Embedded Files
The 2023 U-M Library Campus Survey was developed to assess how well library-related needs were met, as perceived by library users and potential users. The goal of conducting this survey, and doing so again in the future, is to address unmet needs identified by undergraduates, graduate students, staff, clinicians, postdoctoral fellows, and faculty members.
>>> Learn about our response rate and survey respondents.
The survey spans many topics with different paths through the questions for people in different roles and with different self-disclosed needs and interests.
>>> Go to the Survey Questions (pdf) to see the questions and how they were presented.
>>> Go to the Survey Codebook (pdf) for all survey questions and response percentages, as well as interconnected data from other sources.
Sections of the survey focused on:
Information about respondents
Basic library use (who uses it and who doesn’t)
How the library feels (e.g., welcoming, safe, comfortable)
Accessibility
Library spaces
Collections
Research and Creative Scholarship
Support for teaching and instruction
Student Experience
Survey project timeline
Survey project timeline
Survey development began in the fall of 2018. Planning was paused in 2019 during the development and administration of the library’s internal Employee Survey, and was further delayed during the height of the pandemic. Planning resumed in 2021, involving people from across the library’s divisions and services.
Several key steps in the survey development process included:
Pre-2021: Meetings with library employees were used to guide initial ideas about survey content, and surveys used by other large academic libraries were also consulted for inspiration.
Winter 2021: Meetings with library division leaders were used to refine ideas about survey content, with specific attention to the many different types of library services, spaces, and collections offered by the U-M library.
Fall 2022: The Campus Survey Team was formed. This team was the driver behind the rest of the survey development process, and continues to work in 2025 to connect teams in the library to survey data that can inform their work.
Fall 2022 - Fall 2023: Survey drafts were shared widely in the library and feedback was used to improve each draft.
Winter 2023 - Fall 2023: Survey pilot testing and cognitive interviewing were used to get detailed feedback on the survey from library employees and U-M faculty, staff, and students. This feedback led to very important final revisions to survey content and structure.
November 2023 - January 2024: This is the span of time when the survey was in the field.
February 2023 - Spring/Summer 2024: Data analysis and reporting activities.
Fall 2024 - present: Continued "deep dive' analyses with a dataset that includes over 15,000 cases and over 500 variables. These analyses allow specific work groups in the library to plan and make decisions in a data-informed manner.
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