AUSTIN, TX (April 12, 2004)—The University of Texas at Austin General Libraries held Library Summit I on March 26 in the Joe C. Thompson Conference Center to present the current state of library service quality to the university community and to generate new ideas for strengthening the effectiveness of those services in the future. More than 70 invited stakeholders (president, provost, vice presidents, deans, students, faculty and library staff) participated in facilitated roundtable discussions focused on improving access to information, personal control, the library as place and affect of service.
Larry R. Faulkner, President of the University of Texas at Austin, emphasized as he opened the Summit, "The General Libraries -- and the entire University community -- will benefit from this institutional assessment."
Dr. Fred Heath, Vice Provost and Director of the University of Texas at Austin General Libraries, pointed out, "We are seeking new perspectives to help us improve the services we provide to the university community. We want the library to become even more relevant to you in your daily lives as you learn, discover and question."
This survey of library service quality provided to the UT Austin community has been conducted annually at UT Austin since 2001. LibQUAL+™, a program of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL), is an assessment model designed to solicit, track, understand and act upon users' opinions of service quality. LibQUAL+™ is used by 400 participating institutions and provides libraries with comparable assessment information from peer institutions. The Library Summit concept is based on a process developed by the Clemson University Libraries and follows Clemson's practice of organizing summits around a university function.
The fourth UT Austin LibQUAL+™ survey is now underway, gathering data from a random sample of 1200 faculty, 1200 graduate students and 1800 undergraduates. Library Summit I and the latest LibQUAL+™ survey will provide the necessary data to improve University of Texas at Austin General Libraries services.
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For more information
contact:
Peggy Mueller, Communications Officer
pmueller@mail.utexas.edu
512-495-4373
General Libraries news releases are located on UT Library Online at:
http://www.lib.utexas.edu/about/news/newsreleases.html
