This project's final report and evaluation was completed on 5 July 2020

Project approach

Overall the project has been a success. On the whole the majority of library services have done well returning a moderate to excellent (top 509)  number of survey responses before Covid-19 starting making an impact. With all libraries slowing in visitations and then ultimately closing their doors it meant that any struggling library services had no option but to close the survey.

Due to the advent of the virus, there have been some delays in returning and entering data and being able to communicate with library managers however we adapted successfully and were able to close that stage of the project. Gawler library service failed to commence data collection for a number of reasons so we didn't include their results in the final report. They would like to survey later in year however which we will accommodate.

We conducted questionnaire design, data collection, data entry, preliminary analysis, report design and data coding. The individual library service reports have been sent out to all participating libraries including final benchmarks.

Project achievements

The project has helped councils better understand the service delivery of their library services and the important role they play in their local communities.

It has done this through:

1. measuring and reporting on the broad based demographic data of library users;
2. providing a detailed understanding of customer’s perceptions of service quality and their overall satisfaction with library service usage and
3. identifying the social and wellbeing benefits customers experience when attending libraries.

Project outputs and outcomes

The profile of respondents to the survey strongly reflected an older, female dominated, Australian-born demographic. Consideration of ways to cater to this group, whilst also considering strategies to connect with other groups (for example, the youth demographic) may warrant strategic consideration.

Awareness of what is happening at libraries is dominated by the bricks and mortar library itself. However, social media is having an impact, particularly in regional areas where Facebook was identified as a key information source. Twitter, however, is having almost zero cut through. The Libraries SA App appears to have a consistent follower-ship and take up, and strategies to consider expansion of the App and buy-in by users may be warranted.

Whilst awareness of the presence of digital media at libraries is high, take up is notably lower. Given the importance given to digital collections identified in the survey, consideration of ways to improve the usage and take up of digital forms of media may be appropriate.

Overall, libraries are perceived highly positively by their users. Staff in particular were singled out for praise by users, with satisfaction and recommendation also being particularly positive. Any strategic plans or planned changes to library operations should consider the potential impact on this highly positive perception.

Attendance at the library provides a range of important benefits to users. These include enjoyment, well-being, connection with community and education. Stories told by users identified the library as a critical nexus in the community, a hub of social and personal connection and growth that plays a key role in community capital and well-being.

Project distribution

Each participating library service has been provided with an individual report detailing their own performance in the aforementioned areas as well as their performance compared to other library services through a series of benchmarks that have been derived.

Public Library Services (PLS) SA has been provided with a combined report which comments on the performance of the SA library services as a collective as well as distinguishing between regional and metropolitan areas.

Performance measures

As aforementioned each library service and the Public Library Services organisation (PLS) have been provided with a report detailing their performance. To date only positive feedback has been received by library services and PLS suggesting a high calibre of work has been achieved.

Project evaluation

Prior to survey launch each library service and PLS were engaged to refine the questionnaire to ensure the pre-determined outcomes would be met. A trial-launch was performed to statistically test the questionnaire which was deemed appropriate for use. The majority of library services returned acceptable to high respondent numbers meaning that the reliability was generally good and a team of skilled researchers were involved with the report write ups for quality control.

These combined measures ensured the project outcomes were met and that the data could be relied upon. This is particularly important as it provides a sound evidence-based platform for any operational changes that library services may choose to make in the pursuit of improvement as a result of the findings. For PLS the collective impacts of libraries can reliably be reported on.