Library survey

Federation Library runs the Insync library satisfaction survey every two years. It is coordinated by Insync, a behavioural research group that has been analysing the performances of Australian university libraries for many years.

The survey investigates student and staff satisfaction with our service delivery, facilities, equipment, information resources and communication, and allows us to benchmark our performance against other Australian university libraries.

Your feedback helps us to understand what is important to you as students and staff, how well the library is performing and helps us to identify areas or services that need improvement.

There were 1120 responses from across the University community, including all campuses, partner providers, Institutes and Research Centres.

We received a weighted total score of 83.3% and an overall satisfaction score of 5.95 (/7.00). These results place us squarely within the top 25% as benchmarked against all other participating Australian university libraries.

Respondents have provided approximately 1400 written comments, which we have now analysed. Over time we will provide summaries of the comments and actions taken/planned by the library in response. We will also share these with relevant groups within the university as appropriate.

An initial review of the written comments has shown 57% of all comments were positive and 43% discussed opportunities for improvement.

Respondents provided positive feedback about the following topics:

  • Overall non-specific positive feedback
  • Customer service (e.g. the quality and availability of services clients received by Library staff members in the Library and online)
  • Search (e.g. the use of QuickSearch, the catalogue and/or MyLibrary app to find and retrieve items from the physical and electronic collections)
  • Online collections (e.g. accessing online content, including problems accessing resources, gaps in holdings, etc)
  • Library website (e.g. the experience of using the online library service, excluding QuickSearch and the Catalogue, and including general web content and design)

Respondents provided constructive feedback about the following topics:

  • Online collections (e.g. accessing online content, including problems accessing resources, gaps in holdings, etc)
  • Physical collections (e.g. access to and use of physical collections, including research/historical collections, gaps in holdings)
  • Skills development resources (e.g. the self-help tools available via the website such as FAQs, FedCite, Subject Guides)
  • Library spaces (e.g. general design and layout, furniture, capacity, noise, power points etc)
  • Search (e.g. the use of QuickSearch, the catalogue and/or MyLibrary app to find and retrieve items from the physical and electronic collections)

Infographic titled 'library survey results', showing a breakdown of the 2022 Insync library satisfaction survey. Details of the infographic are listed above.

Results from the 2020 Library Client Survey:

  • There were 1781 responses from a broad cross-section of the University community, from all campuses and partner provider locations, and across the student programs from TAFE through to PhD.
  • We received a weighted total score of 83.8% and an overall satisfaction score of 5.99 (/7.00). These results place us squarely within the top 25% as benchmarked against all 37 participating Australian universities. We out-performed the only other result from 2020 in the database, who had scores of 82.28% and 5.93.
  • Respondents provided more than 2000 written comments, which we could analyse to identify improvement opportunities.

As a result, we have: