1. Mary Naylor Stephens, MS Annie Smith, MLS
Using Focus Group Feedback:
How the UVU Fulton Library Incorporated Feedback to Make Improvements and Reach More Students
Mary Naylor Stephens, MS
Annie Smith, MLS

2. Reference “Heat Map,” September, 2018
Assessing Reference
Tally sheets: directional and research
Brief survey, Summer 2016
Whiteboard surveys, Spring 2017
Campus-wide “Student Opinion Survey” (2 reference-ish questions), Fall 2018
Outline 1: Mary set up
Reference “Heat Map,” September, 2018

3. Assessing Reference: Where Things Were
What we had done
Continuous tally sheets
Brief survey, Summer 2016
Whiteboard surveys, Spring 2017
Student Opinion Survey (2 reference-ish questions), Fall 2018
Drawbacks
Not a large sample
No in depth information
Weren’t getting “non” users, or any answers on non use

4. Partnering with Institutional Research
A focus group seemed like the answer
More depth
Non users could be included
Round out stats with stories
New ground for the library
Institutional Research helped with
Being experts!
Neutral facilitator
Neutral location
Guided questions and follow ups
Outline Mary 1b why a focus group

5. Focus Group Focus Group 1, June 2018 Focus Group 2, October 2018
N=4 (all non-traditional)
First Summer Semester group try
Focus Group 2, October 2018
N=11
First evening group try
Students represented a variety of majors and class levels (except freshmen).
Facilitated and housed by Institutional Research.
Students received pizza, soda, and movie tickets for participation.
Outline 1: Mary Focus group Specs

6. From the June 2018 IR Summary:
“Another participant expressed just thinking of UVU’s librarians as student employees who ‘man the post.’ Jokingly, the participant mentioned that maybe there is a director somewhere--looking at a big screen, surrounded by books--and that’s what the participant associates with the title ‘librarian.’”

7. Findings
The usual suspect: students don’t know what we do and we weren’t the first people they thought to ask for research help.
Students had different definitions and expectations of “research.”
Students were independent searchers, but reported struggling with:
Creating topics
Understanding scholarly writing
Identifying relevant sources
Citations
Students love working with librarians...once they have established contact with one of us.
Kudos to instruction! ... But some students are missing library workshops.

8. Findings Library is valued for space, atmosphere.
Interlibrary loan and citation builders were big hits.
Sadly, so was Google Scholar.
Students encountered surprising friction points in using the library.
There was so much the students didn’t know about the Library.

9. Closing the Loop Short Term: Long Term:
Modify instruction presentations
Update library tutorials
Advertise librarians in new ways
Initiate “Weird Reference” training
Long Term:
Broaden reach of library advertising
Build relationships with faculty
Pilot “book a librarian”
Investigate more ways to provide help at points of need.
Outline 3 Annie what we did with it? Part 2

10. Perks and Pits of Focus Groups
Got context! Lots of detailed information
Tried something new
Students gave good suggestions
New connections on campus
Pits
Cost
Still not as much context as some peeps would like
Sample size
Coordination time and energy

11. Recommendations Plan ahead
Time
Budget
Ask for help! (and let the experts be experts)
Neutral is a win!
Build a question bank
What questions do you want more details? What stories will help?
Draft, draft, draft, draft
Zen space for results
Feedback is hard
Outline 5 Mary recs

12. Special Thanks
Angela Ward: Senior Research Analyst at Utah Valley University
Annalyse Kofoed: Student Research Assistant at Utah Valley University

13. Questions? Mary Naylor Stephens mary.nayor@uvu.edu Annie Smith
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