It's time for "Survey Says" again!

If there is anyone out there who follows this blog, you may already be aware that every year I do a survey of staff and students to see what areas are doing well and what areas may need attention.  Today, I will be sharing the staff survey results.  If you want to see a copy of the survey questions I used, they are available here.  I use Survey Monkey, and I only have the free account, so it doesn't have a lot of bells and whistles, but it gets the job done.  This year I added a question--"How do you perceive the role of the library/librarian in the school?"  I added this question because I was very curious to know what staff thought a librarian should be doing, and of course whether it matched up with my own expectations and ideas about the role of the library/librarian. 
OK--now for some number crunching.  Out of a staff of about 150, I had 16 responses, so this is not the most representative sample.  Like I said, I use this to sort of take the temperature and it also usually generates at least one idea or way that I can tweak things to improve them.   50% of the responders had brought their classes to the library for research.  This was exactly the same as last year.  Interestingly, the reasons given by the half that do not visit the library were very different.  This year  the reasons were almost evenly divided between they used the computer lab instead (ugh) or, get this, they didn't do any research at all.  This is a trend I will be keeping an eye on for next year.  The ways in which the library helped them were also reported very differently this year.  The highest percentages  were still "informed me about new resources" (68.8%) and "gathered resources for a unit" (62.5%)  but there was a large gain in "recommended a book to me" (50%) and "recommended a book to my students" (56.3%).  Both of those categories jumped by over 15%.  The sad part for me is the drop in "planned a research unit with me."  It was down to 0% (from 4.2%) when that was something that I have been working on since I got here.  I think there are several factors at work here.  First, most of the research units stay very similar from year to year, so there is not really a need to re-plan them, we just tweak them a little.  Also, I never really felt that I was included in planning, more as a consultant, so perhaps they have also begun to view it in this way.  I would like to be more involved in planning, and that will be on my goals list for next year, but moving on.  "Teaching a mini-lesson to my students about research" was up a little to 25%, a small victory that I will gladly take.  75% either strongly agreed or agreed that their students like to visit the library, also an increase over last year.  On the website front, visibility has definitely grown.  Usage of all parts of the website, with one exception, have grown over last year and the year before.  The part of the website that apparently sees no use is the BookSMART blog.  I will have to see what the students say.  If it is not being used, it may go away--there is not point spending time on something that is not helpful.  The alternative would be to try to publicize it more and get students more involved with it.  I have tried having guest posts by students, but I had a hard time getting anyone to do it.  Perhaps something to discuss with the book club.  Now, to the comments.  Mostly, these were positive.  One that was not was about copier expectations.  This person thought that the copier expectations were unclear and that students were confused.  I will be adding a little copier section to the orientation next year, and I will address copier issues at the beginning of research projects to help with this.  Hopefully, that will resolve that issue.  My favorite positive comment was, "the library has a student friendly atmosphere while still maintaining an academic environment."  The reason this is my favorite, is because this is exactly what I want to do--at least one person thinks I have done it.  Now, finally, to the most interesting part of the survey, for me anyway.  How did staff members perceive the role of the library/librarian? 

Multi-dimentional.

As a helping co-teacher who has access and knowledge of resources and techniques to help my class go beyond the basic concepts.

A leader and helper

The library (or librarian) should be able to give information and resources for various subjects that can enhance the curriculum.

encouraging students to read outside of class and providing them with helpful resources to facilitate the research they complete for their classes.

A resource for information

Assist the teacher in creating wonderful lessons. Assist the student in completing wonderful assignments.

Help students to enjoy reading, help students and teachers learn how to find information and how to use the information found.

I have removed any information that might tend to identify the teachers, but I thought this was an excellent list of expectations, and it very closely mirrors my own thoughts on what libraries/librarians should be doing.  Hopefully, it means I am on the right track, at least as far as these 16 people are concerned. 

If you want to conduct your own survey, you are more than welcome to copy my questions from the pdf and use that for your core set of questions.  I have found the answers to these questions help me see how I am doing, and where I need to go in the future to be effective.  Next time, student answers...