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NMRLS held on an online Member Satisfaction Survey in April 2006. Ninety-eight individuals responded. Respondents were mostly from public libraries (55 percent) with 23 percent from school library media centers and eight percent from academic libraries. Special and other libraries included 11 percent of respondents. Such rations of respondents by library type to NMRLS surveys are typical, however, normally we receive a larger quantity of responses.

The grouping of responses to questions is not unusual and implies that we have an accurate snapshot of member opinion with regard to satisfaction. In terms of member satisfaction, some extremely high levels jumped out.

NMRLS Customer Service was evaluated with the highest level of satisfaction. More than 68 percent of respondents who had an opinion were Very Satisfied. Many comments were made recognizing NMRLS staff for providing responsive customer service to members.

The next tier for which 50 to 60 percent of respondents were Very Satisfied was recorded for:

  • On-Site Training
  • Web Site
  • Long-Range Planning
  • Interlibrary Loan Centers
  • Online Newsletter
  • InfoTrac (Gale Group)
  • NewsBank
  • Supplies Purchasing Cooperative
  • WorldCat (OCLC)

Over 40 percent of respondents were Very Satisfied with the following services:

  • Materials Purchasing Cooperative
  • Continuing Education Calendar
  • Strategic Plan
  • Site Visits
  • Custom Database Pages
  • Answers To Go
  • Evening and Weekend Hours at Lawrence Law Library

Visit: www.nmrls.org/surveys/satisfaction2006.htm for more details.

We hear a call for improvement in two areas with multiple responses of dissatisfaction. Respondents from 12 libraries were not satisfied with Regional Delivery Services and five respondents were dissatisfied with Cross State Delivery Services. We also plan to follow up in other areas to which small numbers of members replied as dissatisfied.

We were pleased to see that the level of knowledge of NMRLS services was high. We found no service areas that are promoted to all members with significant numbers of members replying that they were unaware that such services were available.

We asked about members' opinion of the importance of services in a new way. We asked members to evaluate the importance of services to the entire region. In the past we asked for the respondent's opinion as it relates to her/his library.

Services were listed as Very Important by the highest percents as follows:

  • 70-80 %: Regional Delivery Service, NMRLS Customer Service, Materials Purchasing Cooperative, and Gale Group InfoTrac
  • 60-69 %: Mediated ILL Centers at Memorial Hall Library and NOBLE, Variety of CE Offerings, NewsBank, NMRLS Online CE Calendar, Long-range Planning, NMRLS Web Site, Supplies Purchasing Cooperative, OCLC WorldCat, and Document Delivery.

Several services were considered Not Important by significant percentages of respondents.

  • 41%: Printed Newsletter
  • 29% Informe
  • 27% Regional Reference Center Services to Residents
  • 23% Regional Reference Center Services to Libraries