence
Times Higher Award 2011 – Outstanding Library Team
National Student Satisfaction Survey (NSS)– joint 5th in 2013
International Student Barometer (ISB) – 1st in Russell Group for
physical library, 7th for online library
Postgraduate research survey ( PRES) Postgraduate taught
Survey, (PTES)

University Library

6. University Library

7. How we measure satisfaction with our resources and
services (2) – tell us what you think
University Library

8. How we measure satisfaction with our resources and
services (3) – KPIs
Value for money
KPI1
KPI2
KPI3
Target
Current position (2011-12)
Expenditure on information as
% of total library expenditure
Expenditure on staff as % of
total library expenditure
50%
49.13%
42%
40.23%
90%
90.02%
90%
90%
90%
90%
94.3%
92.1%
Efficiency
Self-service loans as % of total
loan transactions
KPI4
Effectiveness
NSS score Question 16
KPI5
ISB score:
Physical library
Online library
University Library

9. University Library

10. A cautionary note…
 Positive feedback is much appreciated, and
is just reward for staff who work so hard to
deliver good service ….
 However…
 Always scope for improvement,
 Cannot please everyone
 *Never* be complacent
 Always look for further improvement
University Library

11. How we use what we learn
 Feedback from users regarding lack of library space and
lack of IT informed major 2 yr refurb plan
 Feedback from users regarding lack of journals informs
future acquisitions
 Feedback on lack of bookstock has always been harder to
address because it is seldom specific enough …
University Library

12. Typical comments from the National Student
Satisfaction Survey ( NSS)
“The Library does not have
enough books”
“Insufficient main
texts in the
library...”
“Books for our course are
expensive and there aren’t
enough copies in the library
for everyone”
“There are never enough books for our course”
“not enough books
for my essay”
“we
need
more
core
texts”
University Library

13. How did we usually respond to this feedback?
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Worked hard to secure more student input re book selection
Engage with staff student committees
Tell us which books we lack!
Reduced “just in case” provision
Increased multiple copy provision of core texts
Reviewed loan categories
All of which help – but we still receive complaints....
University Library

14. Is PDA the answer?
University Library

15. Why were patron-led ebooks so attractive to
add to the mix?
 Little evidence that simply acquiring more print
books made any real difference to student
perceptions
 Increasing pressure on library space
 concept of only paying for what you use very
attractive
 2009/10 PVC Teaching and Learning wanted an
“innovative project” to support student needs
University Library

16. Early days
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£7Ok start up fund
100,000 + ebook catalogue records loaded
Minimal profiling
Soft launch, Feb 2010
3 loans per person per day
1 or 7 day loan
University Library

17. Result? – almost too successful...
Weekly Usage Trend Feb-July 2010
1090
1000
800
Requests
Users loved it
£37K spent in
March alone!
Numerous
tweaks made to
limit demand
e.g. reduce
loans per day,
introduce
mediation
1200
autopurchas
es
STL (Loans)
600
400
200
63
65
0
wk2 wk4 wk6 wk8 wk10 wk12 wk14 wk16 wk18 wk20 wk22 wk24
University Library

18. So how did we make it sustainable?
 Better profiling of the collection
 Removal of 505 field from EBL bib records so
that all our ebook collections are equally exposed
to view
 Revealed costs to users- even though library pays
 Turned off downloading for non-owned items
University Library

19. Where are we now? Yr 4 of established service
30000
monthly spend on EBL loans
25000
20000
2009/10
2010/11
15000
2011/12
2012/13
10000
2013/14
5000
0
aug sep oct nov dec jan feb mar apr may jun
jul
University Library

20. Where are we now? Yr 4 of established
service
monthly spend on EBL autopurchases
10000
9000
8000
7000
6000
2009/10
2010/11
5000
2011/12
4000
2012/13
2013/14
3000
2000
1000
0
aug
sep
oct
nov
dec
jan
feb
mar
apr
may
jun
jul
University Library

21. More sustainable expenditure pattern
monthly spend on EBL loans and autopurchases
40000
35000
2009/10
30000
2010/11
25000
2011/12
2012/13
20000
2013/14
15000
10000
5000
0
aug
sep
oct
nov
dec
jan
feb
mar
apr
may
jun
jul
University Library

