A Needs Assessment of a High School Library

Team 4: Brandon Lewter Daniel Windham Jeffrey Brubaker Samantha Smith

The value of surveys, focus groups and interviews is that they enable you to learn what your customers want. Deciding how you will respond to this information is at the heart of your marketing plan. How well you define customer service? (not a question) What elements in the librarys current program most clearly respond to these needs? How will you and the staff adapt or change the library in view of what you have learned? Then, once you have fine-tuned the library to respond to these needs, how will you spread the word? -Jeannette Woodward, Creating The Customer-Driven Library p.137

Table of Contents I. Executive Summary............................................3 II. Introduction: About the Library..........................4 III. Methods..........................................................4 IV. Results............................................................5 a. The Librarys Primary Goals and Functions........5 b. The Librarys Ideal State..................................8 c. Raving Fans....................................................9 d. Validity, Reliability, and Power.........................9 V. Conclusions and Recommendations..................10 VI. Strengths and Weaknesses.............................11 VII. Appendices...................................................13 a. Appendix I: Teachers Survey.........................13 b. Appendix II: Students Survey........................14

I. Executive Summary This needs assessment was created for the study of a high school library, referred to as Library X in this analysis to protect its anonymity. Bearing the thoughts behind Jeannetee Woodwards monumental work, the goal of this needs assessment is to ascertain what resources are available and what resources are needed to increase customer satisfaction for Library X. Also, this assessment was designed to determine Library Xs media specialists satisfaction level with their library and position therein. Several surveys were conducted at the high school containing Library X in order to gain a stronger understanding of the institutional needs of three distinct user groups: library media specialists, teachers, and students. Because consistent computer resources, necessary to conduct a computer based survey, were not available on this campus, our group decided to take a more traditional approach to the work by passing out paper based surveys to teachers and students. The two Library Media Specialists at library X were individually interviewed, using the same script of questions to help guide the interviewees. Our report work stretched to a total of thirty volunteer participants including: twenty students, eight teachers, and two librarians (media specialists). Our questions for the surveys were structured to understand what how often teachers and students use Library X and what resources they would like from the library. Our results concluded that the teachers, media specialists, and students at Library X would like to see a dramatic improvement in the number of computers available, as well as in computer, educational and audio/visual technology resources. Also from our research, our team members found the media specialists to be happy with their positionthey are well motivated, open minded, educated, and enthused about their work and the additional responsibilities that come from networking with students and teachers.

II. Introduction: About the Library X

Library X is a longstanding school library, the first school library in North Carolina; it is now over seventy years old and is a reasonably large library/media center. It has a small labor force of nine employees: two librarians, one intern, four student aids, and two volunteers. It serves 1,700 students while circulating some 18,000 books each school year. In addition, the library has a total of eighty-three computers that host Ebsco, Infotrac, and Gale; fifty-five computers are part of a computer lab. The library also hosts clubs outside of normal educational hours, including Multicultural, Anime, Book Clubs, and a Zumba Class. III. Methods Methods included three information-gathering strategies. First, separate interviews were conducted with the two media specialists in Library X. Second, eight (n=8) surveys (Appendix I: Teacher Survey), specifically designed for teachers at the high school, were giventhis sample includes four English teachers, two social studies teachers, one science teacher, and one math teacher. And finally, twenty (n=20) surveys (Appendix II: Student Survey), specifically designed for the high schools students, were conductedthis sample came from a sociology and US History class, consisting of juniors and seniors. The media specialist interviews were conducted on November 10, 2011, and the teacher and student surveys were conducted from November 7th thru the 11th in 2011. The teacher survey questions ask about their use of the high schools library with their classes, the overall service provided by the media specialists in the library, and any resource they would like to see added to the library. The student survey questions focus on students personal use of the library, what services they would like to see the library add or improve upon, what genres they enjoy reading most, and what book they most recently checked out from their school library.

And finally, the media specialist survey questions (Appendix III: Media Specialist Interview Questions) focused on each media specialists ideas about their librarys overall needs and their needs as an employee (based on the Twelve Core Elements of World Class Management, as presented in First Break All the Rules by Buckingham and Coffman). IV. Results a. The Librarys Primary Goals and Functions According to these surveys, students do not use the library very often, most answering that they rarely use the library (Figure 1). When students do use the library, based on the results from the student survey, Library Xs main function is to provide places for students to study and do research (Figure 2). Second
Figure 1: This figure was created using data from the student survey (Appendix II), question 1.

and third in importance, according to the survey results, is to check out books and provide a group workspace, respectively. Other services, shown by the student survey to be used moderately by students, are access to printing, word processing, the Internet, and reading areas. When asked what genre students enjoyed reading, the answers were an almost evenly spread, mixed bag, with a bit more emphasis on science fiction,

