SATISFACTION RATE

Library Administrator's Digest, Feb 2005

It's budget time again! Recently the City of Ottawa commissioned a Citizen Satisfaction Survey by EKOS Research Associates as part of the annual budget building process. The objective of the exercise was to produce a benchmark survey to measure resident satisfaction with services and to discover the relative importance of services to residents. We were delighted with the survey results that said library services were the highest rated service among users at 88 percent satisfaction rate, followed closely by fire services at 87 percent. Even 55 percent of nonusers said they were satisfied with the library ... and they didn't even use the service! Other results indicated that 92 percent of respondents said that library services should either be maintained or increased with only 8 percent saying that services should be decreased.

One of those new needs involves a new library partnership with the Ottawa Public Health Department and Active Ottawa. For some years now, responding to public demand, the library has worked to build its collection of health materials in both print and electronic form. The collection is called Health Infor Santé. Now, taking advantage of the library's excellent distribution and circulation system, we are adding a new and somewhat unusual health resource to the collection. With your library card you can now borrow a little pedometer from any branch, strap it to your belt and try it out for three weeks (same loan period as a book). The goal is to get citizens walking 10,000 steps a day. With a special grant from the province of Ontario, Ottawa Public Health was able to provide the library with 660 pedometers and, before they were even cataloged, there were more than 125 reserves on them. This is a pilot project, and if all goes well, the province would like to get the whole province walking ... in partnership with the public library.

Barbara Clubb in Preview, Ottawa (ONT)

Public Library, Winter 2005