Public Library User Survey

Southampton Libraries are great and getting better - feedback from user survey.

In October 2006 we carried out a survey of adult library users in all our libraries. Over 3100 people took the time to rate our services and comment on their local library.

You can see the summary of these results from the link on the right hand of the page called PLUS Survey.

Overall, Southampton library users are very pleased with the service they receive from their libraries and feel the service is improving. The table below shows a comparison of satisfaction from 2004 to 2006. Overall satisfaction rates with the library service in Southampton are at 95%. Only 39% of library services in the country scored 94% or above and only seven libraries out of 149 in England achieved a better score than Southampton.

The only area where satisfaction rates have dropped is how satisfied people are with computers and we are investigating the reasons behind this. However, we are in the process of upgrading the computers themselves to newer faster models and are introducing a more flexible booking system as a result of comments received in the past year. This work will be complete by April 2008.

The Children’s Plus survey of young library users took place in September 2007. Nearly 1,500 children and young people using libraries under the age of 16 took part. The full report of the survey is available via the link on the right hand of the page called Children's Plus Survey.

Most young library users thought they were receiving a good service. 84.2% of those surveyed rated Southampton libraries as good; 15.3% as OK; and only 0.4% thought they were bad. The newly refurbished libraries at Cobbett Road and Shirley received higher ratings of 92.4% and 90%.

76.8% of children and young people thought that the library’s selection of books was good. Again, the refurbished libraries at Shirley (88.1%) and Cobbett Road (84.1%) scored best of the branch libraries.

78.8% of young computer users rated the library’s computers as good. Some of the smaller branch libraries and those with computers in children’s areas had better ratings.

The individual comments and suggestions made during the survey are being collated and each library is looking at its results and comments with a view to making improvements. Profiles have been completed for 5 libraries and can be viewed via the links on the right hand side of this page. Feedback from this process and a statement of improvement for each library will be available here by the summer of 2008.

If you have any comments on the survey or would like further information please contact Elizabeth Whale by e-mail elizabeth.whale@southampton.gov.uk or letter or drop your comments in at any library.

We would like to thank all our library users who took part in the survey, your feedback is very important to us.