Feedback on the Learning Centre customer survey LibQUAL and a summary of planned measures

We received a total of 1355 responses, of which 51% included written feedback. We have now processed all the numerical and written feedback and designed development measures in response to it. Below is a summary of the topics that were mentioned by more than one respondent.

Name of the Learning Centre

Changing our name from the Library to the Learning Centre evoked negative feelings in many of the respondents. The new name was considered misleading, because library services are still our principal service.

The goal of the name change was to foster a new learning culture.  The library services are an integral part of the university services. We prefer referring to the Learning Centre to accentuate that instead of being confined to a particular building or space, our services take place, in different forms, anywhere our customers, particularly students, are. This allows us to help build an open learning and teaching culture at Aalto. We are not, however, offended if someone continues to visit ‘the Library’.

Customer service and collections

We develop our customer service continuously by collecting and processing feedback and by developing our practices and customer service systems. We also train our customer service staff on a regular basis. 

Based on feedback, we will go through and clarify the wording of the notification sent for student-reserved material being available for pick up. In the future, the notification will be sent as soon as possible, preferably on the day the material has arrived.

We have subscribed to more electronic resources and will continue to expand our selection within the framework of the budget and availability. We will monitor the use of electronic resources and cancel any unused subscriptions.

Communications and marketing

We pay attention to marketing in all our operations and distribute information on our services both on our website and through the university channels. In addition, we will share information about our services in connection with all teaching situations and guided tours. Our customer service staff is happy to answer any questions and provide assistance in the use of our services. If we do not have an answer right away, we will find one and get back to you.

We will develop the network of Learning Centre liaisons, which acts as the link between the Learning centre and schools: the liaisons provide us with valuable information on the schools’ needs for materials, while informing the schools of the materials and services we have to offer.  

We also received feedback on our online services, but unfortunately, we had difficulties identifying whether the feedback concerned the Learning Centre website, the Aalto-Finna service or some other online service we provide. The Learning Centre website was recently redesigned and we will process all feedback on it. The Aalto-Finna online service is developed continuously. As many of you hoped for better communication on events, we have now added an event calendar on our website.

As the majority of our customers are active in social media, we will try to increase our visibility there in the future.

Facilities and events

The feedback included requests for more group work spaces, but we have already allocated as much space to them as possible. We will, however, make finding available space easier. One solution to this is the Aalto Space mobile application, which allows students to find and book available spaces for the same day.
We are also monitoring the sufficiency of our seating capacity.

As events organised in our facilities cause some noise, we will try to inform customers well in advance of possible disturbances. When possible, events organised in Makerspace on the K floor are announced before the start of the event. We have also acquired more movable chairs and tables in Makerspace.

We will add signage to the Learning Centre to better inform customers of the nature of the different working areas and make locating the quiet zones easier.