Group Minutes

SOCIETY OF COLLEGE NATIONAL & UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

Advisory Committee on Performance Improvement

Minutes of the meeting held on Wednesday 14 January 2004

Present:Maxine Melling (Chair), Toby Bainton, Angela Conyers, Susan Copeland, Claire Creaser, Mike Day, Anne Hannaford, Andrew Martin, Martin Price,  Stephen Town, Chris West (Secretary), Jacqueline Whiteside

Apologies:Pete Dalton, Philip Payne

1. Minutes

The Minutes of the meeting held on 18 September 2003 were accepted as a correct record.

2. SCONUL Statistical Return

To date, nineteen returns for 2002-03 had been received. In response to a recent query, it was confirmed that sample weeks for the SSR should be calendar weeks (Monday to Sunday).

3. LibQUAL+

a. 2003 survey: LISU had analysed the Cranfield 2003 LibQUAL+ results as an exemplar and as an opportunity for further benchmarking of the 2003 UK cohort. A meeting had subsequently been held in Wolverhampton on the analysis of LibQUAL+ results, which had been attended by around half of the UK participants. This would be disseminated in due course.

Action: ST

b. 2004 survey: Seventeen UK institutions were taking part in the LibQUAL+ 2004 survey. These included three universities (Glasgow, Liverpool and South Bank) which had also participated in 2003. Initial training would be held in Glasgow during January 2003. The 2004 UK results would be combined with those for 2003, to provide a larger group for benchmarking. Stephen was thanked for his continuing support for this initiative.

c. SCONUL Statistical Return: It was agreed that the Statistics Sub-Group should consider options for including some form of general satisfaction rating into the SSR.

Action: PP

d. Strategic issues: Maxine and Stephen had attended the ARL Statistics and Measurement Conference in October 2003. To maintain our close relations with the ARL in this area, Martha Kyrillidou had been added to the ACPI mailing list. Stephen was thanked for his continuing efforts in co-ordinating the survey work. It was agreed that the longer-term management and maintenance of the LibQUAL+ Survey needed to be discussed. Stephen agreed to draft a discussion paper for consideration at a future meeting.

Action: ST

4. User Surveys in SCONUL Libraries

The results of a questionnaire distributed in December 2003 on user surveys in UK and Irish HE libraries were discussed. There had been over sixty responses to the questionnaire, with almost all of the respondents carrying out some form of user survey. The Libra package from Priority Research remained the most frequently used platform, with LibQUAL+ and in-house packages also being popular. There was a pronounced trend towards web-only or combined web and paper formats for user surveys. The majority of respondents carried out annual surveys, along with a mix of general user and targeted surveys of specific services or customer groups. It was agreed that the results of the questionnaire would be published on the ACPI website and in the SCONUL Newsletter. There was also a need to explore the possibilities of benchmarking comparative data for libraries using the SCONUL user satisfaction survey template. To test this, Lancaster and Swansea would send their 2003 results to LISU.

Action: CW; JW

5. Impact Measurement Project

A second Impact Measurement Workshop had been held in Leeds in December 2003. A summary of the useful feedback from this would be published in LIRG News and in the SCONUL Newsletter. The possibility of the ten project institutions providing mentoring would be explored, along with the development of a toolkit. A further seminar would be held during summer 2004, with the aim of extending the range of activities for impact measurement. This seminar and other developments would be self-financing, but ACPI would continue to monitor and support the project.

Action: AC; PP

6. SCONUL Statistics on the Web

Useful examples of how institutions used the SSR to construct comparative data had been passed to IRLT. Andrew was continuing to liaise with them and was thanked for his continuing work on the project. The draft website was nearing completion and once it was available in provisional form, all ACPI members would be encouraged to test it. The input side of the website would have to be fully tested and available by August 2004, in time for the SSR input for 2003-04.

Action: AM

7. E-measures Pilot Project

Twenty-five institutions were taking part in the e-measures pilot project, providing a valuable cross-section of sites. A series of workshops and a questionnaire had highlighted which e-measures are currently collected, along with associated problems and priorities for the project. Arising out of one of the initial queries, it was agreed that VAT costs should be included for electronic information services, as part of the general principle that the SSR should measure complete, actual costs. Data collection based on the list of e-measures finalised at the previous ACPI meeting would run from February to May 2004. The results of the project would be analysed and disseminated at an eVALUEd conference in Birmingham on 16 June 2004. It was also agreed that the usefulness of all SCONUL statistics needed to be marketed to all SCONUL libraries and practical options to achieve this needed further consideration.

Action: AC; MM; PP

8. ACPI Annual Report and Action Plan

The ACPI Annual Report for 2003 and the Action Plan for 2004 (both available on the ACPI website) were both approved.

9. Date of next meeting

12noon for 12.30pm on Wednesday 27 May 2004, SCONUL Headquarters.