In April 2007 WiLS contracted with Morrill Solutions Research to conduct a member satisfaction survey. The survey went out beyond our membership as we aimed to include as many libraries as possible. The return rate exceeded our expectations and many people took the time to add comments. We will spend the new year identifying changes needed and implementing improvements as fast as possible.
Highlights (What We Learned)
- WiLS members are quite satisfied with services they receive, believe the WiLS staff is very responsive to their needs, but would like costs to be lower
- 84% of WiLS members find the services they use to be "essential"
- Most respondents support WorldCat/BadgerCat
- Many people do not understand the WiLS mission, governance structure nor the relationship between WiLS and other organizations such as DPI or UW Madison
- Members place a high value on WiLS leadership and "facilitating collaboration" roles — but there is definite room for improvement in how effective WiLS is in these areas
- Respondents from institutions that are not WiLS members found the survey to be a learning opportunity — they were unfamiliar with WiLS and interested in knowing more
Survey Distribution (Survey Outcomes)
The survey was sent to INDIVIDUALS and designed to solicit personal viewpoints not institutional opinions. We believed this would give us more specific information not a homogenized opinion that generally is the result of an Institutional response.
The downside is that we have no way of knowing how many individual institutions are represented in the responses.
For WiLS member institutions—included individuals in WiLS Membership database listed as: Director plus ILL, OCLC, Cooperative Purchasing, Digital, Electronic Reference and Collection Development Contacts
For NON Members and Prospective Members—included only Director
Non-member public libraries were drawn from the DPI Library Director; Prospective members cam from the WiLS Membership Database. This category general includes Museums, Historical Societies and other related cultural heritage institutions
| Summary by Library Community | # Sent | # Received | Rate of Return |
| Academic | 327 | 144 | 44.0% |
| Public | 520 | 206 | 39.6% |
| School | 526 | 144 | 27.4% |
| Special | 80 | 38 | 47.5% |
| Non Library | 67 | 12 | 17.9% |
| TOTAL | 1520 | 544 | 35.8% |
| Survey Distribution by Type of Library | # Surveyed |
| PL/PLS Members | 190 |
| PL/PLS Non Members | 330 |
| Private Academic | 104 |
| Technical Colleges | 46 |
| UW | 177 |
| Special Libraries | 80 |
| Schools | 526 |
| Prospective Members | 67 |