Bill Myers is director of library development and assessment coordinator for information services.

Job duties: My job is to help determine how to gather information on users' needs and expectations in a manner that will lead to our improved performance and their greater satisfaction. We're responsible for serving and supporting the entire campus, from incoming freshman to distinguished professors across every discipline, so the needs and expectations vary widely. I also function as media contact and spokesperson for the libraries and serve as liaison with KU Endowment.

The campus just completed participation in the LibQUAL+ survey on library service quality. What will this mean to KU's libraries? More than 400 faculty and staff and more than 800 graduate and undergraduate students completed the survey. Basically this means that we have quantifiable feedback directly from our users that we can use to assess the effectiveness of our services and resources. Lorraine Haricombe will begin as dean of libraries on Aug. 1. The LibQUAL+ results will inform her of some of the pertinent issues from the perspective of our users.

What are some of those issues? The relative availability of library resources in print and electronic formats; the use of library spaces to accommodate users and materials; the technology available in the libraries; and the diverse range of needs and expectations across our community of users.

LibQUAL+ is a national survey. Why does KU participate? The survey is sponsored by the Association of Research Libraries, of which KU is a member. We've been participating on a three-year cycle since the survey's inception in 2000. With hundreds of other institutions participating, it enables us to see how we compare with our peers and helps identify which issues are more specific to our campus. It also enables us to identify trends in user needs and expectations over time.

Is LibQUAL+ the only assessment method the libraries use? Not at all, though it does help identify issues that we need to explore further, usually with more specifically defined groups within our various user communities. This may take the form of focus groups or interviews or more detail-specific surveying. Our library subject specialists serve as liaisons for faculty and students in academic departments and programs, so that is where a good deal of assessment takes place. We also have a "comments and suggestions" link on our Web site, and there are comment cards available at our service desks.

What do you like most about your profession? The variety of each day and the opportunities to work with people throughout the university. The realm of information – acquiring it, organizing it, delivering it, storing it, preserving it – requires that we understand clearly the needs and expectation of information users. So we gather the evidence from them, then put it into action. The purpose of assessment is to improve, so it's easy to be enthusiastic about it.