LibQUAL Survey

The library is currently conducting ARL's LibQUAL survey so please take the time to fill it out and send it back in. You will receive the survey link from Joe Meyer from Institutional Research or you can follow this link to the survey. It takes roughly about 10 minutes to complete and you can enter your email address (optional) to win a 30GB video iPod. (Five random winners.)

We welcome all comments good or not so good. We use this data to improve our services for you our patron. Alkek wants our students, faculty and staff to find and use the many resources and services we offer. When we get anonymous comments such as "The only thing lacking from the library is electronic access to daily papers like the new york times. Also it needs to make more clear the way to use its vast collection of online databases (eg JStor) from outside the library" we take them seriously. The library does have subscriptions to most of the major daily newspapers and remote access to databases is available. This comment tells me we need to do a much better job to get the word out....and make it a more obvious to everyone.

To find out if we have a subscription to any magazine, newspaper or journal use the Periodical List (there is a link on the home page and also the main databases page) When you type in a title such as the New York Times, the results you see will tell you if there is is a current print subscription and information about old issues as well. This will also tell you the format old copies are stored in (bound, microfilm or microfiche.) You can also see whether the "periodical" is full-text online in one of the many databases we subscribe to.

Then all you do is follow the link to the database that has the current issues. Sometimes publishers will restrict the online access for a period of time and so you will see the word "embargo" in the results, with a time period listed. This means that until the "embargo" is up, you have to access the hard copy. (typically this is 3mo. to a year.)

I'll continue to comment on the feedback we are getting from LibQUAL and when the final results are in from the survey, the library will take this information to make the library better!