Annual survey winner and feedback

Congratualtions to Conor Doherty who won the annual survey draw for a €100 HMV voucher - enjoy!.

Many thanks to everyone who filled in the survey and offered your input, praise, suggestions and constructive criticism.

Here are a few responses to some points raised in the survey.

• Library PC's/IT equipment: A few of you mentioned the need to upgrade library PC's. The old PCs which admittedly had seen better days were replaced late last year. Software upgrades are done every summer. WiFi connection no longer requires log in via a proxy so those of you using your laptops in the library can now logon to the DBS wireless network automatically.
  

• PC booking: Many of you were concerned about library internet PCs being monopolised for non essential internet use (ie webtexting and social networking). In reponse to your concerns all library PC's should now be booked at the issue desk. This should mean more access to a PC when you really need it to complete assignments. We hope to have an online booking system for PCs and study rooms installed on the library website by Summer.

• Opening hours: We had some positive feedback on our opening hours (51% of respondents were very satisfied with opening hours) and many of you were very appreciative of Sunday opening prior to exams. A few of you felt that Sunday opening should be available all year. At the moment this is not feasible when weighing the actual demand against the costs associated with year round Sunday opening. If you do need a place to study on a Sunday even when the library is closed, the building is open so you can still come in and use an available classroom space. Also remember that the library's electronic databases, resources and ebooks are accessible anytime, anywhere.
  

• Noise & food in the library: We introduced a zero tolerance policy on noise and food consumption in the library last year in reponse to your requests. Failure to reduce noise levels following a warning by staff can result in a €5 fine. In order to create an atmosphere conducive to study library staff need your help in enforcing noise control. Its your library, so if you feel other students' behaviour is hindering your ability to study, please inform a member of staff. Equally, if you are asked by a staff member to reduce noise or remove food or drink from the library, please do so in a respectful manner.

• More seats more books, more, more, more..: It was good to note how many of you requested we create more space for study, get more books, more resources and generally more of everything. It shows us that you are using what we've got and are hungry for more. We will be examining any changes we can make to the library's physical layout over the summer and hope to open up more study space. Keep any suggestions for book titles you'd like to see in the library coming in through the 'suggest new titles' section on the website. We continue to review and add new databases and resources all the time in response to requests from staff and students. Let us know what you think of current resources and whether there are areas you feel could be enhanced. Believe it or not, we like getting new resources for you to use so dont be shy, if there are library resources you'd like us to get, let us know. Not every suggestion will be feasible but we will certainly give them all consideration.

Finally, many thanks for all your kind words of appreciation for the Library staff. 63.5% of you stated you were 'very satisfied' with the helpfulness of library staff and many of you singled out the helpfulness of staff as a positive feature of the library.

Last chance to win a €100 HMV voucher!

This week is your last chance to let us know what you think about library services by filling in our online annual users survey

We'll be drawing a winner for the €100 HMV voucher the week beginning January 26th so if you want to be in with a chance to take advantage of the voucher in the HMV sales - you'd better click the link and let us know what you think.

Thanks to everyone who's already filled in the survey for your feedback and suggestions.

WIN A €100 HMV VOUCHER FOR TELLING THE LIBRARY WHAT YOU THINK

We know that DBS students have no problems voicing their opinions about Library services. So here's your chance to offer us your (constructive) feedback on services and be in with a chance to win a €100 HMV voucher in the process.

Fill in our annual library users survey to be entered into the draw.

Online survey feedback

Many thanks to everyone who filled in our online survey and gave us their feedback on the new look library website and our range of online features and resources.

Congratualtions to Louise Byrne who was the winner of the €50 HMV voucher.


The survey responses gave us some positive feedback on the new look library site, for example; 62.3% of respondents are able to easily find the information they need from the site. 43% of respondents are able to easily identify the section of the site in which the information they need is located. Your preferred online library features are; the Library catalogue, electronic resources (databases), Webfeat (search all resources) and the AZ journal list.

We also got some good (as well as some strange and some utterly incomprehensible) suggestions for online features you'd like the library to provide. Here are just some of them with details of whether they are feasible or not, in some cases the suggested feature is already in place;

• Exam papers online - Exam papers are now available on Moodle (at least the last 2 years should be up for each module). Just log in to Moodle and go to the exams section then select the approproate department (Arts, Business or professional)
• Book reviews - Members of library staff write reviews of recently acquired material and add these to the library's monthly newsletter which you can find under 'library information/library news'.
  
• Booking study rooms & computers online - We hope to add timetabling software to the website in the new year.
• Ask a librarian instant messaging - We aim to set up instant messaging enquiries in the new year
  

And the two best suggestions...

• Access to JSTOR - We have been working to arrange access to JSTOR for some time and it is added to our budget for next year so (fingers crossed) we should have it in place early next year
• One password to access all resources - We have been busy battling with all our electronic resource providers lately to grant access to all our resources off campus via the 'search all resources' function using your student number and date of birth. Handy as this is, our long term aim is to have 'one ring to rule them all ' and enable student access to ALL our resources (PC's, databases, ebooks, library catalogue) using a single login. We are making steps towards bringing in institutional access to all resources using Shibboleth. This is a long term project involving the IT department and the library and we hope to roll this out as soon as logistically possible.