Reader surveys

The Reader Survey is open to all students, academics, researchers and staff of the Collegiate University of Oxford and all Bodleian Libraries card holders.

 
The survey opens at 8am on Monday 27 January and closes at 11pm on Monday 24 February.

 
The survey takes on average 7 minutes to complete.

 
You are asked for the library you use most often in order to provide the context for the answers to the questions about the library as a study space.

 
Yes, the survey is relevant to you. You may have interacted with Libraries staff via email or LiveChat, used e-journals, obtained an item via Scan&Deliver, or taken an online information skills tutorial. You will be able to answer the questions based on those experiences.

There is the option to select 'I do not use a physical library' for the question asking which library you use most often. If you do this you will not be presented with the questions about the library as a study space.

 
This is an opportunity for you to make suggestions about how the library service can be improved and to help us to better understand your expectations.

Understanding your expectations helps us tailor our services to your needs, and if we know where we are not meeting your expectations we can take action to improve.

As a 'thank you' for participating, you can provide your email address for a chance to receive one of ten £50 Amazon or Blackwell’s vouchers.

 
The full protocol has 50 questions. However, many libraries have found that the length of the survey is off-putting and reduces response rates. To address this issue a ‘Lite’ was launched in 2010. This shorter form uses item sampling methods to gather data in all of the survey's areas, while each individual participant responds to only a subset of the questions. Some of these questions are the same for everyone; the rest are randomly allocated when you click on the survey weblink.

The 2025 Reader Survey uses the LibQUAL+ Lite protocol (as did the 2022, 2019 and 2016 Reader Surveys). Therefore, each time you open the survey questionnaire you will see a different subset of the 50 questions.

 
It is important to us to know that we are serving our whole community, and that everyone feels the benefit. In particular, in accordance with the University’s Equality Policy, we want to ensure that the Libraries’ collections, services and spaces are effective in supporting equality of opportunity for underrepresented groups. In order to do this, we need to be able to disaggregate the Reader Survey data, and so need to ask demographic questions.

The University’s Access and Participation Plans highlight disabled students, black students, and students from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds as being of risk from inequality of opportunity. We have therefore added questions about ethnicity, disability and first-generation status to the Reader Survey.

 
LibQUAL+ uses a gap analysis methodology to determine where our libraries are meeting, surpassing, or failing to meet our readers’ expectations and requirements, so that we can address what matters most to them and those areas where we are most falling short. To do this it asks for the lowest level of service respondents would find acceptable, the level of service respondents would ideally want, and the actual level of service that the respondent feels we are providing.

 
The survey examines a variety of dimensions of library services, each represented by a number of questions. Repetition or redundancy in questions allows the survey designers to analyse the validity of each service quality dimension through statistical methods.

 
When submitted, survey responses and identifying information are immediately separated, so we have no way of knowing who has completed the survey and who has not. Therefore everyone will receive reminders, even those who have already responded to the survey.

Reminders are sent because research indicates that the single highest predictor of response rates in web-based surveys is the number of contacts made, including reminders.

 
It is more helpful to us if you do not skip any questions. Survey responses where the questions are not completely filled out are not counted in the aggregate scores, although we do receive the free-text feedback.

 
All modern web browsers should work.

 
If you are not able to complete the online questionnaire, please contact survey@bodleian.ox.ac.uk to request a printed version. We can either email you a PDF for you to print out, or post you a paper copy.

We need all responses by 9am on Monday 24 February 2025, so please allow time for receiving and returning the survey.

The data will be collected on Qualtrics XM secure servers. Only the survey administrator will have access to the data. Analysed data with summary information will be shared within the Collegiate University of Oxford, with overall summary information shared on the Bodleian Libraries website. Any slicing of data that results in fewer than 5 respondents will not be analysed.

All comments will be analysed, and will be shared with the senior library colleagues, including those that manage a library and/or service. Indicative comments may be used to illustrate broader themes when reporting within the Collegiate University of Oxford.

If you submitted your email address to win a £50 Amazon/Blackwell’s voucher, this data is held on the JISC Online Surveys server. The data will only be used to randomly select 10 winners and will be kept only until the winners have been successfully notified.

Yes, we will make the survey results available via these webpages, via Committees on Library Provision and Strategy, and on displays in library spaces.

Initial results will be available around Easter 2025, with more detailed analysis completed before the Long Vacation 2025.

Please contact survey@bodleian.ox.ac.uk.