Clarification from NIH

This just in from NIH regarding methods of manuscript submissions: NIH Public Access web page . For more information, see the NIH public access FAQ.

Just How Happy ARE You?

This past spring we conducted our annual customer satisfaction survey. The only change we made in the content was the title. This year we called it the "Customer HAPPINESS Survey", a la Google who has an actual salaried person called the "Customer Happiness Manager". (We figured we couldn't go too far wrong copying Google.)

Day before yesterday someone, not a library staffer either, actually asked about the results of the above-mentioned survey. Only then did I realize I hadn't publicized them to anyone but the library staff. So for all those inquiring minds out there, here are some statistically significant findings:

• Frequency of use - Up by 13% in the frequent or relatively frequent library use category. This includes walk-in use as well as online electronic use of resources.
• Usefulness of services - This year, respondents found our provision of health information for patients and families 12.4% more useful, our classes for staff 10% more usful and our one-on one information retrieval coaching 8% more useful than they did last year. We're actually doing pretty much what we did last year, but more people are finding out about it.
• Overall satisfaction - The percentage of highly or mostly satisfied respondents increased from 46% to 68% with the Neutral/No opinion category decreasing by almost half. I was really glad about that because I feel better if people have at least some opinion about us, either good or bad. Speaking of bad: our hightly dissatisfied and mildly dissatified people are still out there and still represent 6% of all those who responded. I suspect some of those folks are just basically curmudgeonly or were just grumpy that day, but some did give us good feedback about things we need to change such as our printing set up. And it's good to know those things. That's what surveys are for.

Thanks to all who took the time to respond, and for those who didn't, you're in luck. You'll have another chance next year.