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Assessment Findings about CUL

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https://hdl.handle.net/1813/9965

Research and assessment related reports and other documentation produced by CUL staff and produced outside of CUL.

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Now showing 1 - 10 of 30
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    Academic Libraries in the Media
    Entlich, Richard (2009-07-31)
    Research and Assessment Unit reviewed references to academic libraries, including Cornell, within the Chronicle of Higher Education, and noted their subject emphasis, level of detail, frequency of appearance, along with other characteristics. Also provided was some data about the general coverage received by other prominent academic institutions in the United States, and some general data about the coverage of Cornell in all media.
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    Ivy Plus Library Benchmarks
    Miller, Linda; Koltay, Zsuzsa (2009-04)
    To inform the strategic budget planning exercise that Cornell is undertaking for the continued reduction of expenditures, the following library benchmarking data was assembled to answer questions about the level of relative support, intensity of use, level of staffing and staff efficiency at Cornell University Library and its Ivy Plus peers. Our analysis shows that Cornell, when put into the context of institutional characteristics, ranks significantly lower on measures relating to financial support (expenditures, collections and staffing) than on measures that show how heavily students use our services and staff efficiency.
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    Mann Graduate Student Survey, Fall 2005
    Morris-Knower, Jim (2005-11)
    Graduate students in CALS and CHE affiliated programs were contacted by email the first week of October 2005 and asked to participate in a fifteen question web survey about how they typically find out about events on campus & at Mann and what types of library news they would be interested in hearing about. The survey ran online from the beginning of October 2005 until the beginning of November 2005; by the time it closed, 237 graduate students had responded.
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    Library Student Worker Survey
    Buckley, Ellie (2007-03-26)
    RAU conducted this survey at the request of the Interim University Librarian. The purpose was to determine the extent to which student workers feel working in the library has improved their academic experience. A majority (84%) of Library student workers indicated that they are satisfied to very satisfied with their library job. Most respondents felt that working in the Library improved their study/research practices (68%), improved their knowledge of library services (98%), and improved their educational experience in other ways (80%), and nearly one-third (32%) felt that it helped their grades. Most (79%) think that library should expand student job opportunities. See full report for cautions interpreting the data.
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    Book Usage Data Scan
    Entlich, Richard; Miller, Linda; Leary, Joanne (2008-10-31)
    This document provides some preliminary data on national trends in reading of books, purchase of books, and book publishing. It also provides data on monographic stacks circulation charges for Olin and Engineering. Recent national data shows a decline in book reading, especially among high school and college students, and other young adults. Book purchase revenue is either flat or increasing slightly, but this appears to be the result of inflation, since the actual number of titles purchased has declined. Olin and Engineering monographic circulation data (every other year, from 2001/2002 to 2007/2008) show that faculty charges have generally increased, while student charges have generally dropped. Overall circulation has also decreased.
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    2008 Environmental Scan of Goals
    Entlich, Richard (2008-10-20)
    This report reviews and summarizes the 2008 Cornell Strategic Plan along with the associated goals and priorities of individual Cornell schools and colleges, and analyzes their content relative to CUL's stated goals and priorities for 2007-2010. The goal is to determine if the library's goals align with and if the library's goals directly link to the colleges for what they identify as their priorities, and to identify gaps between the two. Results and analysis suggest that some modifications to the CUL goals might be useful in order to align them better with those of other academic units on campus. It is likely that more direct information gathering from college officials would evoke a clearer and more robust connection between CUL's and their goals and priorities.
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    Reference Statistics Reporting System Transaction Counts
    Buckley, Ellie (2007-08-10)
    The purpose of this project was to analyze reference transaction data in order to support decisions for optimizing staffing at the reference desks in Olin and Uris Libraries. Data about reference transactions have been compiled for over a year in the RSRS system. Using a subset of the RSRS data, this report presents charts and tables of the number of transactions that were submitted by hour, day of week, week, and month over a one-year period. Transaction category, duration, mode, and staff data are reported. Some limitations of the data and recommendations for further research are discussed. Olin and Uris Library reference desks sees the most traffic during the fall and spring semesters (fall more than spring), early in the work week and at midday hours. Olin Library reported an average of 636 transactions per week during the fall semester, 500 transactions per week during the spring semester, and an average of 321 transactions per week during the summer break. Uris reported an average of 107 transactions per week during the fall semester and 92 per week transactions during the spring semester.
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    User Survey for the Cornell University Libraries
    Gautschi, David (1980-07)
    This report includes results of a major survey of the Cornell research community's evaluation of the libraries' research support performance and capabilities. The survey population included faculty, graduate students, and professional library staff. Survey instruments were pre-tested during June and July 1979. Questionnaires were then tailored to the three populations of interest. Actual data were collected from the three populations during the period October-December 1979. Completed surveys included 910 from faculty and full-time research staff and over 1000 from graduate students.
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    Olin Library Digital Sign Evaluation
    Entlich, Richard (2008-12-18T19:28:15Z)
    The Olin Library Communications Department installed a digital sign in Olin's lobby in order to facilitate communication with users. The sign has been used to promote library events, services, and resources. Library Communications requested that Research and Assessment Unit (RAU) conduct an evaluation of the sign's effectiveness in reaching its audience and the impact of the messages it displays. RAU conducted a paper survey within the library. For two weeks, four large "ballot boxes" offering surveys to library users were placed in different locations on Olin's first floor. A total of 269 competed surveys were turned in, about 90% of which came from undergraduate and graduate students. A large number of comments were gathered. The sign is being noticed and has an impact, but changes to its physical environment and the design of messages may help make it more effective.
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    What do users think of us? Mining three years of CUL LibQUAL+ data (Word doc)
    O'Brien, Liane; Miller, Linda; Li, Xin (2008-07-24T19:24:02Z)
    This study of CUL's LibQUAL+ data was presented on May 21, 2008 at CUL's Professional Development Week. The PowerPoint file is located in CUL's eCommons: http://ecommons.library.cornell.edu/handle/1813/10842 . This report records the narrative of the presentation to help CUL colleagues better understand the many graphs in the PowerPoint. There were two goals for the study. First, we wanted to determine what longitudinal data could be mined from past LibQUAL+ surveys' core questions. Second, as CUL considers if and when it would like to administer the LibQUAL+ survey again, we wanted to get a sense from CUL staff of how useful that data is to their decision making processes. The study aimed to identify trends, as well as areas where CUL has done well, and where it needs improvement. CUL administered LibQUAL+ four times: in 2001, 2002, 2003 and again in 2005. The 2001 survey data was not included in this analysis due to the pilot nature of that year.