The University of Michigan Library wanted to learn more about the kinds of searches its users were conducting through the "one search" search box on the Library Web site. Library staff conducted two investigations. A preliminary investigation in 2011 involved the manual review of the 100 most frequently occurring queries conducted…

When looking for ways to improve library services, we considered what data sources were readily available to us and how we could harvest and use this data. We investigated three years of chat reference statistics at Central Michigan University, a large research institution, to gain a better understanding of our patrons' chat behavior. We then…

With both budget dollars and buying power shrinking for academic library collections, the selection of materials is a series of crucial choices. With increases in numbers of online programs, how can we determine if what we are buying is in fact what our users need? E-reserves are an increasingly popular way to provide digital copies of course…

Public libraries play an important part in the development of a community. Today, they are seen as more than store houses of books; they are also responsible for the dissemination of online, and offline information. Public access computers are becoming increasingly popular as more and more people understand the need for internet access. Using a…

A traditional mixed methods research model of citation analysis, a survey, and interviews was selected to determine if the Bruce T. Halle Library at Eastern Michigan University owned the content that faculty cited in their research, if the collection was being utilized, and what library services the faculty used. The combination of objective data…

In many ways, science classrooms and school library media centers are parallel universes struggling with their own reform issues and with documenting their own positive impacts. As the trend toward data-driven decisions grows in the school setting, it is increasingly important for every component of the learning environment to have demonstrable…

In order to get the most from LibQUAL+[TM] qualitative data, libraries must organize and classify the comments of their patrons. The challenge is to do this effectively and efficiently. This article illustrates how researchers at Western Michigan University Libraries utilized ATLAS.ti 5.0 to organize, classify, and consolidate the LibQUAL+[TM]…

This report presents the methodology and results of a patron use and satisfaction survey conducted during four one-week periods in 1997-98 at the Ferndale Public Library (Michigan). Survey questions focused on patron self-description, library use, and resource evaluation. In all, 1,424 surveys were distributed and 1,222 returned for a response…

This paper reports the results of a survey of student satisfaction with electronic library resources other than the online catalog at Wayne State University. Undertaken in Fall Term 2000 as a class project for a marketing course, a student team designed, administered, and analyzed a survey of a random sample of students. Almost 40% of the…

A 3-month trial of the Dearborn Area Libraries Infopass System (DALIS), a local library cooperative program coordinating the reference services of six libraries (special, public, and academic), suggests that further study is warranted to develop cost benefit data. Processes found to be of most importance for success in the multi-type library…

A survey of 29 Michigan community and junior college learning resource centers was conducted in the spring of 1979 to examine the status of resources and services, their scope and use, and the staffing and budgets necessary to support these resources and services during the 1977-78 academic year. The survey report compares the data from this…