| Library Branch | User Group | Discipline | Age | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ACES | Faculty | Agriculture / Environmental Studies | 31 – 45 | More on-line journals would be helpful, and access to pre-1995 articles on-line. |
| ACES | Faculty | Agriculture / Environmental Studies | 46 – 65 | Instead of paper copiers in library — how about scanners so we can scan, download files? Save paper, save cost, save jammed copiers.
Lastly, your survey STINKS, too many redundant questions. I am sure statistically sound, but many people won’t complete it. Also, I leave some answers blank and you wouldn’t let me — so I filled them in with ‘5’ — next time be shorter, less redundant, and allow NA rather than getting us mad and we fill in ‘5’ which invalids your survey. You over thought it. KISS — Keep It Simple Stupid!! If worried about copyright (no more risk than paper copiers) limit access to faculty/staff. Scanners would hold up better, cost less. Fewer breakdowns from toner, paper jams, running out of paper. Get U.S. PVPA certificate collection from Plant Variety Protection Office. Get microfiche or electronic access to entire U.S. Census records. Once available only on microfische, now has been scanned and available electronically. Big help with social sciences research!! |
| ACES | Faculty | Agriculture / Environmental Studies | 46 – 65 | not on campus so hard to comment about on site services but any help in using library remotely or electronically would be good |
| ACES | Staff | Agriculture / Environmental Studies | 46 – 65 | Since I was hired in Oct 07, I have used the library to attend a meeting once, otherwise I am seldom on campus and do not know allyour resources. |
| ACES | Faculty | Agriculture / Environmental Studies | 46 – 65 | Excellent job! Thanks. |
| ACES | Faculty | Law | 31 – 45 | Very professional and courteous. Wish there was easier (user friendly) on-line access to journals. |
| ACES | Faculty | Agriculture / Environmental Studies | 46 – 65 | ACES library is a tremendous asset for our outreach program. The computer labs are a trememdous asset for my three classes. The impression with stakeholders is first rate. |
| ACES | Faculty | Agriculture / Environmental Studies | 31 – 45 | I tried to access electronic journals through the U of I Library and gave up. I have worked with U of I in a field station for over a year and I still find U of I library website strange and hard to navigate and find electronic journals etc. The help I got over the phone, chat and via e-mail didn’t solve the problem and I gave up using the U of I library online resources.
I believe the library is among the best but unless we get opportunities to come and visit and get trainings on how to use the resources – the library remains the best kept secret. I find my way around the MU Tigers library easier because they trained us regularly on how to use it. The library staff at the libraries at Urbana-Champaign have been very nice to me during my brief visits when I am on campus on other missions. However, I still feel like a stranger to the library and it is hard to access electronic journals via a field station/Extension. I used my graduate school (former college’s) access for electronic journals but those privilidges expired. I suggest that you organize workshops for field Academic Professions to come and learn how to use those nice resources. |
| ACES | Faculty | Agriculture / Environmental Studies | 31 – 45 | I’m never quite sure what the very best search engines are to use for academic searches as they seem to change frequently. I generally trust that the main search engines will get what I need but actually dont know if that’s the case. Sending updates about using search tools for periodicals would be helpful. |
| ACES | Graduate | Agriculture / Environmental Studies | 23 – 30 | I use the on’line library gateway, but find it very hard to use. The searches seldom generate what I need and when they do, the articles are never accessible. I’m off campus, so I need something that can instantly give me the articles I need. |
| ACES | Graduate | Agriculture / Environmental Studies | 23 – 30 | Extending the ACES library hours at night and during the weekends would be helpful. I am amazed that there are no libraries open past 7PM on Fri or Sat nights, which is pretty bad for a Research University. |
| ACES | Faculty | Agriculture / Environmental Studies | 46 – 65 | I think the UI library system is fantastic. I am off campus an love being able to remotely access journal article. I would encourage the collection to increase the number of online journals available. |
| Applied Health Sciences | Staff | Life / Health Sciences | 31 – 45 | Great services. Website needs to be a bit more user friendly for users to find information on their own |
| Applied Health Sciences | Staff | Life / Health Sciences | 31 – 45 | Often faculty – both library and other faculty behave very badly in the libraries – special treatment for bad behavior – bad behavior is rewarded by the library administration. I have seen a library administrator treat library staff extremely rudely when sucking up to a visiting dignity when the staff was actually doing a good job (the dignitary you could tell was disgusted by the administrator’s behavior). I do need to say a library I use extremely rarely but is fantastic is the Classics Library – the 2 full time people there are wonderful. |
| Applied Health Sciences | Faculty | Life / Health Sciences | 31 – 45 | The access to electronic journals has become more consistent and efficient. Expanding the holdings (to more journals and years) would be very helpful. Thank you- |
| Applied Health Sciences | Faculty | Other | 46 – 65 | As is obvious from my responses, my preference is to be able to access virtually all library materials from my office computer (which actually is anywhere now, where I can access my office computer on my laptop using the remote desktop connection). What is the “prize” mentioned below? |
| Applied Health Sciences | Library Staff | Life / Health Sciences | 46 – 65 | Many libraries need updating, new paint, new furniture, good cleaning, etc. If the environment is more pleasant, the employees seem happier with their job positions. |
| Applied Health Sciences | Staff | Life / Health Sciences | 46 – 65 | Probably because the Health Sciences Lib is part of UIC and my net ID is UIUC, I can’t figure out how to use the PUbmed link to get full texts of articles. |
| Applied Health Sciences | Faculty | Life / Health Sciences | 31 – 45 | The library has served my needs very well, but I mostly use the online services. All staff i have dealt with has been extremely competent and helpful. Keep up the good work. |
| Applied Health Sciences | Faculty | Life / Health Sciences | 46 – 65 | Health Science materials are not easily available. Always had to wait from other library. |
| Applied Health Sciences | Staff | Other | 46 – 65 | The library has done an excellent job in the past locating documents for me that were not available searching engines, i.e. written materials from a governmental project. I wish I could receive a tutorial of the library searching system from a staff member. I haven’t had one since grad school. |
| Architecture & Art | Faculty | Humanities | 46 – 65 | I am somewhat disturbed to see that my department’s library does not appear on the pull-down menu (CPLA). Despite the consolidation, we are still a library with a distinctive identity. Otherwise, I’m pretty content with the library services here. I would advise in the future making the survey shorter. Many of the questions seem very repetitive to me. |
| Architecture & Art | Staff | Performing / Fine Arts | 31 – 45 | This “survey” is overdetermined and does not address some of the most acute problems at the library. Why is the library having trouble buying the books that I need? Why are so many books sent off site? Why not a question on whether I believe the library has adequate space for books? Why are thousands of books stacked on the floor in Main? Why is reshelving and relocation of books so far behind? My perception is that the library lacks both professional and student help, not computers. The library is not a gateway to learning, most of that is done on a PC at home or in the office now. The library is the central location and repository where I can get my hands on a book quickly–but that can’t happen if the book has been sent to Oak street, or it hasn’t been reshelved yet, or if valuable book space is wasted on teleconferencing or other soon-to-be-obsolete dedicated technology spaces. Our excellence is at stake here, and the library’s position is slipping. |
| Architecture & Art | Faculty | Architecture | 46 – 65 | need more service hours in departmental libraries. need more staff in departmental libraries. |
| Architecture & Art | Faculty | Performing / Fine Arts | 46 – 65 | There are a dozen libraries across the campus, and so, I have based my response on the Grad and undergrad libraries alone. |
| Architecture & Art | Staff | Humanities | 31 – 45 | We need improvements to the facilities, more staff and longer hours. |
| Architecture & Art | Staff | Other | 31 – 45 | The online resources are phenomenal, and the library has gotten some great rare books for me, which have been invaluable in my research. Overall, the library system is terrific and deserves as much money and resources as the University can give it. The library contributes to scholarship, while sports (which seem to get highlighted and get funds for high salaries) does not. |
| Asian | Faculty | Humanities | 31 – 45 | Your questions are misleading for anyone who uses a specialty collection. Overall, I am very satisfied with the extremely good support I get from area specialists. The general rudeness in ILL is extremely problematic, especially since I have to rely on that dept. for approximately 80% of my research needs. The inability/unwillingness to purchase books is also a problem — I imagine you have spent hundreds of dollars in ILL costs for me over the past year, and no books I have requested for my basic research needs have been purchased, which I can’t imagine is efficient. And because borrowing periods for ILL books are so short, I am forced to borrow primary texts time and time again via ILL so that I can have them on hand for reference. Definitely not a top-notch research library system as things stand. And for those of us doing research in many topics, easy access to electronic sources are only part of the picture, although from your behavior and the questions on this survey, you don’t acknowledge that many of us need print sources more urgently than digitally available ones. |
| Asian | Faculty | Humanities | 46 – 65 | I am deeply concerned that proposals to merge the so-called ‘area studies’ libraries will lead to serious deterioration in both the near-term quality of professional services, and the long-term quality of collections. Having experienced the successive ‘consolidations’ of the departments housed in FLB (now the ‘School of Languages, Cultures, and Linguistics), and the serious damage inflicted on those departments, I am unable to have confidence that consolidating services for these very different collections will do anything to improve–or even maintain–current levels of collection quality and professional service. |
| Asian | Faculty | Other | 46 – 65 | Many of my answers will (would?) change if the Asian Library is dismantled and put into a “community learning” center. Already my needs are hardly met by the Library, despite the wonderful services that are offered by hard-working librarians. My discipline is not even recognized in your drop-down menu above. I depend on Inter-Library Loan. Without that service, I could accomplish very little at this library. Without Karen Wei and her staff, I would be utterly without support in my discipline. |
| Asian | Faculty | Humanities | 46 – 65 | I depend strongly on the specialized resources of area studies libraries, and on the ability to be able to browse in the Asian library. I am very concerned about the proposed plans to “consolidate” area studies holdings. I think that is likely to reduce this library’s stellar reputation and usability–ironically, at a time when “globalization” is the mantra around here. I strongly oppose any attempt to dismantle the area studies libraries. In my area/field, the library is not as good as in some others, for historical reasons, and buidling it up depends on having a good area studies librarian and specialist services. |
| Biology | Staff | Veterinary Science | 31 – 45 | no |
| Biology | Staff | Life / Health Sciences | 23 – 30 | While I am no longer an undergraduate, I have friends who are and have been significantly inconvenienced by the hours cutbacks at the Undergrad and other major libraries over the past few years. |
| Biology | Faculty | Life / Health Sciences | 46 – 65 | had trouble understanding what was being asked in Qs 1-27, the phrasing of the Qs far from intuitive |
| Biology | Staff | Life / Health Sciences | 31 – 45 | Overall, I am very happy with the library system here at UIUC. Staff at the Biology Library has always been helpful and, if they did not know the answer, were able to point me in the right direction. Electronic journal access (sciences) is outstanding and I am very glad this has not decreased too much with the rising prices of journals. |
| Biology | Staff | Other | 46 – 65 | I am generally pleased with the online and on-site services. Keep up the good work! |
| Biology | Faculty | Life / Health Sciences | Over 65 | Some of my answers are based on lack of 100% complete coverage of journals and other printed media in electronic form. I do not fault the library for not having sufficient funds for such coverage, however. The library does an excellent job with limited resources. |
| Biology | Faculty | Agriculture / Environmental Studies | 31 – 45 | more easier access to find the archived journals in basement |
| Biology | Staff | Life / Health Sciences | 23 – 30 | A service of the library that I particularly enjoy is allowing users to pick up ILSCO books at a location of choice; it is very convenient and facilitates the use of the library’s wider resource pool. |
| Biology | Faculty | Life / Health Sciences | 46 – 65 | I rarely use the library now. All the cool journals I’d like to browse have gone over to the Natural History Survey (wherever that is) and everything else is online. All the old books and journals I might randomly browse are mostly gone, too. Not much of a library now for me. |
| Biology | Staff | Life / Health Sciences | 31 – 45 | the biology library staff is excellent; they are doing amazing things with deminishing resources as are the staff of other branch libraries. However contining reduction in funding will eventually destroy a national library. |
| Business & Economics | Faculty | Business | 46 – 65 | The survey started to seem redundant so I pooped out. But here is the main message. The main building is atrocious shape but you know that already. The persistent url for eJournals is a problem. There needs to be more user education about that and some Web pages for instruction. We learn to find things on your Web site and then it changes and now we have to find things differently. It makes things harder. I find the search not nearly as friendly as it might be. |
| Business & Economics | Staff | Administrative / Campus Unit | 31 – 45 | i have always received the best service. please keep up the good work and give yourselves a big hefty raise. |
| Business & Economics | Faculty | Social Sciences | 31 – 45 | (1) The survey seems excessively long and not well constructed, for my taste. I am surprised if the response rate is high.
(2) I think the search function of the library webpage got worse. I prefer the old style. A lot of information, not well organized. |
| Business & Economics | Faculty | Business | 31 – 45 | While librarians provide excellent services for research and teaching, their space needs major renovation and/or redesign. |
| Business & Economics | Faculty | Business | 46 – 65 | Overall, the Business Library does an excellent job of supporting faculty and helping them integrate Library resources in the teaching mission |
| Center for Children’s Books | Faculty | Education | 31 – 45 | It would be helpful to have a drop off box over at the cdl and ecdl buildings. We rely on your services, but have a hard time getting over there to return books. |
| Center for Children’s Books | Staff | Education | 46 – 65 | A pick-up service would be nice at the CDL building. We tend to check out several books at a time and ,being that some of us are “older” , the books are very cumbersome when we are in a hurry toget them back to the library. |
| Chemistry | Faculty | Education | 31 – 45 | I would appreciate more electronic resources. |
| Chemistry | Faculty | Chemical / Physical / Mathematical Sciences | 46 – 65 | Considering resource constraints, things are working well. Thank goodness for the British Library’s manuscript delivery. One thing that has gotten worse lately is the search interface for Current Contents. |
| Chemistry | Faculty | Chemical / Physical / Mathematical Sciences | 46 – 65 | Search for journals, books (Titles in general) is not as convenient as it could be. During the past year, the extreme slowness of the server used for electronic journals has GREATLY improved. Whoever is responsible, Thanks! |
| Chemistry | Faculty | Chemical / Physical / Mathematical Sciences | 31 – 45 | #31 – that’s my job, not the library’s job |
| Chemistry | Graduate | Chemical / Physical / Mathematical Sciences | 23 – 30 | I have only had navigational issues since the library website was overhauled 1-2 years ago. The ILLiad sites and results from book searches can be a bit overwhelming at first. |
| Chemistry | Undergraduate | Chemical / Physical / Mathematical Sciences | 18 – 22 | none |
| Chemistry | Faculty | Chemical / Physical / Mathematical Sciences | 31 – 45 | Many of the survey’s question about employees and how they bahave or how qualified they are, seem to be almost identical, |
| Classics | Faculty | Humanities | 46 – 65 | Hi, Paula, This is Danuta. I am utterly happy with almost all the people who work in the Library and certainly with all the regular staff. Our librarians in Classics are simply amazing. My only serious complaints concern: 1. quiet (everywhere) 2. hours (weekends etc.) 3. comfort (agonizing to sit in for 8 hours a day) 4. lack of in library teaching rooms for subjects that require books. But amazing in all other respects! |
| Classics | Graduate | Humanities | 23 – 30 | Bruce and Karen at the Classics Library are truly worth their weights in gold. I have been to a number of libraries at fine schools, and nowhere can match the knowledge and service that those two provide. |
| Classics | Faculty | Humanities | 46 – 65 | I wish to commend in particular and to the highest degree the extremely high quality of the assistance consistently received from the Classics Library staff (Karen Dudas and Bruce Swann): they are knowledgeable, eager to help, respond to inquiries in a prompt and informed manner, are very friendly and personable. |
| Education & Social Science | Staff | Administrative / Campus Unit | 23 – 30 | Services overall are very high. I think you provide an adequate amount of electronic journals (something I use the most frequently). However, navigating the online resource portal sometimes is a bit difficult; e.g. searching for articles by keywords or subject can be somewhat unwieldy at times. I am very happy with the selection, and array of electronic journals, articles, and full-text options. |
| Education & Social Science | Staff | Life / Health Sciences | 23 – 30 | I LOVE the library, however I was a bit dismayed that they could recall a book, before it’s due date. I had a book not due until the middle of January that got recalled (for reserves) on December 20! I had already begun my winter vacation (I do it early because that is my b-day)…and I was very upset to face a fine (on a book that to my knowledge was not due) when I returned.
AND…respond to EVERY item! Seriously? this is a LOOonNNNG survey. |
| Education & Social Science | Faculty | Other | 46 – 65 | This survey is a disaster. A nine-point scale — with three questions for each item…are you serious? It took me three times even after I stopped answering questions!! Why so many questions about “caring library members?” And, the library webpage is the least helpful webpage that I can imagine. Why is it so much harder to use than google. Its too cluttered. |
| Education & Social Science | Staff | Administrative / Campus Unit | 46 – 65 | You are making wonderful strides in digitizing your collections. |
| Education & Social Science | Graduate | Education | 31 – 45 | I am especially impressed that emails are responded to in person and then followed up on until the problem or request is resolved. I always feel that the librarian who responds to my request ‘owns’ it until it is fulfilled–no one has ever responded by dropping the ball because it is not within their job description. I am convinced that there is no library in the world that is better than this one. |
| Education & Social Science | Graduate | Education | 31 – 45 | College of Ed and Social Science library has exceeded my expectations. |
| Education & Social Science | Staff | Life / Health Sciences | 46 – 65 | UIUC is a wonderful library and has a outstanding staff. I guess I’m concerned that this extraordinary library is losing some of its value to me and folks in my disciplines because of direct electronic access to information resources. I have been in the library only once or twice in the past few years, although I have a research assistant who goes about once a month. I recognize its importance to the work of scholars in history and humanities, but a bricks and mortal structures are less essential for the my discipline involving the health and social sciences. For several years now I have been directly receiving the New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of the American Medical Association and numerous other journal along with government publications, which allows me to remain current in my discipline. Additionally, my academic and learning communities are not on campus so I have not needed to convene or connect at the library. |
| Education & Social Science | Faculty | Education | 31 – 45 | I appreciate that I can email staff members and they respond back to me in a timely fashion. I believe that the library needs to do more to help with copyright issues as they relate to online learning environments. |
| Education & Social Science | Graduate | Social Sciences | 46 – 65 | I love the library and thank you for all of your wonderful and excellent service! |
| Education & Social Science | Staff | Education | 46 – 65 | ONe of UIUC’s points of pride and as a graduate, one of mine as well…. ALWAYS! |
| Education & Social Science | Faculty | Social Sciences | 31 – 45 | Things that I most value at library are: (1) access to online journals and searchable databases in my field, (2) having books I check out sent to me via campus mail, (3) subject specialist (Allison Sutton is terrific), (4) being able to have library-owned or not owned articles scanned and sent to me electronically, and (5) teaching support (via e-reserves). Overall I have been very satisfied. |
| Education & Social Science | Staff | Education | 46 – 65 | As an offcampus student and employee, I find the online support and resources extrememly beneificial in my daily work. It is a true time and cost savings. Thank you. |
| Education & Social Science | Library Staff | Library and Information Science | 46 – 65 | I would strongly support the consolidation of service points in the Main Library building and elsewhere. |
| Education & Social Science | Graduate | Other | 23 – 30 | My only real issue with the library is the poor user interface for accessing journal articles online. With a better interface (searchable, etc.), the university library could become the most useful resource for my research. As it is, I only navigate through the online journal archives when a search of the web fails to yield the article I’m trying to find. |
| Education & Social Science | Staff | Education | 46 – 65 | The library is a tremendous resource. I use mostly on-line materials. The extensive access to full-text of periodicals is crucial.
As far as physical resources, the most important are the archives of government documents. |
| Education & Social Science | Faculty | Social Sciences | 31 – 45 | main problem I have with library services is that I am an Endnote user and the library gateway has been very difficult to coordinate with this program and the tags seem to change often and without warning; this was not a problem at the last university I was employed at, so I am puzzled by it and find that it costs me significant time. |
| Education & Social Science | Faculty | Labor and Industrial Relations | 46 – 65 | ILIR library has been distributed and lost access. Apparently because of licensing of journals, public access to state-funded library resources has been narrowed. Library is no longer a real public resource. |
| Education & Social Science | Faculty | Social Sciences | 31 – 45 | a wonderful library. |
| Education & Social Science | Faculty | Social Sciences | 31 – 45 | My only complaint is the system for reserving videos for class. Every fall I have a problem where the video I have reserved is given to someone else on the day I have requested it… Could you please come up with a better system? |
| Education & Social Science | Faculty | Social Sciences | 46 – 65 | Navigating the website stinks, with timeouts and having to repeatedly enter the long ID number |
| Education & Social Science | Faculty | Library and Information Science | 46 – 65 | NA |
| Education & Social Science | Faculty | Education | 46 – 65 | I really appreciate thev library but this survey is pretty bad. Nine point scales are very difficult to use and the first two categories are overelapping. |
| Education & Social Science | Staff | Education | 46 – 65 | The Library’s web portal has gotten better but it is still a little clunky. |
| Education & Social Science | Library Staff | Library and Information Science | 46 – 65 | In general, library service is good but it is very uneven. This is mostly due to the fact that we have so many service points and inconsistency in training especially for our student workers and GAS. Some units do very well with service, but others do not, such as Circ at times, and we are not always good at addressing problem staff. |
| Education & Social Science | Graduate | Social Sciences | 46 – 65 | I have a visual impairment–am legally blind–and have attended a number of workshops at the library in which facilitators were unprepared to address my accessibility needs, but had to scramble around at the last minute to create large print materials, etc. This is after having made my disability status known to the training coordinator. Online registration forms do not include any opportunity to indicate accommodation needs. Finally, while working at the education library, the large screen computer monitor designated to persons with visual impairments is set at the highest resolution, making icons, type fonts, etx. impossible to read. I was told by librarians on duty that nothing could be done, but that I could send an email to the staff person in charge of accessibility to get the problem worked on. I have not done such as yet, and still wonder why brining the library up to speed around accessibility issues is relegated to those of us being marginalized in the first place. What would hold a staff person back from generating the same report to a colleague? |
| Education & Social Science | Staff | Administrative / Campus Unit | 46 – 65 | I am an academic professional and graduate student. I appreciate the easy access to journal articles needed for my reviews and papers. |
| Education & Social Science | Faculty | Education | 31 – 45 | I am very pleased with the overall quality of the UIUC library. I find the Education librarians and staff very helpful. If the person helping me is unable to answer my question, he/she always has a more experienced librarian follow up. I also appreciate the library’s capacity to help me obtain materials that are not available through our own library. My only “complaint” is that I find the new webpage design difficult to use. I tend to go to the Education Library homepage in order to conduct my search now. |
| Education & Social Science | Faculty | Library and Information Science | 46 – 65 | Some parts of the library are more user centered than others. It’s clear that some service points have worked more with customer service and treating each person with respect and in a caring manner. The facilities in some areas need to be updated– old furniture could be more comfortable– more small intimate spaces for studying. |
| Education & Social Science | Staff | Education | 46 – 65 | Telephone help is outstanding. Visual signs could be improved. Every now and then, I will encounter a worker who is not as patient and they appear out of place as your workers are generally very, very polite and helpful. |
| Education & Social Science | Graduate | Social Sciences | 23 – 30 | I love our library! The staff are knowledgeable and willing to help when I need it. I have been able to get the resources that I need through our library–for the most times. I appreciate the high quality service! |
| Education & Social Science | Faculty | Education | 46 – 65 | In general, i am quite pleased with library services, especially the wonderful assistance that Nancy O’Brien provides. There are , however, some journals to which the library could subscribe either hard copy or electronic. |
| Education & Social Science | Faculty | Social Sciences | 31 – 45 | The library is generally excellent and I find the staff very helpful. I am sometimes frustrated that the library is not open on, for instance, Saturday mornings. Generally, I am VERY impressed with the resources available and the helpfulness of the staff. |
| Education & Social Science | Graduate | Social Sciences | 31 – 45 | I hope more readings can be electrically available. |
| Education & Social Science | Faculty | Education | 46 – 65 | Recently I’ve had difficulty with my e-reserve course materials. For example, this semester there were at least 10 articles that were supposedly posted on e-reserve, and then I found out from students that the articles were “blacked out” and they couldn’t read them. I brought this to the attention of the library staff and they reacted courteously and quickly, indicating that there had been a technical glitch although they weren’t sure which documents were effected. It would have been helpful if they could have sent out a general email message to alert faculty who had e-reserve materials to just double-check those materials to see if the glitch affected their materials. Also, I sent some journal articles to be added to my e-reserve course materials this semester, and unfortunately I didn’t realize that I had sent a doubl-sided copy instead of a single-sided copy. However, whoever entered this journal article into e-reserve didn’t notify me that there was an error, so I thought things were fine until the students notified me that pages were missing online. If someone had emailed me about this, I could have sent over a single-sided copy sooner, thereby eliminating the confusion for my students. |
| Education & Social Science | Staff | Administrative / Campus Unit | 46 – 65 | UIUC has absolutely outstanding facilities with well-trained staff. |
| Education & Social Science | Faculty | Education | 46 – 65 | The librarians I work with in Education and Social Sciences, African and African American, English, and the School of Library Science are knowledgeable, helpful, pleasant, and professional. |
| Education & Social Science | Graduate | Education | 23 – 30 | I work full time and am working on my phd, so my time is very limited. I do most of my research at home after work. It would be great to have more full text options of journal articles and be able to access my refworks account from home. It would also be great if it was easier to order books for delivery to my office. |
| Engineering / Grainger | Graduate | Administrative / Campus Unit | 31 – 45 | I don’t use the library services much. I’m not sure I responded correctly to your headings (they could have been more descriptive). |
| Engineering / Grainger | Undergraduate | Engineering / Computer Science | 18 – 22 | it makes me angry when the study rooms in grainger are “reserved for TA use” even though nobody is in them. why not unlock it with a sign on the door that says “TA’s have priority from this time to this time” |
| Engineering / Grainger | Undergraduate | Engineering / Computer Science | 18 – 22 | none |
| Engineering / Grainger | Faculty | Engineering / Computer Science | 31 – 45 | My primary desire is to have more the of older journal articles available on-line. |
| Engineering / Grainger | Faculty | Engineering / Computer Science | 31 – 45 | They are in general excellent. I would like simpler access to ISI resources via the web page. |
| Engineering / Grainger | Graduate | Engineering / Computer Science | 23 – 30 | Please make the survey less intensive, next time. Thanks. |
| Engineering / Grainger | Graduate | Engineering / Computer Science | 31 – 45 | access to ACM and IEEE publications online is very helpful, thanks! |
| Engineering / Grainger | Library Staff | Other | 46 – 65 | The new gateway design is much easier to navigate. |
| Engineering / Grainger | Undergraduate | Business | 18 – 22 | The library staff needs improvement. I have encountered numerous rude and disrespectful employees. It makes me not want to come to the library. Staff members are very important, and the library’s are inadequate. |
| Engineering / Grainger | Undergraduate | Engineering / Computer Science | 18 – 22 | longer hours needed, and a coffee/snack shop needed at grainger library |
| Engineering / Grainger | Staff | Engineering / Computer Science | 46 – 65 | I mainly use the database which lists thesis titles and this is very helpful |
| Engineering / Grainger | Faculty | Engineering / Computer Science | 31 – 45 | I wish we had here a better access to the electronic versions of journals. Maybe I was spoiled in my previous university but I am still using the resources there for older issues of journals for which apparently we do not have access from here.
In terms of equipment, I would like to see that you activate the double sided printing feature of the copy machines. They all have the feature but it is not active. Do you realize how much paper is wasted in a public library already? |
| Engineering / Grainger | Undergraduate | Engineering / Computer Science | 18 – 22 | I’m in general happy to with all the library I have been to. |
| Engineering / Grainger | Staff | Engineering / Computer Science | 31 – 45 | I find the subscription to Safari/ProQuest online books to be the best resource you provide for my needs. |
| Engineering / Grainger | Faculty | Engineering / Computer Science | 46 – 65 | ALWAYS do whatever you need to retain Bill Mischo. |
| Engineering / Grainger | Undergraduate | Chemical / Physical / Mathematical Sciences | 18 – 22 | The undergrad is hard to study in. There arent a lot of places to plug in labtops and group study rooms are hard to get |
| Engineering / Grainger | Staff | Engineering / Computer Science | 31 – 45 | I’m staff, but I take classes. I use the library premises only to meet with groups. I like to do all of my research online, as I never know exactly when I’ll get to it, and filing the article as a pdf on my computer is important for reference tracking purposes. The IM help is great – really exceeded expectations with that. |
| Engineering / Grainger | Undergraduate | Life / Health Sciences | 18 – 22 | Regarding Grainger library: I am very satisfied with the 24 hour service Grainger library provides, but I would suggest that Grainger be open late on Fridays and Saturdays as well; if not 24 hours, then at least until midnight on Fridays and Saturdays. Possibly open a cafe at Grainger. Also provide more desktop computers on the 2nd and 3rd floors. Remove the bells of the elevators in Grainger. |
| Engineering / Grainger | Undergraduate | Business | 18 – 22 | There needs to be a library or study space that is open Friday and Saturday nights. It is very disappointing that there is no where to study on those nights. The one aspect that should be improved is expanded hours on those nights. |
| Engineering / Grainger | Staff | Chemical / Physical / Mathematical Sciences | 31 – 45 | Lately it seems that the best books (seminal texts for a given field) are always checked out, and interlibrary loan is so short-term that it’s not very helpful. |
| Engineering / Grainger | Faculty | Engineering / Computer Science | 46 – 65 | Many of my students like to meet in coffee shops (rather than in my office) to discuss coursework or research. I do it because students like it — it would be GREAT if Grainger had a small coffee shop, then we could meet there. |
| Engineering / Grainger | Faculty | Engineering / Computer Science | 31 – 45 | 1) The best library is like a utility (by which I mean water of electricity): precisely because it is indispensable, one should be able to take it for granted —so much so that when it works as it should it becomes practically invisible. 2) I have noticed that the library seems to want to take responsibility for providing (and running) fancy physical space (“commons” or whatever the name) for students and faculty to study and work. I think this should not be a part of the library’s mission. It is a terrible distraction and a waste of money. The money should be used for books, which books we can study in our offices or at home. 3) There is sonething peculiar to this library, something I have not seen in the library of any of the other universities I have worked for or attended in the past. Our library seems to want to have numerous librarians who aspire to be scholars in this or that area of enquiry. This state of affairs has remained a mistery to me. We have a department for each important field of intellectual endeavor, and these departments are the right place for scholars to be doing research AND TEACHING in the company of (and in competition with) their intellectual peers. In other universities, if you want to be a scholar in, e.g., art history, you apply to the department of that name, not to the library. You apply to the library if you want to serve the patrons of the library (and what a noble profession that is!) It is the patrons that are scholars, not the librarians. That is the case in all the universities I have been to (and there have been 6), but not in Illinois. Why? |
| Engineering / Grainger | Undergraduate | Social Sciences | 18 – 22 | I think the printing system is very poor. When I studied abroad in New Zealand, they had a system in which you would swipe your id card and that would start the print job. Here I hate it how you have to look through everyone else’s printed work until you find your own. |
| Engineering / Grainger | Faculty | Engineering / Computer Science | 31 – 45 | Full online access to all journals is the largest roadblock. Older journal articles should be online by now (a scan is fine). This may be out of the hands of the library however. |
| Engineering / Grainger | Staff | Engineering / Computer Science | 31 – 45 | I haven’t done much yet as a newer employee, but I look forward to doing more. |
| Engineering / Grainger | Library Staff | Library and Information Science | 23 – 30 | A service level is not the same thing as whether I think something is important or not. Not the best survey. Maybe making choices between extremes, like if I would rather have more quiet spaces or noise places. If there is online help, I want the best possible. It makes it difficult to answer some of the questions. I found myself at certain points thinking if I actually needed to use a certain thing, I would be very disappointed to find it at a low level, but I’m not likely to use it. Perhaps it’s splitting hairs. It seems often printed materials I need are missing or gone. It’s not that we have issues with collection development, just keeping the materials around or enough copies in. I tend to actually use a variety of libraries for pleasure reading, but I decided not to include them here. It may be shocking, but some of us actually read pretty advanced materials in other discipline for fun. I’ve put na regarding most questions as far as space. I have my own house and my own office. That’s where I study and research usually, even to the point where I’d probably find th books at home and just come to the library. However, I think it can be important to have a lot of quiet, good studying area as that’s what I desired when I was in school. There were plenty of other places for group study. Also, what’s the point of forcing people to choose a “discipline” when you’re including staff. At least then give me some checkboxes as I interact with several disciplines. |
| Engineering / Grainger | Graduate | Engineering / Computer Science | 31 – 45 | Better out-campass online service is expected. Apart from that, the Engineering library is a great one. |
| Engineering / Grainger | Staff | Administrative / Campus Unit | 31 – 45 | What I need most often is an up-to-date, online technical reference for web programming languages. Sometimes I can find them through the Safari Books option, but it’s a lot too hard to get there — usually I bookmark a page in a book and go back that way rather than trying to get through the gateway to the right set of online search options and from there to the right set of information. |
| Engineering / Grainger | Library Staff | Other | 46 – 65 | It’s good to have the extended hours at Grainger and the Undergrad. |
| Engineering / Grainger | Staff | Other | 46 – 65 | I have been very impressed with the service. As I am not located on the Quad, I greatly value the Mail option to have printed materials sent to my office via campus mail. This is a HUGE benefit as the time to get to library of interest, find a parking meter, get inside and pickup article would interfere with my other duties. |
| Engineering / Grainger | Graduate | Engineering / Computer Science | 31 – 45 | This survey is miserable to fill out. 27 check boxes for 27 rows?! AND you make every line required! |
| Engineering / Grainger | Faculty | Chemical / Physical / Mathematical Sciences | 31 – 45 | In order to use library resources efficiently I would suggest that lectures and free training courses on using resources would be necessary to be provided for faculty/staff and students periodically. |
| Engineering / Grainger | Undergraduate | Humanities | 18 – 22 | It’s silly that there aren’t more scanners available in library computer labs. Also, outlets (for laptop use) should be accessible everywhere, as should more reliable wifi. |
| Engineering / Grainger | Faculty | Engineering / Computer Science | 31 – 45 | To explain some of my responses above: – Grainger’s hours during weekends, especially during breaks, are insufficient. The physics and math libraries are much worse even than Grainger. – At Grainger, in particular, I frequently am unable to find a book that is listed in the catalog as being “on the shelf”. I don’t know whether Grainger has a high robbery rate, is bad about reshelving in a timely manner, or rarely checks for misshelved books.
– Newer academic papers (say, post 1993) are almost always trivial to find on the web through public sources. I rely on the library for access to academic papers from before 1993. Yet, we seem to preferentially subscribe to newer material rather than older. Example: SIAM Journal of Computing. We subscribe for electronic material from SIAM only post 1997. Yet this journal has been in publication since 1972. (We have the print version, but this doesn’t help me very much at 6am Saturday morning). |
| English | Faculty | Humanities | 31 – 45 | Library staff in English and other subject libraries do a critical job with rare diligence and skill. My central concern with the library is to retain and expand subject area expertise in disciplines like literary studies. I’d also like to increase access to archival and special collections, and to simplify the overly complex array of online databases, catalogs, etc. Why, for instance, can we not do a simple catalog search direct from the main page? I want no add-on google or other searches, and no extra clicks, just: author, title, click. |
| English | Faculty | Performing / Fine Arts | 31 – 45 | Love the ability to have materials mailed to office! LOVE IT! |
| English | Faculty | Humanities | 46 – 65 | I know arguments are being made that UIUC is not Harvard, Yale, or Princeton and therefore cannot be expected to have a library that approaches the facilities at those institutions. But I would point out that if you told the Engineering, Super-computing, or Biochemistry Depts. that they could hardly expect the kind of start-ups for labs that Berkeley or UMichigan, or MIT get, I doubt that they would nod sagely and pad solemnly back to their crumbling labs. One of the selling points that brought me to this campus was the beautiful library and the tour I was taken on by Professor Jack Stillinger. It seemed to me symbolic of a life of the mind respected by this institution. Since those days, we’ve heard about nothing but cutbacks, mold in the Rare Book Room, and foolish consolidation of resources ad nauseam. This is short-sighted and foolish. The administration should listen to the faculty and the librarians, and get the sciences to back the arts/humanities. The latter have never been sponsored by big business, but they do bring in the fees and should be acknowledged for the work they do. Unless, of course, UIUC has decided to become an anti-intellectual polytechnic; in that case, I can only offer my warmest commiserations to the few noble souls who are trying to do their best with a pittance in a potentially wonderful facility. |
| English | Faculty | Humanities | 46 – 65 | Please don’t spend library budget on comfy chairs–we don’t need Starbucks, we need a research library–and what we’ve had is the best public university research library. Why mess with the ONE THING at Illinois that is TRULY #1?, that UNIQUELY attracts and retains faculty here? Further cuts to library hours, microfilm and archive access, (that is, hours & machine locations, collection and staff size in specialist libraries, purchase of university press titles, will devastate the performance of faculty in the humanities and squander the investments of a century to build that research library. The library has done many, many things to innovate in user services, online access, shared facilities. They are enough to accommodate non-regular users, until we get an endowed undergrad library. But we can’t let non-regular users overpower our research agenda and the library’s unique assets in filling them. The only need in spatial/ergo improvements is for classroom space, and it would be far more cost-effective to build one or two wired classrooms in ‘dead’ space (e.g. 4th floor) than to convert departmental or main libraries that are so architecturally specialized as to require exorbitant renovations. It would also be better to protect opening hours for existing specialist spaces than to renovate spaces with twirly chairs that will merely attract non-serious users (i.e. snackers) while pushing research materials offsite. It is NOT the library’s job to provide endless work and classroom space that the departments and colleges have buildings to house; that is not unit-based accounting. As for reducing budgets in print areas, I would strongly recommend that we discontinue buying ‘browsing’ titles, coffee table books on home decoration for the undergrad library, general-interest books on research topics (i.e. popular biographies of historical figures); let the smaller university libraries or commercial outlets supply those, and free up our budget for the university press books that our faculty use (and earn tenure with). Not buying the books needed for our mission is a false economy. Every semester the balance of my ILCSO books to onsite borrowings skyrockets: what is faculty ILL costing the university? And why should students come here if we don’t have anything they can’t get on the internet? The amount we have electronically is amazing; let’s streamline and sort student access by just a little tweaking, eliminating ‘dead’ links and excess gateway pages, rather than buying more, more, more routes to the same info. Thank you for conducting the survey. |
| English | Graduate | Humanities | 31 – 45 | Would love it if cataloging all the special collections were a priority. |
| Geology | Faculty | Chemical / Physical / Mathematical Sciences | 46 – 65 | Service from the local library staff is great. They are knowledgeable and efficient. They respond to urgent situations well. I would be lost without them. The library website is unintuitive and difficult to use in many ways. Without library staff I would not be able to locate many things. |
| Geology | Faculty | Chemical / Physical / Mathematical Sciences | 31 – 45 | The electronic interface is the most important thing in my library experience. Getting pdf’s of articles is 90% of my library experience, so anything that makes on-line browsing, reading, and book ordering easier would be best for me. The interface is very important! For example, I would like to be able to conveniently remote browse the stacks. |
| Geology | Faculty | Chemical / Physical / Mathematical Sciences | 31 – 45 | More funding for more electronic journal subscriptions is the most important concern for me. |
| Government Documents | Staff | Architecture | 46 – 65 | I think the document library is great. We are just completing a report for the State of Illinois. I really appreciated all the help on researching state laws that the document librarian provided. She saved me hours of work. It is important to have people with specific skills on staff ie. knowledge on how to research staff laws etc. |
| History, Philosophy and Newspaper | Staff | Other | 46 – 65 | Have had good service at the History and Education libraries and exemplary service at the Lincoln collection. I do find it difficult to use on line search tools and to access on line references. perhaps more orientation in this area would be useful? |
| History, Philosophy and Newspaper | Faculty | Humanities | 46 – 65 | I suffer from the well-known generational problem that keeps me from being entirely conversant and comfortable with the new electronic sources of info. Generally, when I ask for help or assistance, I get it, but it may be that I will never overcome the sense of being out of my element. On the other hand it is true that I can now access kinds of information that formerly were unavailble or difficult to find and use. I also appreciate the speed with which many materials can be accessed. I remember less the fondly the days when, as a historian with diverse interests, I would traipse from one campus library to another. Such trips are now far less necessary. |
| History, Philosophy and Newspaper | Faculty | Humanities | 31 – 45 | This is one of the poorest run libraries in the country. Staff morale is low and general staff members are consistently rude, bored, or unhelpful (“it’s not my job” attitude). The facility is beneath sub-standard. Peeling paint, filthy floors, dust, garbage, and old furniture in the hallways. The general stacks are kept too hot and full of dust, mold, garbage, old equipment, and even office supplies in one area. I often find that the university did not acquire a book I need (recent scholarship)–or that a series was started, but then only sporadically purchased (as in vol. 1, 3, and 5 of an author’s works). But considering how the books are housed and treated, perhaps it’s better not to have acquired them in the first place. Much improvement is needed. First and foremost, a new building in which to house the collections. The current building is not worth renovating. But the current administration and staff should at least take care of what they have, clean up the stacks and hallways, put the old card catalogues in storage where they will not be a fire hazard in the hallways, haul away old furniture, scrub the floors, keep the libraries and desks neat and orderly, get rid of unprofessional and filthy signage. Someone needs to walk around this place with his/her eyes open, take note of the things that CAN be cleaned up and fixed, and then get the staff on board to DO it. Just cleaning up would probably improve morale and perhaps lead to better things. |
| History, Philosophy and Newspaper | Staff | Other | 31 – 45 | I don’t use the library in my position as a police officer. I’ve never heard anyone complain about it. |
| History, Philosophy and Newspaper | Undergraduate | Education | 18 – 22 | I haven’t ever had a bad experience with a library employee and find everyone to be fairly cheerful and helpful. I generally have found the library useful as a study space and if I know the exact book or article I need to get, but the library website is not convenient to use and is really hit-or-miss for researching, regardless of the excellence of the resources that are actually available. As we are moving into such a technology-based world, it seems odd that we don’t have a more comprehensive system of information available online. I would find it very useful to have improvements made to the online resources. |
| History, Philosophy and Newspaper | Faculty | Humanities | 46 – 65 | Both library and staff are wonderful but must guarded. The loss of the Labor Library represented a loss because the subject specialist is far below the level of expertise and service we experienced in the past. |
| History, Philosophy and Newspaper | Undergraduate | Humanities | 18 – 22 | I almost never use the undergrad library because they treat patrons like teeny boppers there. Almost all my research centers on reading, and that’s what I want the library to provide. I like to read journal and magazine articles online, but I do not like to read books online. I’ve never read an online book in its entirety, nor do I know anyone who has. Please do not turn the history library into a classroom: there are already enough classrooms and computer labs on campus. |
| History, Philosophy and Newspaper | Faculty | Humanities | 46 – 65 | We are all extremely privileged to have at our disposal one of the world’s great libraries. |
| Illinois Fire Service Institute | Staff | Other | 31 – 45 | Illinois Fire Service Library is a great resource, with their new space in 2010 it will be even better. |
| Illinois History and Lincoln Collections | Staff | Administrative / Campus Unit | 31 – 45 | n/a |
| Illinois History and Lincoln Collections | Faculty | Chemical / Physical / Mathematical Sciences | 46 – 65 | Dis-satisfaction with library services reflect the increasing difficulties in accessing the Illinois History & Lincoln Collection, which is the only thing I want from you. I will put up with whatever obstacles you construct to use it, but respect the library in general less and less with every obstacle, and will support the library less and less with every obstacle. |
| Illinois History and Lincoln Collections | Faculty | Humanities | 46 – 65 | Please preserve the Illinois History and Lincoln Collections as a separate unit. |
| Illinois History and Lincoln Collections | Faculty | Agriculture / Environmental Studies | Over 65 | Restore the Illinois History and Lincoln Collections. Change plans to close these offices |
| Information Desk | Graduate | Humanities | 23 – 30 | The heating conditions in the library are extrenely poor. The temperature is never right, it is either too cold (in the summer) or too hot (in the winter). The overall condition discourages any research or work at the library.
The staff at the circulation desk is very unfriendly. The condition of the main stucks and the carels is poor and discourages any sort of research and study or work. The web page is overcrowded and not very well organized. The library has a lot of resources but they are not introduced well to students and staff. Apart from these I apprecuate a lot the positive aspects and the importance of the library. I understand that you are putting effort to improve and yet there is still a lot that needs to be done. |
| Information Desk | Staff | Other | 46 – 65 | @ the College of Law the staff is wonderful, knowlegeable and very, very helpful 🙂 |
| Information Desk | Staff | Administrative / Campus Unit | 46 – 65 | Library hours are set to suit the staff, not the patrons. I see little need for the Library to open before 11 am. The Library should focus on making more information available on-line, less on archival sources. Too many departmental libraries with restrictive hours impede the flow of information. |
| Information Desk | Staff | Life / Health Sciences | 31 – 45 | Until I get familiar with a library I usually have a staff member initially give a verbal map description of where to find things if using the computer resources |
| Interlibrary Loan and Document Delivery | Staff | Chemical / Physical / Mathematical Sciences | 31 – 45 | Multiple interfaces for interlibrary loan searches and requests is annoying. |
| Interlibrary Loan and Document Delivery | Faculty | Agriculture / Environmental Studies | 46 – 65 | mailing to my campus office is a wonderful service. thank you for that! |
| Interlibrary Loan and Document Delivery | Library Staff | Other | 18 – 22 | Mostly good. The library website can sometimes be difficult to navigate and I don’t understand why it times out. I think a “time out” is unnecessary, especially if we’re just doing a search–there is no personal information put in. |
| Interlibrary Loan and Document Delivery | Staff | Education | 46 – 65 | It would be good to have the Interlibrary Loan Services after 5pm Monday – Thursday. |
| Interlibrary Loan and Document Delivery | Staff | Administrative / Campus Unit | 46 – 65 | I wish there was more help with the online search and retreval features of you rwebsite. I also found that making copies or microfish printing was extremely difficult in that there was few change machines, some copies didn’t take all change or bills, there was no easy and universal way to access all these with ease. |
| Interlibrary Loan and Document Delivery | Faculty | Humanities | Over 65 | The library’s web site, so it seems to me, is set up by people who are proficient at web sites, and probably enjoy working with them, but who are not very bookish themselves. I am one of those queer old ducks who lives in books. I find that the changes in the library’s web site over the past several years have , without exception, made using library materials more cumbersome and difficult. I get the impression that whoever is making them just does not know what he is doing–with respect to actual use of the library. I have in mind especially the old “gateway” and the library’s online reference and research materials. |
| Law | Faculty | Law | Over 65 | Paper collection in my field has become worthless in terms of acquisition and processing in the last 10 years. Electronic collection is fairly good, but does not make up for the huge gaps in the paper collection. |
| Law | Faculty | Law | 31 – 45 | I was very disturbed by the massive movement of materials in the Main Library to Oak Street, which has made on-site searching of certain valuable materials extremely difficult. The transition was not explained adequately and remains a considerable challenge for those who rely heavily on open stack access to historical materials. Whenever I visit the stacks of the Main Library in search of items published in the late nineteenth or early twentieth century, I can discern no rhyme or reason to what moved and what stayed. Have the principles upon which materials were moved been explained in a memorandum to library administrators or staff and/or to faculty? If so, please share it will me at the e-mail address below, as it will assist me in figuring out what stayed and what moved. I hold the Library and its staff in great regard, but this transition has been a nightmare for me. Thanks! |
| Law | Faculty | Agriculture / Environmental Studies | 46 – 65 | off campus use is sometimes difficult, but possible. |
| Law | Staff | Library and Information Science | 23 – 30 | This survey is too long and hard to understand. Our office uses a survey tool from Public Affairs that everyone seems to like. Maybe that is a possible solution in the future. |
| Library & Information Science | Staff | Engineering / Computer Science | 46 – 65 | I am off-site from the UIUC campus 99% of the time and the e-resources/online research resources are the most important library resources to me. |
| Library & Information Science | Faculty | Library and Information Science | 31 – 45 | There is a need to maintain collections in different disciplines, such as LIS, Communications, Social Sciences, Humanities.
There is real danger of destroying the social and intellectual value of the library by subjecting it to simplistic cost benefit analysis or similar engineering techniques that have no sense of the knowledge value accumulated in professionally selected collections. Regardless of what computer scientists and MBA-types think there immense value in monographs for the purpose of advancing research. Research libraries should serve the research and teaching goals of the university and this includes having well-trained professionals. |
| Library & Information Science | Graduate | Library and Information Science | 31 – 45 | I think it is tricky to have a survey about the whole library system at the U of I – there are so many different libraries with different levels of services, different settings, different levels of comfort for individuals or groups. I use several libraries, so my responses were an attempt to blend them all in my responses. It might be more effective to get responses about individual libraries. Also, in your usage patterns you give an option of daily, weekly, monthly, etc. I think it might be good to add an option for a few times a week. I don’t use the library services every day, but that response is the closest to my usage pattern. |
| Library & Information Science | Staff | Other | 46 – 65 | Access to the “Gray Book” on line would be nice. |
| Library & Information Science | Staff | Agriculture / Environmental Studies | 46 – 65 | As part of the University of IL Extension in the state, don’t know much about how to access library for my work, or my research into horticulture and campus topics from my workspace. If I could access horticulture information, as well as campus information, it would be helpful. |
| Library & Information Science | Staff | Humanities | 46 – 65 | Most of my research is for genealogical purposes. I like your newspaper archives, but I wish there was some sort of indexing available. Right now the only indexing is dates and newspaper names. It would be nice if there was a breakdown of sections within the newspapers, like obituraries, sports, local interest, etc. |
| Library & Information Science | Faculty | Library and Information Science | 46 – 65 | I could not do my work half as well without the ease of access to I-Share collections. |
| Library & Information Science | Faculty | Library and Information Science | 46 – 65 | In my case the departmental library (LIS) provides excellent service both remotely and on site. Service from other services points (main stacks, other departmental libraries, Undergrad) is generally good. I have had some problems with quality control in e-reserves. |
| Main Stacks / Circulation | Faculty | Education | 46 – 65 | Often using a data base I cannot access a full text article even though the page says I should be able to. This is frustrating. |
| Main Stacks / Circulation | Staff | Other | 46 – 65 | On the old system I ordered books all the time but since we have Banner I don’t know how to do that any more. I would like to order on line like I used to. |
| Main Stacks / Circulation | Staff | Communications / Journalism | 46 – 65 | our library is an essential resource for me. I am fully served by people and electronic tools — BUT extremely hampered by inadequate shelving, cataloging, conservation and physical resources. I find it shocking how poor the physical facilities are for a world-class research library. I also find the hours far more limited than at other universities I know. |
| Main Stacks / Circulation | Faculty | Architecture | 31 – 45 | The library is absolutely fundamental to my research. The research materials that I use come from two sources: printed material (journals, books) and online services (JSTOR, BHA, etc.) I find that our electronic resources and reference help are excellent. Unfortunately, our print material is not on par with these other resources. More and more recently, I have looked for standard books in history, classics, Italian studies, history of ideas, etc to discover that we do not own these books. The physical situation in the stacks is absolutely awful. The reputation of this library is stellar. I spent last spring on the east coast and professors from NYU, Columbia, and Princeton all knew our campus for one thing – our library. Will we be able to maintain this sterling reputation? |
| Main Stacks / Circulation | Faculty | Humanities | 31 – 45 | I am happy with the library. I wish the state were giving us more money to maintain our standing among large research libraries. I don’t mind the changes proposed in History’s library, but please leave some open space for work, thinking, reading. |
| Main Stacks / Circulation | Staff | Administrative / Campus Unit | 23 – 30 | I was recently a graduate student at Texas A&M University. A wonderful service that they provided to users was a document delivery–a service they called “deliver e-docs.” If a journal article or book chapter was not available in electronic format, library employees would scan the requested item and it would be electronically delivered to the user within 3-7 days. This was true of items held in the TAMU library, as well as items held at other libraries. For example, I recall getting a scan of an article held at the British Library, U of Kansas Library, etc.
As a university press employee who often wants to reference only a few pages of a book, journal, or review (but our library doesn’t subscribe electronically), it would be incredibly helpful if scanned copies could be delivered to us. The library location is reletively inconvenient for those who do not work nearby. |
| Main Stacks / Circulation | Graduate | Social Sciences | 31 – 45 | i work full-time on campus as an AP, and I’m working on my dissertation. I use my library carrel to work on my dissertation. Having a quiet study/work space and more hours — esp. during student holidays is key for my productivity. To be able to get my dissertation work done I wish I could get access to my carrel on weekends and after 5 during holidays, but often there’s more limited hours during student holidays. I *love* working in my carrel, and I get a lot done there! 2ndly, I wish the temperature was more regulated in the stacks. 3rdly, in my job, I wish there was library space for workshops that I put on as a part of my job. Smart rooms for “rent” for 15-20 people to do workshops in. there’s always a space crunch on campus for such space. |
| Main Stacks / Circulation | Faculty | Architecture | 46 – 65 | Some of my dissatisfaction results from the shifting of materials in the main stacks. This could have been handled in a more systematic way that did not confuse those of us who still had to use the materials. Other dissatisfaction comes from being in architecture and not having materials that we require for our work in the art and architecture library. For faculty the materials in art and architecture and City planning library are very important and to find that they are spread around to so many locations inhibits progress. |
| Main Stacks / Circulation | Staff | Library and Information Science | 46 – 65 | The facilities really need to be upgraded. They should be up-to-date and inspiring. |
| Main Stacks / Circulation | Staff | Humanities | 46 – 65 | My sole complaint is utterly selfish: I would use the Rare Books collection if it kept evening hours. I am rarely able to leave my work station during normal working hours. |
| Main Stacks / Circulation | Staff | Administrative / Campus Unit | 46 – 65 | The library could better serve the campus (more hours, consolidation of staff and resources, facility maintenance and upgrades) by closing some of the many small department libraries. This cannot be an efficient way to operate these days. The Main library space could be made much more inviting if it did not have to be divided up into so many small spaces. |
| Main Stacks / Circulation | Staff | Library and Information Science | 46 – 65 | The Main Library building needs a community space/lounge for reading and/or gathering. The hall on the main floor from North to South is just a walkway between streets. Not very inviting. |
| Main Stacks / Circulation | Graduate | Social Sciences | 31 – 45 | I consider the resources and services at the UIUC libraries to be outstanding. The facilities vary greatly in terms of comfort and welome (ACES is great, Ed is not so great). The only issue I’ve had is I used the online research question submission process and never received an answer. In general, though, the responsiveness is very good. |
| Main Stacks / Circulation | Staff | Administrative / Campus Unit | 46 – 65 | I primarily access journal articles online. I appreciate the ability to do this from my desk and not have to go to the various libraries and pull the journals and make photocopies as I used to do years ago. It is vary rare that a journal I am looking for is not available through online access. When I have used the library it is to go to the Information desk or circulation desk at the main stacks; they are usually friendly and able to help me. My needs for journal articles are for background purposes on projects. |
| Main Stacks / Circulation | Staff | Communications / Journalism | 31 – 45 | As of this date, I am having difficulties with the Law Library. I made a special trip to campus to directly deposit three books into their internal drop box, yet (so far) they have only sent notices that I owe for the books. When I made another trip to return the appeal form, the individual behind the desk was not very courteous. I feel I am being treated as though I am guilty, even though the books were returned before the due date. I am extremely unhappy with the treatment from this library. However, the individuals at other locations around campus have been very helpful to me over the years. I do not wish to run down the entire system due to the experience I received from a few select employees. Overall, I am very happy with the campus library services. Thank you for providing this survey! |
| Main Stacks / Circulation | Staff | Humanities | 31 – 45 | I love the library and have used it as an undergrad, grad student, and staff person, but I feel my skills and confidence with it were much increased after I did my MS at GSLIS. |
| Main Stacks / Circulation | Faculty | Engineering / Computer Science | 31 – 45 | I primarily use library resources via the web |
| Main Stacks / Circulation | Faculty | Library and Information Science | 23 – 30 | Clean up the stacks. Move the card catalogs somewhere else as they seem to take up valuable space. Add another coffee shop in the Main Library- the Undergrad cafe is always way too busy. Better signage would be nice too. |
| Main Stacks / Circulation | Staff | Business | 46 – 65 | I haven’t used the library frequently, but when it was necessary, I was very satisfied with the services. |
| Main Stacks / Circulation | Faculty | Humanities | 46 – 65 | This is not so much about library services as about this services. Why would you set it up this way–of COURSE my “desired” service level is always going to be high. |
| Main Stacks / Circulation | Faculty | Social Sciences | 46 – 65 | Cutbacks over several years have hurt the collection especially of less popular topics. Unfortunately, the library is often the only source for some of these, while info on “popular” topics can be found in other venues. This hurts those doing more esoteric (and possibly more cutting edge) research. |
| Main Stacks / Circulation | Faculty | Chemical / Physical / Mathematical Sciences | 46 – 65 | Discipline also medieval British history; use of stack’s physical materials vital |
| Main Stacks / Circulation | Staff | Life / Health Sciences | 46 – 65 | I am full time staff and part time grad student. |
| Main Stacks / Circulation | Undergraduate | Business | 18 – 22 | They’re great. |
| Main Stacks / Circulation | Faculty | Library and Information Science | 31 – 45 | Compared to undergrad, the services offered are amazing. Grad school was leaps and bounds better due to our access and collections. However, it was difficult to find my way around. I had to learn from experimenting. The LIS program did offer a lot of intro courses that helped. Personnel at the library was amazing compared to anywhere I have ever been. Not much space to study or meet though. |
| Main Stacks / Circulation | Faculty | Languages / Linguistics | 46 – 65 | Paula Carns is a true asset for those of us working in Spanish. She is fantastic. This library is one of the reasons why I stay at this institution: please keep it as good as it is! |
| Main Stacks / Circulation | Faculty | Chemical / Physical / Mathematical Sciences | 31 – 45 | Overall I am very satisfied with library services!! One slight frustration is the movement of physical resources (books, journals) to Oak Street away from on-campus libraries. |
| Main Stacks / Circulation | Faculty | Languages / Linguistics | 31 – 45 | My most pressing complaint is that the library search engine is extraordinarily difficult to use and very frustrating. The website in general is confusing to navigate; login from my home computer involves too many different pages and links to click, and there are too many popup windows. Accessing electronic journals is complicated and time-consuming.
In the Main library, often I cannot find books on the shelf which are listed as checked in. Several times I have been looking in the stacks and the lack of light has been an problem – light bulbs are often burned out. I am also disturbed by the mold problems in the Rare Book archives. The service I receive from Library employees is generally excellent, but I am disturbed by what I perceive is a loss in funding to care for our library’s collections. If our library is to be truly world-class, why can we not fund the infrastructure necessary to support it? |
| Main Stacks / Circulation | Faculty | Humanities | 46 – 65 | You should provide access to Oxford Scholarship Online |
| Main Stacks / Circulation | Library Staff | Other | 46 – 65 | I have worked in the library at UIUC for 20+ years and I know my library provides good service. I am rarely disappointed when I visit other libraries on campus, because most of the time the staff and librarians at UIUC are professional and maintain a high level of service, both public service and technical services. |
| Main Stacks / Circulation | Graduate | Education | 31 – 45 | I think you do a great job during regular hours. Today is Friday of Spring Break and even though hours are posted on the Spring Break schedule I have found that offices and online resources are not available as everything is closed and cannot contact anyone. This has happened at other slow times and is frustrating when hours are publicly posted and circulated yet not reflective of what really occurs during the slow and break times. Granted the masses are gone but still is annoying when you need to get things done and depend on the library services to help with unique problems.
I also really enjoy the Special Collections and it is important for research agenda. As a fulltime employee and non-traditional student I would relish even if the Special Collections was open one weekend a month. I understand budget constraints versus a weekend usage may not make this cost effective but it sure would be a luxury for my classification of user. |
| Main Stacks / Circulation | Graduate | Performing / Fine Arts | 23 – 30 | As a theatre academic, research for my field is spread between several libraries, which is fine, however, I don’t think the library helps keep me abreast of new developments in my field. My professors do that. Also, the main library needs more general study space. The undergrads have plenty of study space, but I’m still not sure where the grads are supposed to go. |
| Main Stacks / Circulation | Faculty | Other | 31 – 45 | Overall, I think the library staff is doing an exceptional job. The folks, especially Melanie, who are responsible for E-reserves are really amazing. |
| Main Stacks / Circulation | Staff | Other | 23 – 30 | I didn’t feel like I had much input for these questions. This survey seemed a little long. |
| Main Stacks / Circulation | Staff | Languages / Linguistics | 46 – 65 | Inability to retrieve full text articles from Wall Street Journal and other business-oriented publication services is a huge problem. It truly hinders research I need to conduct. I need more timely and in-depth information from business and real estate industry sources that are contained in organizations affiliated publications, like Urban Land Institute, Institute of Real Estate Management (IREM) and other similar orgs. |
| Main Stacks / Circulation | Staff | Administrative / Campus Unit | 46 – 65 | I do not need library services for my work; I use the library’s catalog for requesting books that interest me (fiction and non-fiction) and am totally dependent on Universal Borrowing — it is wonderful. I receive my requests via campus mail and would like to be able to return them via campus mail, as well. I am not familiar with on-site library services and I do not do research for anything other than my own interests. |
| Main Stacks / Circulation | Faculty | Humanities | 46 – 65 | I am very concerned about the possibility of diluting the superb government documents library by blending it in with reference. That would be a big mistake.
I am saddened, if not horrified, to see that the Undergraduate Library is becoming less of a library and more of a study center. At the same time, I have always thought that the Undergraduate Library wastefully purchases many books that do not need to be in an undergraduate library. |
| Main Stacks / Circulation | Staff | Administrative / Campus Unit | 31 – 45 | I have worked at the university for just under 2 years. Having worked at 3 other campuses, I have been very impressed with the service provided at the U of I library. |
| Main Stacks / Circulation | Faculty | Humanities | 31 – 45 | It is all well and good to keep the undergraduate library open until the wee hours of the morning but it doesn’t help those of us who need to use the stacks or departmental libraries that close earlier and earlier. Quiet space: enforcing cellphone, low voice and inaudible earphone rules would go a long way to maintain some quiet areas. |
| Main Stacks / Circulation | Staff | Administrative / Campus Unit | 31 – 45 | Any time that I have requested books or have needed resources, the library staff has been very helpful and responded quickly to my requests. |
| Main Stacks / Circulation | Staff | Chemical / Physical / Mathematical Sciences | 31 – 45 | Your website is next-to-impossible to use. |
| Main Stacks / Circulation | Staff | Engineering / Computer Science | 31 – 45 | na |
| Main Stacks / Circulation | Staff | Administrative / Campus Unit | 46 – 65 | I make inquiries on mundane, esoteric and technical issues. I am always treated respectfully, from phone calls to information desks to dealing with administrators. First class all the way. I also like the environment, the sculptures and art. Well done. |
| Main Stacks / Circulation | Graduate | Education | 46 – 65 | The library is great except for the hours. I understand that it cost money to expand the hours, but it is virtually impossible for grad students to use the library during breaks and interims, or even on the weekends during the late evening. Not all students run off to Florida during spring break! Some of us use the interims to write and do research. The lack of access is a true dis- service to grad students. |
| Main Stacks / Circulation | Faculty | Business | 46 – 65 | Please clean the stacks, provide better lighting, and a few more small table spaces.
I think our library is an incredible resource. I am awed every time I receive a book (at no charge) through interlibrary loan. The specialized libraries greatly add to our mission, support of faculty/student work, and set us apart from other systems in the world. Again, our UIUC library system is very, very special. |
| Main Stacks / Circulation | Staff | Administrative / Campus Unit | 23 – 30 | While I was an undergrad student here at UIUC, I was a Campus Honors Porgram student and was thus able to obtain a Stacks Pass. This made things very easy for me since I like to be able to find things on my own. Also, it’s fascinating and useful to go to an area in the Stacks that addresses a topic I’m interested in only to find even more relevant books than the one I may have looked up initially. I think my ratings might be lower if I had not had this experience as an undergrad. However, I also appreciate that the Stacks are not overly crowded with browsers. As long as the library still issues one-time usage Stacks Passes to responsible people who request them, I think the balance (between Stacks Pass-users and people who have to request a book to be fetched) is about right. |
| Main Stacks / Circulation | Staff | Social Sciences | 31 – 45 | The library has come a long way since my days as a student here and then when I hired on as an Academic Professional in 2001. Lately, the staff have really pulled together incredibly helpful workshops and tools online. Thank you! However, day-to-day interactions with Library Staff are not all that pleasant, and customer service does not seem to be a high priority. So there is a bit of a mismatch between (a) the fabulous services provided by our beloved Library and (b) the people behind the counters. |
| Main Stacks / Circulation | Faculty | Languages / Linguistics | 31 – 45 | Hate Dewey Decimal Dislike sliding shelf stacks Very upset about transfer of so many materials to Oak Street location. It hinders the kind of browsing that has been so fruitful in my learning and research expansion. |
| Main Stacks / Circulation | Library Staff | Other | 46 – 65 | I personally don’t use the library resources often unless it’s part of my paid work in the library, but when I have a curiosity about something and want to know more, I’m usually able to find something to answer my questions. |
| Main Stacks / Circulation | Faculty | Other | 46 – 65 | As more and more diverse students are studying in the university, please hire more ethnic staff with international background. Train the library staff to help all people equally irrespective of their color, country, sex and ethnicity.
Thanks and keep up the excellent work and make this library one of the best in the world not by number of volumes but by excellent service without any bias. |
| Main Stacks / Circulation | Faculty | Humanities | 46 – 65 | Overall, I’m very happy with the library. It’s an amazing resource for my work. I would like to see some of the hours extended during weekends and breaks. |
| Main Stacks / Circulation | Faculty | Humanities | 31 – 45 | The facilities are eplorable. The atmosphere is demoralizing. The treatment of the books is uncivilized. It’s the worst library I’ve ever encountered in the U.S. |
| Main Stacks / Circulation | Staff | Veterinary Science | 46 – 65 | Very much appreciate the campus mail delivery of library materials checked out on-line. This is an invaluable service that increases efficiency exponentially. |
| Main Stacks / Circulation | Faculty | Business | 31 – 45 | The shelves are many times too disorganized. Lots of books on the floor. I think it needs more staff for this. Having a place around the shelves to sit and look at the books you’re consulting would help a lot. |
| Main Stacks / Circulation | Staff | Administrative / Campus Unit | 46 – 65 | Staff is always helpful. I’m very appreciative of their efforts and all they do. |
| Main Stacks / Circulation | Undergraduate | Undecided / General Studies | 23 – 30 | I am hearing all over campus that the students and staff are not happy working at the Main Circulation Desk and the Undergraduate Library. When you do not have happy staff and students then you do not have an effective work environment. I think that more focus is needed on how to treat the people that is really doing the jobs in these department. In the Undergraduate Library the staff was stuffed down in the basement of the Library. I really feel that the inhumane way staff is being treated should be investigated. Get involve with the staff and see what they want, what they need. Administration make decisions about changes without getting staff feedback. The library need to have my staff forums and let them get involve with everything that is going on. Staff and students are on the forefront of these service areas, and if they are not happy, then this look bad on the library as a whole. |
| Main Stacks / Circulation | Faculty | Library and Information Science | 31 – 45 | The library should provide a better space, ideally a separate room equipped with state-of -the -art technology and staffed with trained staff, to access its vast microfilm and microfiche collections. |
| Main Stacks / Circulation | Staff | Performing / Fine Arts | 46 – 65 | The web site is still not as user friendly as it could be. For instance, I have to diligently search the front page in order to get to the section on electronic reserves. |
| Main Stacks / Circulation | Faculty | Humanities | 46 – 65 | *Services, personnel, and resources in Classics Library are excellent *Wireless access is improving — thank you! *Lack of quiet space — too much loud chatting going on not only in corridors but also in library quiet spaces *Removing books from the History Library is an absolutely *horrible* idea! |
| Main Stacks / Circulation | Staff | Other | 46 – 65 | When I have used the library, the staff has been extremely helpful, caring, and courteous. |
| Main Stacks / Circulation | Faculty | Social Sciences | 23 – 30 | 1. my most used library is NOT EVEN ON THE LIST: CPLA, so I see how important that is! We don’t have a real subject specialist who knows about urban planning materials. 2. The library fails to have full electronic subscriptions to the major journals in our field (JPER, JAPA) and has lost many back issues’ hard copies. 3. UIUC needs a GIS library and librarian who can deal with this increasingly important form of data/information and provide support for the associated software. (see UNC’s GIS library for an example) |
| Main Stacks / Circulation | Graduate | Education | 31 – 45 | Overall, I find the library very easy to use and very friendly and I appreciate all that can be done online and the many locations that can be used for pick-up. I do wish the online catalog was faster for requesting and renewing. A couple weeks ago, near Easter, I found that the catalog went backward in my items and had incorrect information checked out to me that I had already returned a week prior. After Easter weekend, this situation seemed to clear itself. |
| Main Stacks / Circulation | Graduate | Education | 46 – 65 | I have had nothing but positive experiences with the people I have encountered in the U of I library system. |
| Main Stacks / Circulation | Graduate | Life / Health Sciences | 23 – 30 | N/A |
| Main Stacks / Circulation | Staff | Life / Health Sciences | 31 – 45 | Making digitization strategy/plans, including those involving other instituions more readily known, including for underlizing organization and accessibility would be a great addition in my mind. |
| Main Stacks / Circulation | Staff | Other | 46 – 65 | I want to commend you on delivery of your books through campus mail. As a vision-impaired person, it can difficult to navigate and find books in the dimly lit stacks. |
| Main Stacks / Circulation | Staff | Other | 31 – 45 | I’ve always received the needed help I was looking for when searching for something in the library. |
| Main Stacks / Circulation | Staff | Administrative / Campus Unit | 46 – 65 | I use the library for personal reasons, not work related. |
| Main Stacks / Circulation | Faculty | Administrative / Campus Unit | 46 – 65 | Wish I had more time to tap into library resources. I know they are there and important to the University . ..and often desire to get there to see what is available to help in work challenges, or operations management, but just cannot carve out the time. So, if i could use the resources from my desk, would I? |
| Main Stacks / Circulation | Staff | Humanities | 46 – 65 | I generally find the libraries I use provide excellent service |
| Main Stacks / Circulation | Staff | Administrative / Campus Unit | 46 – 65 | My big complaint centers around me turning a book back in at the main stacks, and then the book was lost. I was forced to pay for a book that I had returned. Various staff members could only advise me to ‘search really hard at home’ for said book. Now I make sure I get a receipt for every book I turn back in. Other than that one really irritating event and subsequent treatment thereafter, I have no other complaints about an otherwise excellent facility. |
| Main Stacks / Circulation | Library Staff | Humanities | 31 – 45 | I fail to understand or sympathise with the insecurity complex so rife among today’s librarians. As an adult library user, I don’t need a “kewl” blue-haired pal to help me discern bad information from good, or belly dancers to keep me entertained. What I need and am paying for with my taxes is a (once) strong collection of print materials, the older and more unfashionable, the better. Inasmuch as you have determined that your mean user is an adolescent with ADHD, you have chosen to snub users who have already developed research skills and interests outside of competitive vomiting in late February. I sincerely hope that a reappraisal of the American educational system will reveal your malfeasance and mismanagement of a once-great library for the gross act of vandalism that it is. |
| Main Stacks / Circulation | Faculty | Social Sciences | 31 – 45 | The most important online resource to my discipline is now Communication & Mass Media Complete. It is shameful that our library does not subscribe to this. |
| Main Stacks / Circulation | Graduate | Labor and Industrial Relations | 23 – 30 | I don’t think that you should be required to answer every question. Questions 28-35 did not have a n/a option. |
| Main Stacks / Circulation | Staff | Chemical / Physical / Mathematical Sciences | 46 – 65 | I generally like the library’s website, and the ability to check out material and have it delivered via campus mail is good. However, I find it very irritating to have to enter my loooong UI ID for EACH thing I want to check out in a given session. Once I’ve logged in with my UI ID, I would prefer to be able to check out as many items as desired without entering my UI ID # each time. Every other online system I’ve used for this kind of thing doesn’t require multiple ID-enterings per session. I would love to see this eliminated from the UI’s site as well. |
| Main Stacks / Circulation | Staff | Social Sciences | 18 – 22 | It would be nice if there were more older journal articles available online so it is not necessary to go to the stacks. Also, the stacks often get a little uncomfortable because of lack of good lighting–it makes one feel a little unsafe and it is difficult to see the book titles. Also, the stacks are a little confusing, and I would appreciate a more consistent updating of the stacks maps as construction continues. |
| Main Stacks / Circulation | Faculty | Social Sciences | Over 65 | Over a decade or more I have expressed the following concern to various relevant folks. We have a one of the best computer science, high technology groups in the world. We have one of the world’s best libraries. Why is it that these two centers of excellence cannot be brought together so that we lead in the places they overlap (e.g., the library interface) rather than lag behind other institutions. |
| Main Stacks / Circulation | Faculty | Humanities | 46 – 65 | Need more staff to make sure that print materials can be found in a timely manner. Too many times the materials I need are marked as missing.
Also, more resources need to go to the humanities collections. |
| Main Stacks / Circulation | Faculty | Social Sciences | 31 – 45 | Some library units provide excellent service. Others provide terrible service. I have tried to answer the questions that pertain to service by averaging the two together. On question #14, “Availability of subject specialist assistance”, it doesn’t matter how available a subject specialist is if they can’t or won’t answer your questions. It was hard to reflect this fact by clicking the little circles. The important thing is to have good people on the desk. |
| Map & Geography | Staff | Other | 31 – 45 | I use the Geological Survey Library a very close second to the Maps and Geography Library |
| Mathematics | Graduate | Chemical / Physical / Mathematical Sciences | 31 – 45 | The math library often is quite noisy. It can be hard to study. |
| Mathematics | Faculty | Chemical / Physical / Mathematical Sciences | 46 – 65 | The Mathematics Library is one of the strongest assets of the Department of Mathematics |
| Mathematics | Library Staff | Other | 31 – 45 | I think this would be a good survey for the Library staff to take. I would change from the patron’s perspective to staff perspective. How does staff rate the library services provided? |
| Mathematics | Graduate | Engineering / Computer Science | 23 – 30 | Although I have occasional need of books, I use electronic journal/proceeding articles the most. Because I’ve had occasional difficulty using the library gateway/VPN, I just pay ACM and USENIX for online access out of my own pocket. I’ve also had trouble getting at IEEE articles, but I don’t use them so much so if I can’t get it I’ll skip it; it’s the author’s own fault for publishing with IEEE.
Honestly, for work, the best library I ever used was the technical research library at IBM’s Almaden Research Center. On the other hand, they had a very limited number of subjects to support, so… |
| Mathematics | Graduate | Chemical / Physical / Mathematical Sciences | 23 – 30 | The only criticism I have would be the lack of availability of electronic versions of older journals. The total journal availability (electronic/print) is one of the best I’ve seen at any university. |
| Modern Lanugages & Linguistics | Faculty | Humanities | 46 – 65 | These question do not distinguish between what we are currently getting and the plans to make drastic changes in the service models. The library is turning into a place for juvenile techies–whatever their biolgical–and no I am not a Neanderthal. I do not see how this survey can be useful |
| Modern Lanugages & Linguistics | Graduate | Humanities | 23 – 30 | This survey is very confusing–obviously I would like to have the best possible service and equipment in every category. If I must prioritize, however, I will say that I find it MOST IMPORTANT to have friendly, capable staff and librarians. All of the electronic resources in the world will not make this a great library–the people who work there do. I have always had great service in the Modern Languages & Literatures Library, and I would hate to see that functionality disappear if that library was erased or submerged into a larger unit. I have NOT always had great experiences at the Main Circulation desk (there was one lady there who was very rude, but she seems to have gone now) and it seems like one of the strengths of this library is that there are still specialized units like the Modern Languages & Literatures library. I like the online resources, but they don’t matter to my research nearly as much as the people at the library do. |
| Modern Lanugages & Linguistics | Graduate | Humanities | 23 – 30 | Paula Carnes is a wealth of knowledge and a great resource for all students in Modern Languages. What a terrific asset!!! |
| Music | Faculty | Performing / Fine Arts | 46 – 65 | The music library is great! |
| Music | Graduate | Performing / Fine Arts | 46 – 65 | The help at the Music Library is extremely good–they are very considerate and bend over backwards to aid those in need of help. I appreciate the many online reference tools available, like the Grove Dictionary for Music & Musicians. Being able to check out recordings has been very helpful as well. At the Main Library, however, I was once yelled at for not standing in the proper spot to receive help. Standing in the right place, however, hasn’t brought help much faster. It becomes difficult to get someone’s attention when everyone is doing something besides acknowledging your existence. Either overworked or underappreciated but surely less than happy staff members seem to be stationed there. On a better note, I find the Undergrad Library’s media check-out system to be quite fair and helpful. I like especially the international films available. |
| Music | Faculty | Performing / Fine Arts | 31 – 45 | The Music Library has a wonderful staff, but it needs more funding for periodicals, research materials, and basic staffing (including the second floor reference station). The library needs to be open more hours on a daily basis. It is nearly impossible to teach a 9 am graduate reference class using library resources when the library does not open until 9 am! |
| Music | Staff | Performing / Fine Arts | 46 – 65 | I am grateful for the depth of the library holdings, though there are gaps in my field. |
| Music | Staff | Humanities | 46 – 65 | The Asian and music libraries are both vital to my research, teaching and professional advancement. I’m very happy to be at an institution which has dedicated spaces for both. |
| Music | Faculty | Performing / Fine Arts | 31 – 45 | The U of I has a fantastic library system. I have three concerns: 1) Staying up to date in print collections when resources seem more devoted to on-line sources. For musicians, scores in the music library are the basic materials we work with every day.2) Putting materials on reserve for a class is inflexible and difficult. At other comparable institutions at which I ‘ve worked, it was quick and simple. 3) Student workers not discharging returned materials at the Music Library. This happens far too frequently. |
| Music | Staff | Life / Health Sciences | 31 – 45 | It would be nice if all of the university’s libraries were open past 5 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. Weekends are the times that I most often visit the library. |
| Music | Faculty | Humanities | 46 – 65 | I’m very happy with the Music Library. The Main Library more often fails to have something I’m looking for. |
| Music | Staff | Performing / Fine Arts | 46 – 65 | In general professional library staff are extremely competent, knowledgeable, and responsive, while student staff are often indifferent and not helpful. |
| Music | Staff | Administrative / Campus Unit | 46 – 65 | I do not use the library very often, and the times I do access it are not for work-related reasons, so many of your questions do not apply to my situation. However, on every occasion that I have had to make a personal visit to the library, I have been very well-treated by the staff who have always helped me find what I need. I absolutely love to receive good and knowledgeable service and prize that above just about everything else, so it is nice to know that our libraries fill the bill to a great extent in that area. |
| Natural History Survey | Staff | Life / Health Sciences | 23 – 30 | I’m happy overall…my only complaint is I sometimes have trouble accessing some journals online that the U of I supposedly subscribes to. |
| Physics / Astronomy | Faculty | Chemical / Physical / Mathematical Sciences | Over 65 | The best thing the library could do for me would be to announce and enforce an ABSOLUTE BAN ON CONVERSATION on library premises.(The constant yammering by other users is for me the major deterrent to on-site use). |
| Physics / Astronomy | Faculty | Chemical / Physical / Mathematical Sciences | 31 – 45 | Books of interest are invariably checked out. Online resource access is often slow. |
| Rare Book & Manuscript | Staff | Other | 46 – 65 | I would like to see your maps from 1500 to curent online. |
| Reference | Staff | Administrative / Campus Unit | 46 – 65 | I went online to request a reference manual and was sent an email that it was available for pickup. The publication was never found and the staff were not at all friendly or helpful when I came to pick up the reference. |
| Reference | Staff | Administrative / Campus Unit | 31 – 45 | I rely on the central reference desk via phone and chat on a weekly basis both for work and personal questions. What a great resource for the University community! |
| Reference | Staff | Other | 46 – 65 | If the library had dedicated **quiet** space for faculty and staff I would use it a lot more. I find the libraries on campus to be far too noisy and far too uncomfortable to spend much time in. In addition, staff is generally uninterested in engaging with patrons, when staff is available at all. The local public library has more available staff, more menable space, but a less impressive collection. Meld those, and I’d have space and resources I’d love to use on a daily basis. |
| Slavic and East European | Staff | Social Sciences | 46 – 65 | I rarely use the library in person as I find physically locating material inconvenient. Having all the reference librarians in a central place would be a start. As it is now, using the resources on-line or by phone is more convenient. |
| Slavic and East European | Staff | Administrative / Campus Unit | 31 – 45 | Jan in the Slavic library is always extrememely helpful and knowledable about alternative sources of information. He is truly an outstanding resource and very willing to help. |
| Slavic and East European | Faculty | Humanities | 46 – 65 | There is a huge variation in staff performance, and I have had some truly awful experiences in the last year and some stellar experiences. When it is good, the library is very very good. And it is people who make it so. |
| Slavic and East European | Faculty | Humanities | 31 – 45 | Slavic and East European reference service is outstanding! |
| Slavic and East European | Faculty | Humanities | 46 – 65 | Would like easier access to electronic journals via library site. |
| Undergraduate | Graduate | Business | 23 – 30 | I would love a more updated space for working on group projects and studying. The undergraduate library seems to be unable to keep up as far as available space for students working in teams. |
| Undergraduate | Faculty | Agriculture / Environmental Studies | 31 – 45 | Overall my experience has been positive. The only frustrations I ever have include chasing after an article on the webpage that appears to be accessible online, only to find out it’s not (you have to pay or it’s only the abstract that is available). That’s time consuming and frustrating. Other than that, I love how easy it is to order materials that are not accessible on the site and have them delivered through campus mail. That’s a huge plus. |
| Undergraduate | Staff | Humanities | 23 – 30 | Libraries represent all that is best about a university–they combine the research, learning, and community service that are the ideals behind the whole enterprise. I hold you in the highest respect.
Trying to find or access articles through the database, though, is very maddening! Also, I like being able to browse through shelves. It adds a dose of serendipity to life. Please never think that on-line availability will substitute for this experience. Digitizing content complements but cannot replicate the opportunites attendant upon being surrounded by a wealth of material resources. I have found library staff to be generally pleasant, helpful, and informed, usually knowing to whom a question should be referred if not being able to provide ready reference. Yay, libraries! |
| Undergraduate | Faculty | Humanities | 31 – 45 | I use UGL the most for teaching and the main library for research (combination of English, Mod Lang, Hist & Newpaper). I probably GO TO UGL most often. My rating of staff/service would vary widely and in fact wildly from UGL to the main library (and indeed within different areas of the library). I find the non-student staff that work circulation desk in UGL to be abysmal: inefficient, error prone and generally barely competent. The student workers are at least cheerful, although they tend to have less experience. I use the media collections _a lot_ and I have *never* been able to get service in less than 15 minutes. It regularly takes 30-40 minutes if I have a “special problem”, which I often do (and they rarely are that “special”!). One would think I was exaggerating, but I’m really not! The circulation staff at the main library is not great either, but I manage to avoid them most of the time by having books sent to my office whether possible. All of the staff in the specialized libraries are great. |
| Undergraduate | Undergraduate | Life / Health Sciences | 18 – 22 | I’ve been very impressed with the library. The staff is always very willing to help. I wish the undergrad would buy more new novels and more copies. |
| Undergraduate | Library Staff | Administrative / Campus Unit | 23 – 30 | Library services would be improved by having a greater variety of collections where I would not have to depend on I-share so greatly for the majority of books I request.
The arrangement of the Undergraduate Library has greatly reduced its usability and I overhear many negative comments about the changes. The study carrels have reduced the functionality of the library during finals and midterm time. Although along a different topic, this should be consulted for the computer arrangement as well, particularly section II (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzO1mCAVyMw). Browsable sections |
| Undergraduate | Staff | Education | 46 – 65 | I don’t have a field of study, or use the library for work or research. I have checked things out occasionally and have looked up things on line, but otherwise, don’t need the services the library offers. |
| Undergraduate | Graduate | Languages / Linguistics | 23 – 30 | The book request system (inter loan) is very useful, but it is difficult to physically locate a book on a shelf because of how the library departments are arranged. |
| Undergraduate | Faculty | Other | 31 – 45 | everything is great, except the media services. regular staff are great. but, desk workers are poorly trained and not knowledgeable. the fact that videos/dvds circulate is a MAJOR problem for those of us who teach media. the reserve system could be much more sophisticated to accommodate teachers’ needs. The fact that you do not include film/media studies above in the choices for discipline illustrates the library does not prioritize those issues, despite the EXCELLENT collection you have. |
| Undergraduate | Faculty | Other | 31 – 45 | City Planning and Landscape Archcitecture not listed in question 39! That is the library I use the most.
