Over 4,300 University Library users – including 3,400 students – took part in a satisfaction survey at the beginning of last academic year. The survey wasconducted through the Association of Research Libraries’ LibQUAL+ program, which is used each year by libraries all over the world to help them to assess and improve their services. The participants were asked questions concerning three main issues: the university library as a place for study, the quality of information provision and and quality of the service provision includingthe client-friendliness of the staff. From the results, it appears that K.U.Leuven’s University Library is generally quite successful in all areas. There were no questions for which we received a lower score than the expected minimum, but on the other hand, there were no questions for which we received a higher score than the desired target. The survey also indicated that library users – especially in the humanities and social sciences – would like more ‘learning centres’: places where students can have a variety of learning environments: places for group work, individual work spaces and quiet study areas. The University Library is already planning several of these facilities in the Leuven City Centre, in Heverlee, in Gasthuisberg and in Kortrijk. . Many people would also like the libraries to have longer opening hours and would like better access to electronic sources. Specific actions will be undertaken during the next strategic planning period to address the concerns of users.
K.U.Leuven is the first institution in Belgium to have made use of LibQUAL for benchmarking its services and looks forward to co-operating with universities in Wallonia who have decided also to take part.The benchmarking exercise will be repeated in three years’ time in order to measure the improvements in service quality that we hope to achieve.
