Evaluating library buildings - customer feedback

The information and methods below will help you explore the perspectives of the community and library stakeholders. The focus is on libraries as people places — going beyond public library buildings — to consider how people feel about their public library service more broadly, including the programs and resources they offer. 

Relevant methods

A wide range of methods can be used by councils/public libraries to obtain feedback from the people who matter most — existing and potential library users, library teams and partners. A number of methods you may wish to consider are described below.

These methods can be used to support the self-guided evaluation tool provided on the Evaluating your public library building page.

Interviews

Interviews provide an opportunity to hear from individuals one on one, in pairs or small groups. This could include key informants such as library experts, people who have been involved in the successful delivery of contemporary libraries, library users and other people who have new, interesting or not widely held ideas and perspectives to share.

Methods include:

• Computer Assisted Telephone Interviews (CATI)—typically five to 12 minute phone survey conducted by a professional call centre team, for instance, as part of a customer satisfaction study.
• In-depth interviews—typically 15 to 60 minute interview conducted by phone or face to face, appropriate for discussing complex issues and collecting detailed feedback from participants.
• Accompanied interviews—conducted onsite in your library or another public library building to discuss and obtain feedback on particular aspects of the building, patterns of use and or user experience. This method could also be used to test your public library website or digital presence. Participants are asked to share their perspectives in real time, as they experience the place, space or interface.

Focus groups

These small group discussions can be used for in-depth exploration of participant perspectives of your public library.

Focus groups provide an opportunity to share and test information, ideas and visual stimulus (such as image boards and graphics) through robust discussion.

• Focus groups—useful for targeting groups of non-users and users (i.e. in depth discussions with 6-8 people).
• Mini-groups—can be used to obtain feedback from key informants such as library staff, council staff, etc.
• Affinity groups—may be suitable for targeting young people, parents and children, people from a particular cultural background, particular user groups (such as members of a book club or reading circle).
• Online focus groups or webinars—can be useful for obtaining feedback from people who may be more comfortable participating online, or those who are located across a wide geographic area which would ordinarily make it difficult for them to come together as a group.

Ethnographic methods

These methods can be used to provide insights on people’s behaviour and how they use public library spaces.

• Observational audit—users are observed in and around the library. Observations may be recorded using a checklist and site plan.
• Library tour or walk-around—the library is used as the environment for insightful conversation and discussion. Tours could be guided by the library staff or designer or they could be self-guided, with participants asked to document their experience through written feedback and or images.
• Usability testing—this method can be used to observe a user’s experience with a digital application. It can be used to identify confusing or frustrating parts of an interface so they can be fixed and retested prior to launch. A ‘think aloud’ approach is often used to observe and discuss the user experience in real time. This could be used to test a library catalogue or website.

Creative techniques

Creative techniques can be used to uncover how people feel about their public library, including things they may not necessarily share through other methods (for instance, when completing a survey). These techniques should be used sparingly and matched to the particular target audience, to encourage participation and support discussion. For instance, one to two methods (from below) could be used as part of a focus group session.

Examples of creative techniques that may be useful for your review include:

• Diary studies or photography used as pre-work for focus groups to document existing patterns of use and preferences
• Interactive exercises used as part of focus group sessions such as image cards (association with images used to evoke conversation), love letter/break up letter (participants express their positive/negative feelings about the facility through letters, revealing deep emotional connections), guided visualisation (participants imagine and then discuss their vision for the facility/place)
• Creative techniques used as part of a focus group, workshop or pop-up—such as collages, image boards and creative toolkits
• Directed story telling and personal inventories used as part of interviews
• Graffiti walls and stickers to gather feedback about a particular library building or space
• Digital tools and social media to find out what people think about a particular project or place.

Surveys

Surveys can be used to collect useful demographic information and feedback from public library users and non-users. Councils may conduct a regular customer satisfaction survey or library survey that could be augmented with relevant questions to support your review. Surveys can also form part of community engagement processes and can be structured to elicit information to support forward planning for new libraries, library upgrades and the broader development of library strategic plans.

Types of surveys that may be useful to support your review include:

• Customer satisfaction survey to test satisfaction with your library facility or wider library service. Options include:
  • Library user survey a short survey, with a focus on public library buildings, that can be used in conjunction with the Evaluating your library building template
  • State Library of NSW User Satisfaction Survey is more comprehensive and includes a number of questions to test user opinions about library buildings and facilities, as well as library services more broadly. It seeks feedback from members of the community on a range of aspects of public library buildings including appeal and condition of the building, provision of areas for quiet or more noisy activities, signage and way finding, lighting, aisle width, shelf height, and ease of access. It also includes useful questions about the library's website and online catalogue. 
• One-off or point in time survey to test current perspectives on your library.
• Longitudinal surveys to enable benchmarking over time (such as annual surveys).

Surveys can be conducted using a variety of modes. A summary of survey modes and related strengths and weaknesses is provided below: