Giving feedback

Information Services welcomes and actively seeks feedback from our users.

Information Services employs a variety of formal and informal mechanisms for maintaining dialogue, eliciting feedback and ensuring that its services are responsive to user demand and changing user needs.

Enquiries: as well as Information Services enquiry points in all our libraries for in-person support, we receive enquiries via email, phone, twitter/Facebook, online chat. We aim to respond to enquiries within 3 working days however a response is usually sent within 24 hours.

Feedback, comments and suggestions can be made in person via a staff member at any of our service points, via email is-feedback@aber.ac.uk, online at http://www.aber.ac.uk/en/is/feedback/ or by filling in a paper suggestions form at any of our libraries.

IS Response to feedback:
We regularly display a summary of feedback/comments received and our responses to them on notice boards in our libraries. Responses to our annual user surveys and suggestions harvests are made available on our feedback webpages. Additional feedback on Information Services is received via the annual NSS survey. This data is used along with other feedback mechanisms to review our services.

User engagement

  • An extensive Information Services User Survey is carried out every March covering all services and provides comparative data that we use to identify trends. A gap analysis identifies the biggest gaps between “importance” and “satisfaction” and this information is used to target services and facilities that are shown to be less successful. Reports on findings are made to relevant committees including IS Users Committee and action is taken to follow up specific issues.
  • A Suggestions Harvest is carried out in November and in recent years has focussed on one aspect of IS provision and usually has only has two or three questions and a space for comments. Individual questions and issues are followed up with individual respondents as relevant.

  • Sample weeks are conducted 3 times a year to provide more qualitative data on enquiries received at our Enquiry points and immediate feedback on quality of service delivery. The aim is to measure user satisfaction with enquiry service within IS, understand the type of enquiries dealt with by IS staff on enquiry desks and to inform training needs.

  • 24/7 Student Focus Group: In recent years we have established an IS Focus Group as an additional mechanism for monitoring our services. The focus group is comprised of students who, throughout the year, engage with IS to provide feedback, suggest ideas for improving services and take part in a virtual discussion group as well as some face to face meetings.

Meetings

  • IS Users’ Committee: meeting with IS representatives and IS staff.
  • Bilateral ‘round table’ meetings with all academic departments
  • Attendance of IS staff at departmental and Staff-Student Consultative Committee meetings to discuss matters of relevance to IS provision.
  • The Aberystwyth Learning and Teaching Online (ALTO) Steering Group.