22. Heaviest users of patron-led ebooks
SELL
SAPL
Psychology
NUBS
SML
Med Scis
Mech Eng
Maths
MAST
Library
Law
Hist Studies
GPS
EECE
ECLS
Dentistry
Comp Sci
Chemistry
CEG
CEAM
Biomedical Sciences
Biology
Arts & Cultures
AFRD
Series1
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
450
University Library

23. Carving up the Acquisitions Budget
Proportion of ebk fund devoted
to patron-led 2012/13 (c 40%)
ebookspend
patron led ebk spend
University Library

24. Extending patron led to the Print bookfund
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
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Initial Pilot 2011/12
Allocated prev yr’s overdue income ( circa £60K)
2 strands – high demand items ( reading list material)
Books required for by individual students ( dissertation
topics)
 Minimum referral – only very expensive books referred to
liaison librarians
 2013/13 – circa £37K spent – around 1000 titles purchased
University Library

25. 350
Heaviest users of print patron-led over the last 3 yrs
300
250
200
150
Series1
100
50
0
NUBS
GPS
HIST
SACS
SAPL
ECLS
SELL
SML
University Library

26. Dividing up the print book fund
Proportion of print bookfund devoted
to patron-led 2012/13 ( c 10%)
print bkspend
patron led print spend
University Library

27. What have we learnt along the way? (1)
 Top Ten Schools who use the patron led service are:
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Business School
Geography, Politics & Sociology
Arts & Cultures
Agriculture, Food and Rural Development
Historical Studies
Education, Communication and Language Sciences
Business School
English Literature, Language & Linguistic Studies
Modern Languages
Law
Medical Sciences
 NSS library scores for 6 of these schools went up in 2012
 Most have remained high or improved in 2013
University Library

28. NSS scores for 2 of our heaviest users
Newcastle Business School (NUBS)
NSS scores
2010
Economics
Bus Studies
Marketing
Management
Accounting
2011
2012
2013
94
95
81
78
88
96
74
85
69
84
94
88
88
94
88
90
94
93
96
94
2012
93
94
85
74
2013
94
92
93
96
Geography, Politics and Sociology (GPS)
NSS scores
Geog & Env Sci
Geography
Politics
Sociology
2010
84
82
80
79
2011
85
75
84
67
University Library

29. What have we learnt along the way? (2)
• Circa 50% of the top 100 EBL titles are on Reading Lists
• Circa 25% of the top 100 EBL titles feature on high holds
lists
• the remaining titles do not feature in any of our high
demand print collections
• ILL expenditure has declined at around £10K per annum
since we introduced EBL
University Library

30. Where we go from here…
 Multi-yr analysis of usage trends by subject
 Review subsequent use of patron selected stock - how does
it compare with academic/library selected material?
 Experiment with % share between patron led and
academic-led stock selection – should it be 50:50?
 Further analysis of impact of PDA on user satisfaction
levels
 Experiment with different vendors
University Library

31. But this is only the beginning…
 We need to …
 Innovate – liberate ebooks from print
procurement models
 Re-Create - Break them down/mash them up
 Observe and reflect on user behaviour
 Listen to feedback
 Be brave! – don’t be afraid of further
experiments …
University Library

32. Conclusions: Trying to keep the customer
satisfied…




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Is…
Challenging, but also
Essential to our service ethos
A spur to creativity and innovation
A work in progress
Rewarding when we get it right
University Library

33. Why is it challenging?
 Library budgets still largely unable to keep pace with the
many demands placed upon them
 Annual growth in journal prices still persistently ahead of
CPI and RPI
 Bulk of resources budget now devoted to recurrent
expenditure, much of it VATable
 New subject interests typically emerge faster than old ones
decline
 Inflexibility of many big deals which account for lion’s
share of the budget
 Heightened user expectation, especially since higher fees
introduced
University Library

34. But don’t despair… We’ve come a long way
since the C19…
The Library
service of
1894 could
scarcely be
said to be
responsive
to student
needs...
University Library

35. We have come along way, but we can go
further!
University Library

36. Thank you for your attention
Jill.Taylor-Roe@ncl.ac.uk
University Library