What are first-year students saying?
Assessing a Personal Librarian Program
Heather Buchansky, Student Engagement Librarian
University of Toronto Libraries
[email protected]
• Pilot in 2012
What do students ask?
When do students ask?
A ppreciate emails, and w ould like to meet in person
A t beginning of terms, and w hen emails go out
• Librarians reach out w ith advice through emails
2012/ 13
2013/ 14
2014/ 15
10
28
39
Students
1000
2500
4483
Average ratio
450
700
600
500
400
300
200
100
0
400
350
300
2014-15
200
100
50
“ I w as unaw are going into first year that I had a
personal librarian, possibly next year inform your
students prior to the commencement of the year.”
(student feedback, end of year survey, A pril 2014)
0
What do students click on?
• M ake a personal connection to first-year students
• Identify key questions asked, to inform outreach
• Test scalability of online systems to send and track
communication betw een librarians and students
• Track student assessment and feedback of program
Assessment methods
Top 10 of 35 links sent in emails
Solution: send notice through A rts & Science e-new s
Assignment Calculator
Personal Librarian Info Page
Quiet spots on UofT campus, Student Life blog*
Library workshops
'Focus in the Age of Distraction' infograph*
Therapy dog visit
Exam bank
Top 10 library tips guide
Library extended hours
Peer review research guide
Further information
Please visit personal.library.utoronto.ca
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
Special thanks
# of clickthrus
End of year survey
• Clickthru rate of w ebsites in emails
• Surveys (meet & greet, end of year)
Over half of respondents say emails w ere very helpful/ helpful, and learned something new
Emails from librarian were helpful
• Email coding
• Sentiment comments
Not at all
7%
Somewhat
16%
Emails from librarian introduced me to library
services/resources I didn’t know about
Not at all
Somewhat 6%
11%
A Great
Deal
26%
A Great Deal
23%
• Open email rate (inaccurate data due to email clients
blocking image tab of analytics code)
Solution: H ost a meet & greet event in September
150
1 : 100
1 : 89
1 : 115
Goals
“ I w ish w e could have met our personal librarians
in the beginning of the year so w e knew them
before even getting help and communicating
through email.”
(student feedback, end of year survey, A pril 2013)
2013-14
250
# of emails
Librarians
# of emails
• Students can contact librarian at anytime for help
Year
Using student feedback
Results
About the program
Moderately
22%
Mostly
33%
n = 383
Brandon Fratarcangeli
Ricky Wang
Research Ethics Board,
University of Toronto
(Protocol ID #31059)
…and all the UTL Personal Librarians involved!
Credits
Moderately
24%
Mostly
32%
Rita Vine
Ken Yang
Jacqueline Whyte A ppleby
Kelly Jay & Glenn Loney,
Faculty of A rts & Science
n = 382
“ Group-Question” by Justin Blake, from thenounproject.com
“ Scroll” by Rafael M ayrink, from thenounproject.com
“ Customer-Satisfaction” by Luis Prado, from thenounproject.com
“ Light-Bulb” by Till Teenck, from thenounproject.com