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Figure 2: This figure was created using data from the student survey (Appendix II), question 2.

mystery, and adventure books (Figure 3). The results for question five of the student survey offered similar results, with no student surveyed giving the same answer for the last book they had checked out. These results indicate that students enjoy a wide variety of book titles and genres. Based on the results from the teacher surveys, if teachers take their students to the library at all, only half of them do it once a month while
Figure 3: This figure was created using data from the student survey (Appendix II), question 4.

the rest only visit the library as a

class once a semester or never (Figure 4). Additionally, teachers at Library Xs school

Figure 4: This table was created using data from the teacher survey (Appendix I), question 1.

Figure 5: This table was created using data from the teacher survey (Appendix I), question 2.

rarely or only sometimes create assignments that require students to use the librarys resources on their own time (Figure5). Despite these un-encouraging findings of library use in the teacher survey, the vast major of teachers answered that their librarians were extremely helpful (Figure 6). Teachers also indicated that they used the library as a meeting place for clubs and general staff meetings (Figure 7).

Figure 6: This table was created using data from the teacher survey (Appendix I), question 3.

Figure 7: This table was created using data from the teacher survey (Appendix I), question 4.

b.

The Librarys Ideal State To reach its ideal state, Library X could do a few things based on the surveys and interview

results. First of all, Library X could work to expand their operating hours. From the interviews conducted, it is obvious that achieving longer operating hours is not possible without more support staff, and that would require consistent volunteers or a larger budget. Secondly, a need for more computers, and technology overall, was voiced with in the surveys and interviews (Figures 8 & 9). During the interview one media specialist said, We could have twice the number of computers and they would still be used. And both media specialists expressed a desire to obtain some type of new technology, such as iPads, for student and teacher use.

Figure 8: This table was created using data from the teacher survey (Appendix II), question 5.

Figure 9: This figure was created using data from the student survey (Appendix I), question 3.

The media specialists not only wish to provide more computers for students, which is what they obviously want more of, based on the surveys, but they also want to provide more technological teaching tools to the high schools teachers. Thankfully, with a recent change of head principals, financial support is much more abundant. This academic year the principal approved a budget of $13,000 for books and supplies, including technology. Besides acquiring more technology driven, educational tools, one media specialist expressed a desire to improve the ambiance of the library by painting the walls. Currently the walls are off-white which coveys a drab, oppressive feeling, and the media specialist feels warmer colors would make the library more inviting for students (and faculty for that matter). After bringing this idea to her supervisor, he was supportive, but its a matter of logistics because it would be such a big project. All the books and shelves lining the walls would have to be moved.

c.

Raving Fans

Based on the design of the student survey questions, it is difficult to ascertain if there are any raving fans in that category. With the teacher survey question results, one could assume that a majority of the teachers interviewed (n=7) are raving fans for their library, or at least the media specialists working there. From conducting the media specialist interviews, it could be said that both media specialists are raving fans of their organization. They both spoke highly of their supervisors, and even though given the nature of public school library funding, they are currently satisfied with their resources.

d.

Validity, Reliability, and Power The legitimacy of this study relies on the quality of the survey questions and the

information gathered by the media specialist interviews. The student survey questions are designed to gain an understanding of how well the library meets their needs and how they use the library. The teacher survey questions are designed to get an idea of how they use the library and how well the library meets their needs as an educator. And finally, the media specialists interviews help provide qualitative and quantitative information about their satisfaction with their library and the resources they are able to provide. After gathering and analyzing the survey questions, I believe they give a good idea of student and teacher satisfaction with the library. With that being said, if given the opportunity to re-write and re-conduct the survey, some changes would be made. More general questions would be asked about overall satisfaction, and some questions response options would be deleted to eliminate irrelevant or repetitive choices.

The interviews give very reliable ideas about the media specialists satisfaction with their library. Both media specialists had similar concepts about what their library provides and what their library needs. And the similarity of the interviewees responses shows the media specialists truly feel what they expressed about their library. V. Conclusions and Recommendations From the data collected, it is clear that one of the most important things Library X could do to improve its services is spend more money on technology. Obviously funding is an issue here, but the first step is recognizing that the need for it is there. Nearly everyone involved agreed that the library could use more computers, in addition to other hardware items such as printers, scanners, or even iPads. Some of those polled also indicated a desire to see a greater range of software for the computers, such as Adobe Photoshop or Dreamweaver. Given the results, it would also be a good idea for the library to expand its hours. Currently the librarys hours go from 8 in the morning to 4:30 in the afternoon. This does not allow much time for students to take advantage of the library either before or after school. It is our recommendation to have the library open at 7 in the morning, as many students have zero periods that require them to be at school very early in the morning. We also recommend that the library stay open until at least 5:30 or possibly even 6, as many students do not have much time to use the library in the morning and there is a very small window between the end of the school day and the closing of the library. Granted, this now leaves us with another problem: who is going to staff the library during these newly long hours? It is our recommendation that these hours could be staffed by volunteers. Students, teachers, and parents alike could volunteer to help keep the library going. The library could even work with PTA to help recruit people, as it has a large network of people that could

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potentially be volunteers. It is also possible that the library could network with the many colleges and universities in the area to try to find volunteers. Our last recommendation is based more on a qualitative observation than a statistical one. We felt that there were several subjects (history in particular) that were underrepresented in the catalog. Thus, we think it would be a good idea to try and get people to donate books. This could be done both within the school, by asking for donations from students, parents, teachers, staff, and whoever else in the school might like to donate, and outside of the school, by asking for donations from colleges, bookstores, businesses, organizations and anyone else that might want to help. A book drive could really help beef up the collection in areas that are lacking, and surely there would be plenty of people willing to help.

VI. Strengths and Weaknesses Though we believe that our needs assessment was for the most part a great success, there are going to be inevitable shortcomings with any sort of operation like this, and ours was no exception. For one, there was definitely a feeling that we could have used more time to conduct our surveys. We managed to poll a satisfactory number of people, but over a longer range of time we could have reached more, which would have meant more data, which would have meant more perspectives on what could potentially make the library better. We also considered that maybe we could have made the questions a little more specific to the library in question. The surveys we have now are indeed useful, but perhaps just a tad generic school library. Some of the questions could have been honed to address some of the more specific services that our library had to offer. Additionally, we realized afterward that we could have used a question about patrons overall satisfaction with the library. Although we gathered valuable data

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from the other questions on the surveys, a broad question about overall satisfaction could have given us a useful, quantifiable measure of how well the library was doing in its goals. With what we have now, overall satisfaction has to be sort of extrapolated from the responses to the other questions. On the other hand, our needs assessment had some strong positives going for it as well. For one, everyone that we worked with on the assignment was extremely helpful. We had a good connection with the library, and the librarians, teachers, and yes, even students were extremely happy to answer our questions and fill out our survey forms. Thus, we can assume that the answers we received were given with candidness, honesty, and a desire for a better library. In addition, our group functioned together very well. Everyone was very respectful of each others ideas and nobody was catty or needlessly argumentative. We believe that we have pulled together a strong needs assessment and that each of us contributed something valuable to it.

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VII. Appendices
Appendix I: Teacher Survey

1. How often do you take your classes to the library? Once a week month Once a semester Never Once every other week Once a month Once every other

2. Do you incorporate Grimsleys library resources into any of your assignments? No If Yes, when all the time sometimes rarely never

3. Overall, how helpful are the media specialists at Grimsleys library? They are extremely helpful infrequently They are never helpful 4. Other than for your assignments and classes, for what else do you use the library? Staff Meetings Club Meetings Faculty Book Club They are sometime helpful The help

Other _____________________________________________ 5. Please list any resources that you would like to see added to Grimsleys library.

Appendix II: Student Survey

1. Do you use the library? Rarely

Every Day

1-3 times/week Study

2. What services do you use (circle all that apply)? Checking out Books Areas Research Magazines Internet Access Scanning Documents Xerox copying Newspapers Word Processing Access Interlibrary Loan PowerPoint Access

Tutoring Printing

Wireless Access

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Access Reading Areas Laminating Group Work Space Reference/Resource Interview Other: ___________________________________________

3. What services would you like the library to improve? _________________________ 4. Which genres do you enjoy reading the most? Adventure Biography Coming-of-Age Fantasy Nonfiction Supernatural Mystery Westerns

Historical Fiction Science Fiction

Literary nonfiction Sports

6. What is the last book(s) you checked out from Grimsleys library?

Appendix III: Media Specialist Interview Questions

Organization Needs Questions 1. What resources would you buy for your library if you had unlimited funds? 2. What resource is most requested in your library that you cannot provide? 3. If your administrator could provide one thing to make your job easier and more enjoyable, what would that one thing be? Personal Needs Questions 1. When was the last time you received praise for doing a good job? 2. Do you have the materials and equipment you need to do your job? 3. Does your supervisor seem to care about you as a person? 4. Do your opinions seem to count at work? 5. In the past year, have you had opportunities to learn and grow as a professional?

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