Results of Campus-wide Survey of Stanford Libraries

The last comprehensive user survey of Stanford faculty and students regarding library and academic information resources took place in 1987. A great deal has changed since that time in terms of how libraries provide resources and in the information technologies we employ.

At the request of the University Librarian, Michael Keller, staff of the Libraries' Social Sciences Resource Group designed and conducted a user survey of all faculty and students at Stanford during the Spring Quarter, 2003. We wish to acknowledge the work of the University of Washington Libraries as our questionnaire is largely an adaptation to the Stanford environment of Washington's annual questionnaire.

The survey took the form of an online questionnaire and had three primary purposes:

To identify levels and patterns of use of libraries and information resources;
To identify levels of satisfaction with libraries and information resources; and
To identify user-based priorities for libraries and information resources.

The pursuit of information from our users regarding these purposes takes place in a broader context of seeking the appropriate balance of resources devoted to libraries and services as we have known them and the increasing availability and use of electronic resources.

We invited a total of 17,295 Stanford persons to take part in the Survey and 4,267 responded. This represented a response rate of 26.4%.

A Powerpoint summary of the results of the Survey may be found here: Survey Results (ppt file)

The complete survey questionnaire and responses by faculty, graduate students and undergraduates may be found here:

Faculty Results (pdf file)
Graduate Results (pdf file)
Undergraduate Results (pdf file)

For questions regarding the Survey, please contact any of the following:

Anthony M. Angiletta at tangilet@stanford.edu
Chris Bourg at mchris@stanford.edu
Ron Nakao at ronbo@stanford.edu

Last modified: June 29, 2005