Reflecting on Library Spaces, Resources, and Services: A Learners' Perspective During a Pandemic

Background: A multi-site academic library system has had fluctuations of open hours of physical libraries during the COVID-19 pandemic. Library services have continued, if modified, and learners have continued to use the libraries both in-person (when available) and virtually. A satisfaction survey of learners had been in discussion, as the last one had been completed in late 2018 before LCME accreditation review. We used this opportunity to not only repeat the learner satisfaction survey, but also to gather data about the perspective of learners on library spaces, resources, and services during the pandemic.

Description: The questions and results from the 2018 survey were reviewed by a librarian on each campus. The questions were evaluated for clarity as well as arranged in a logical order. In addition, the librarians chose to add questions about current library spaces, resources, and services that were specific to the time of the pandemic, starting in March 2020. We considered a question comparing their satisfaction pre-pandemic to now. However, we acknowledged that many current learners were not here at the start of the pandemic and would have no knowledge about how things used to be. We asked them about their comfort in the library spaces (masking rules, social distancing, cleaning of surfaces, etc.), as well as about any barriers they experienced to resources and services due to the pandemic.

Conclusion: We sent the survey to 1,602 people and received feedback from a variety of learners with a 16% response rate (260 responses). Most were comfortable with the safety rules in the library (masking, social distancing, etc.) and most did not experience a disruption in service. Some commenters noted that for awhile the libraries were not available to anyone, which was true mostly in the earliest days of the pandemic before badge access was reinstated. We also received feedback about the overall comfort of the spaces, which will help us with future space planning projects.