The 2012 PLUS survey (public library user survey) shows rising levels of satisfaction about Brent libraries. PLUS is a national survey of library users. In Brent's case, 2,142 questionnaires were completed by Brent library users in November last year, which is about 81% of the people who were asked.
The results shows improvement in satisfaction rates on all the measures used since the last survey in 2009. In terms of people who said they found their experience either good or very good, the ratings are:
Opening hours 90% (up 5%)
Customer care. 84% (up 3%)
Information provision 77% (up 9%)
Computer facilities 70% (up 6%)
Physical state of books 82% (up 8%)
Choice of books 73% (up 10%)
Attractiveness of library outside 66% (up 4%)
Attractiveness of library inside 77% (up 9%)
The survey also asks about individual libraries, where all the libraries except the Town Hall library show an upward movement, although Kingsbury and Ealing Road are quite slight. I am not too worried by the fall in satisfaction at the Town Hall library since it is about to be replaced by the Civic Centre library (which, amazingly, some of the "library campaigners" opposed).
Unfortunately, the PLUS survey doesn't tell us about use of the outreach service or the home delivery service, which has exploded in Brent as a result of the transformation project. Of course, we can infer satisfaction from the much greater usage, but it would be nice to have more direct data.
Still, I think it demonstrates that we are on the right track in improving our library service despite the bleak financial situation.
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