You spoke; we listened!

May 23, 2025

In 2024, UVic Libraries ran a campus-wide survey to gather insight on the needs and satisfaction of our users.

We received 2,488 responses from students, faculty, and staff about our spaces, services, and collections. Read the full report.

One year later, we are following up about the actions we’ve taken that respond to some of that feedback.

Spaces:

What we heard:

Our spaces are in high demand and there’s insufficient availability during peak study times.
More ergonomic seating is needed, especially at the computer stations and study carrels.
Library washrooms are dated and inaccessible for many users.

What we’re doing:

Replaced 191 chairs at computer stations with new ergonomic seating.
Presently engaged in library space planning to identify our priorities and opportunities for modernizing our spaces.

Services:

What we heard:

Our staff provide excellent support, but finding information about support services can be difficult.

We need to communicate about library consultations, workshops and events where the students are – in particular Brightspace.

What we’re doing:

We are working with campus partners on more cross-promotion of library services and events.

Collections:

What we heard:

Users need clearer information about what is actually in our collection.
Faculty want more information about collections-related services for them – e.g. ReQuest service, OA funding.
Fines are a barrier for some students and can limit use of our physical materials.

What we’re doing:

Last Fall, we removed all late fees for loans of regular items and reduced rates for other materials like media equipment and reserve items.
We launched a new search tool for faculty to find information about waivers or discounts on Article Processing Charges (APCs).
We’re working on improving discoverability in our main Library Search tool.

This is only a snapshot of our work so far!

If you have more feedback to share about your library, you can always contact askus@uvic.ca