Today's libraries are seeking innovative ways to "retrofit" their services, products and physical spaces in order to meet the needs of a new generation of library users. To better understand our evolving user needs, we used both low-tech and high-tech methods to collect feedback, including: comment books in the library, electronic surveys of selected courses, in-class discussion, course assignments, audience response systems, user interviews , and email requests for comments to the teaching faculty.

This poster demonstrates the variety of methods we have used to gather user feedback and some of the changes that were implemented in response. Among these changes were: comfy furniture in student-suggested areas, more whiteboards in more library locations, a popular fiction collection, signage to help users with locating printing stations and reading call numbers, a presentation practice room, and a "quickprint" station. We are also trying to maximize the marketing value of collecting user feedback and are asking ourselves, "What can we do next to connect with (and respond to) our users?"

If you have suggestions for gathering user feedback, please consider contacting us and sharing them.