My discipline is not listed either. |
| Undergraduate | Faculty | Life / Health Sciences | 46 – 65 | Will you every revive a version of the old browsing room – perhaps at the undergrad library? it is difficult to view and access the newer fiction and nonfiction books in the library’s collection at the present time. |
| Undergraduate | Library Staff | Other | 46 – 65 | Parking for library use is sometimes difficult. |
| Undergraduate | Undergraduate | Social Sciences | 18 – 22 | Overall, impressed with the extent of resources at the library. Very pleased with the service I have gotten. |
| Undergraduate | Staff | Labor and Industrial Relations | 46 – 65 | I use the library for research in the are of theology and I use it to read a lot of fiction. In my work I set up a lot of professors so they may have access, and lately, I set up two professors who are offsite, and the library personnel were great in helping me to accomplish the ability for them to get into journals, etc. and use our library resources. |
| Undergraduate | Graduate | Business | 18 – 22 | I find the group workspaces very beneficial. |
| Undergraduate | Undergraduate | Architecture | 18 – 22 | The new library hours are good. The time allowed and the restrictions on locations for borrowing laptops should be improved to allow students who don’t have laptops to be able to take and use them for class (outside of the library for a limited time). However, overall, the library services are doing a fine job. |
| Undergraduate | Undergraduate | Social Sciences | 18 – 22 | While studying in the lower basement level of the UGL I am frequently kicked off the internet and have to leave the library and come back to my noisy apartment in order to continue my work because I simply cannot search the internet for what I am looking for because I constantly lose connection as of late. |
| Undergraduate | Staff | Administrative / Campus Unit | 46 – 65 | I use the Undergraduate Library from time to time for a quiet study space away from the office, during lunch hours.
In the past, I have found the online book ordering option to be unwieldy (at times). I have not tried to order a book to be delivered to my campus address within the past year. I have sometimes had difficulty using the online book catalog to locate materials. I have not tried with within the past year. |
| Undergraduate | Staff | Other | 31 – 45 | Are there opportunities where the University Library and other service providers could offer blended services to create a “one-stop shop?” There are a tremendous amount of services, and it could be beneficial to instructors, researchers, and students to have more services integrated in a central location. |
| Undergraduate | Graduate | Business | 23 – 30 | They have put too many movies in Undergrad Reserve…… |
| Undergraduate | Undergraduate | Languages / Linguistics | 18 – 22 | I have never really had a problem with the service. People always are very helpful. |
| Undergraduate | Undergraduate | Life / Health Sciences | 18 – 22 | The library staff at the graduate library should be more accomidating and understand that first year students do not always understand how to find books on their own!! |
| Undergraduate | Faculty | Social Sciences | 46 – 65 | I am new to the university, so I haven’t used as many of the library’s features except for the journal databases. I will use it more with students when I teach next fall. |
| University Archives | Library Staff | Administrative / Campus Unit | 46 – 65 | The first floor north-south hallway resembles a ghetto. Not a very nice introduction to a great library. That pock-marked wall looks like it is about to cave in. Should I wear a hard hat when I use the Library? |
| University Archives | Staff | Humanities | 31 – 45 | I generally am able to locate what I need in a timely fashion. When I need assistance from library staff I rarely find staff that are not willing to help. |
| Veterinary Medicine | Faculty | Veterinary Science | 46 – 65 | Library staff and facilities are fine. The one thing I struggle with at times is the inability to do some of my work at home due to subscription issues. I like to use Reference manager for my citation management and I cannot get access sometimes. Also, there are times when I am working on campus and still cannot get access to a journal paper unless I go to the Library site first. This is not a huge problem but research tends to be quite dynamic and I do not like being “stuck” in a particular part of the network to take care of things. I also am still sometimes frustrated that the library catalog is not more integrated with everything else. Overall, the library is a wonderful resource and I greatly appreciate the high quality of the staff and the collection. I actually do not expect it to meet ALL my information needs. It is most important to me that it be accessible with as few extra clicks as possible. |
| Veterinary Medicine | Faculty | Veterinary Science | 46 – 65 | The University Library website is useless to me. It consumes time. I wind up, giving up on it’s obsolete frames, and going directly to Google or Google Scholar and, if the article is not available, I usually do without it. Occasionally I ask a graduate student, associate, or assistant to find an article through the library system. We need to be able to use Google for more journals without running into subscription pages that deny access or expect to be paid to download articles. I almost never use them. |
| Veterinary Medicine | Staff | Veterinary Science | 31 – 45 | Library books are not always checked in appropriately. |
| Staff | Administrative / Campus Unit | 46 – 65 | I really haven’t used the Library since my under grad days | |
| Library Staff | Administrative / Campus Unit | 46 – 65 | Most of the questions were unrelated to my work. | |
| Faculty | Other | 46 – 65 | Q39: City Planning Landscape Architecture Library | |
| Faculty | Agriculture / Environmental Studies | 46 – 65 | Off campus Extension position. Am not aware of how to access the library. I am sure it would be helpful to have access. | |
| Faculty | Life / Health Sciences | 46 – 65 | Overall, the library does a very admirable job. Sometimes I am distressed about seeing staff who are minding the checkout desk sitting there reading personal books or chatting on the phone. In these days when all the departmental funds are being cut, can’t some “work” be found for these souls to do?! | |
| Faculty | Other | 31 – 45 | Have never been to the U of I library. | |
| Faculty | Agriculture / Environmental Studies | 31 – 45 | Ridiculous framework for your survey – after about 5 questions I could care less – “minimum, desired, and perceived” with 27 little radio buttons???????? My head hurts just looking at it. Take some time and devise a reasonable survey. | |
| Staff | Administrative / Campus Unit | 31 – 45 | I would say that I use the on line resources more then anything. I use the Housing resource room and Residence Hall library physical collection the next often | |
| Faculty | Engineering / Computer Science | 46 – 65 | I am delighted with access to electronic journals and with availability of books, CDs, and videos, both on campus and via I-SHARE. Rarely do I seek a book or CD that is not available. I am saddened by the cancellation of some subscriptions to journals that I use, and by the reduction of open hours. | |
| Staff | Administrative / Campus Unit | 46 – 65 | In my positions held at the University, I haven’t the need for using the library facilities. That is why you see the “N/A” at the beginning of this questionnaire. | |
| Faculty | Engineering / Computer Science | 46 – 65 | I’m new faculty and I’m still finding my way around. I was glad to receive email about library services, but have not had the opportunity to browse the library. I have found the web interface helpful and I have taken advantage of web access to journals and proceedings. Is there any orientation material other than the email of February 12th? (It would have been even more useful when I started in October.) | |
| Staff | Administrative / Campus Unit | 31 – 45 | I do apologize for not giving any information; but I have never been to any of the libraries on the University and I kept getting this email; so I felt like I had to participate in the survey. I do apologize for not being much help. | |
| Faculty | Humanities | 46 – 65 | This is truly a stupid survey, badly written, mixing touchy-feely stuff with true information-seeking questions. The new library gateway on line is confusing and is far worse than the previous version. The stacks are more and more difficult to use. | |
| Staff | Other | 46 – 65 | I have not used the library resources for several years so I have no knowledge of how things work or how/what is available | |
| Staff | Engineering / Computer Science | 46 – 65 | I don’t use library services, and as an employee was never given any sort of introduction to or information about available library services. | |
| Staff | Performing / Fine Arts | 31 – 45 | This survey was far too long and had some questions that were unclear — particularly the seemingly repeated questions about employees (caring, courteous, instilling confidence, etc.). You really should ask fewer questions and have a less imposing survey (which is currently a huge field of radio buttons). This should not look like a ScanTron test. I put off answering this survey for many days for this reason.
All I want is to find stuff online, have it sent to me, and be notified before it is due. I rarely need to ask librarians for assistance — either you have what I want or you don’t. If you don’t, I want an easy way to get you to order what I want. Again, no personal interaction required here. As far as electronic materials goes: You should fight DRM. Digital Restrictions Management has no place in a library nor should the public pay for such (even indirectly). |
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| Staff | Agriculture / Environmental Studies | 31 – 45 | Mostly use online journals, sometime I do get this is not supported by library. Also I wish streamlined access to library subscribed journals from home. Thanks for the opportunity. |
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| Staff | Other | 31 – 45 | I am an Extension employee. I’ve been to campus twice to the Aces Library but that is my total experience with the campus. I would like to learn about the library resources I might be able to utilize on the internet. | |
| Staff | Administrative / Campus Unit | 31 – 45 | Sadly, I haven’t used Library Servcies, but if our Department moves over to the Library and gets some space…I forsee that changing! 🙂 28-35 were just put a neutral response due to not have a n/a available – can’t determine without having used the services. |
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| Staff | Other | 31 – 45 | only been to the library once and that was to visit someone. survey really didn’t apply to me – sorry | |
| Staff | Library and Information Science | 46 – 65 | I use Consumer Report frequently. At the Gateway for journal articles I type in CONSUMER REPORT” . I’m then given multiple options, for example using Ebsco, and others. Some provide the actual articles I can download, others just a summary, and other sources actually put me into a search for the topic not in Consumer Report. In other words, it would be nice to have one preferrrable site which would give me the articles only from Consumer Report which I can download.
Thanks |
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| Staff | Administrative / Campus Unit | 46 – 65 | I don not use the U of I library at all. I do use the Champaign & Mahomet librarys | |
| Faculty | Administrative / Campus Unit | 46 – 65 | what a terrible survey … questions that don’t make sense redundant questions … can’t leave them blank can’t undo entriesThere’s so much clutter that I can’t communicate what I think is important — the library does so much so well that it is a shame that it is represented by this survey |
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| Staff | Agriculture / Environmental Studies | 46 – 65 | I’ve never used the library system but would like to. As an Extension field professional, the only real option is online. I’ve met Karen Hogenboom who said working with Extension is part of her scope of work, and that’s hopeful. I know I’m not alone. For questions 1-27 I checked ‘not applicable’ which I assume was for perceived. For questions 28-35 I checked ‘1’ for all of them which is not accurate but in the absence of ‘not applicable’ i didn’t know what to do. Finally, I had to choose a discipline and none applied so went with Ag/Environmental Studies since Extension is part of that college – but I do neither Ag nor Environmental Studies. | |
| Staff | Social Sciences | 23 – 30 | Because I am not on the Champaign campus, I do not have the opportunity to use the library often. | |
| Faculty | Humanities | 31 – 45 | I have been deeply disappointed with the library system at UIUC. I can never locate the books that I am searching for when in the stacks, and I am appalled by how poorly the facilities are maintained (books all over the floor, broken desks, and not an employee to be found). While at my previous university I regularly patronized the library for research and writing purposes, I never bother here at UIUC. | |
| Staff | Administrative / Campus Unit | 31 – 45 | It would be really great if materials could be sent to my home! | |
| Staff | Education | 46 – 65 | I fear my survey is of little to no value to you as I work in a county extension office, hence, I do not visit the campus libraries. I have not taken the occasion to explore the online opportunity to utilize the University Library. | |
| Staff | Administrative / Campus Unit | 31 – 45 | I have not been on campus that long, so I can’t answer the perceived service level questions. I set them all as “5”, but only so I could complete the form. | |
| Faculty | Social Sciences | 31 – 45 | My Library is not listed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! City Planning and Landscape Architecture is not on the list. So all the questions I answered refer to CPLA. Also the way the move of CPLA is being handled is disturbing at least. Little communication and concern for the departments involved. I have noted some passive aggressive behavior and resentment on the part of ACES library staff in this process, which is making the process even more difficult.
Also I think the state of the main stacks is a disgrace! Apart from being dangerous with all the book on the floor it is very difficult to find anything. I am really shocked at how disorganized it is and that we are supposed to have the biggest and best library in a public institution. |