The Australian Library Journal
volume 50 issue 2

Customer services in the National Library of Australia: leading edge or dragging the chain?

Customer service in commonwealth government agencies has come a long way in the last decade. The growth of awareness of consumer affairs has led to the development of a service charter and complaints handling process in the National Library of Australia that provides a model of service in a public enterprise. Recent focus groups and a survey of customers have shown increasing satisfaction with the library's service, but reflect a very low awareness of the service charter. This raises questions about how complaint resolution is perceived. The development of online services such as digital collections is discussed in terms of service expectations of clients.

'A National Library is a place where a nation nourishes its memory and exerts imagination - where it connects with its past and invents its future.' Pierre Ryckmans, 1996

Australians have access, through the National Library of Australia, to a comprehensive collection of Australian library material and to international documentary resources.

Our particular goal for 2000-2002 and beyond is to help ensure that:

All Australians, at their place of choice, have direct, seamless access to print and electronic sources of information.

The Library provides a wide range of services to Australians and libraries. Almost 120 000 reference enquiries are handled each year, and around 500 000 items delivered to readers in the library, to other libraries through document supply (previously known as inter-library loan), and to individuals through photographic orders.

While the reference service to individuals is provided free of charge, document supply and photographic orders are charged for. Users are increasingly being provided with services electronically, both mediated, where a library staff member provides an answer to an enquiry; and unmediated services where a reference tool, such as an internet subject guide electronic resource listing (including Australian journals on line and Australian newspapers online) is used by the reader to access information.

Providing service as a 'free public good' does not imply a diminished level or quality of service, nor does it exclude clients from access to a complaint handling procedure if they feel this is justified. Indeed, the expectations of those using the free reference service are in fact very high. Clients have high standards and are keen to inform us on those occasions where their service provided does not meet their expectations.

As a part of the assessment of our service quality the library has adopted and published a set of service standards. We have a high level of complaint monitoring and assessment, and are also reviewing expectations of our service through a series of focus groups. This paper addresses the assessment of the National Library's service standards, their evaluation and their quality.

Our service charter
This was developed through a process of internal consultation in 1998, addressing the services offered through eight reading rooms, the telephone enquiry service, e-mail and letter enquiry service and our services to other libraries. The resultant document, which is available in print and on the web, summarises our services in terms of measurable outputs to readers.

The key components of the service charter as articulated to the users are expressed in the following terms:

'You are entitled to expect that whenever you approach us you will receive quick, effective and courteous attention.

We intend to satisfy your information needs by using the most current and authoritative sources. We recognise that timely delivery is often important and therefore have set the following targets:

• we will deliver items you request from the collection within 30 minutes when you visit unless the material is not stored within the building - in which case most material will be delivered within two hours. We will notify you if delivery is to exceed these times;
  
  
• we will provide a satisfactory response to your telephone enquiries within 48 hours if they cannot be dealt with immediately;
  
  
• we will respond to your written enquiries (letter, e-mail, fax) within five days wherever possible, but may need four weeks or more to answer complex requests for information.

Our level of service is not determined by your geographic location. Both by means of our own services and through co-operation with other libraries, we hope to make the nation's library resources available to the widest possible number of people. That is why:

• we provide direct access through the Australian Bibliographic Network to materials within our own collections and from other Australian libraries as well as using developing technologies through the internet;
  
  
• we will index Australian periodicals to help you identify the best articles for your research in selected subject areas and we will make these indexes available in on-line databases;
  
  
• we use and interpret our Australian collections and make them accessible through exhibitions, publications, seminars and other public events in order that you obtain a greater understanding of Australia and Australians;
  
  
• we aim to send documents to you through your local library within 24 hours of receiving a request through our express system or within four working days for the standard service.'

Monitoring of performance occurs through monthly internal reporting on services and reporting through the quarterly Outcomes and outputs statements to the Commonwealth. We have recently undertaken an extensive review of reporting to adopt a Balanced score card which provides more detailed information on our service delivery and programs.

Through Outcomes and outputs we report against our targets, which cover collections, services (including Kinetica) and other library activities. For reference services the targets for 2000/01 are

Our service charter provides a statement of our service objectives for the library's clients. Monitoring of performance occurs regularly to ensure that services are delivered to agreed standards. Any failure to meet standards must then be considered and explained to the library's management and also to government.

The library had over 115 000 reference enquiries and delivered approximately 500 000 collection items in 1999/2000. The service standards were met in 1999/2000 as follows:

Quantity:

93 per cent of primary users were satisfied with reference services and facilities;

96 per cent with delivery of collection items.

Timeliness:

Telephone enquiries:

100 per cent of enquiries responded to within 48 hours. 8153 telephone inquiries were received during this period.

Written enquiries (all forms):

96 per cent of enquiries responded to within five days; 99.99 per cent of enquiries responded to within four weeks.

Collection material delivery:

88.83 per cent of on-site requests delivered within service standards based on survey of all call slips submitted;

100 per cent of off site requests delivered within service standards;

98 per cent of Express ILL requests dispatched within service standards;

95 per cent of standard ILL requests dispatched within service standards based on survey undertaken in March.

Effectiveness:

97 per cent of onsite readers, 96 per cent of off-site, and 96 per cent of primary users were satisfied that they had their information needs met for reference services;

90 per cent of requests for collection items through main reading room met;

81 per cent of requests through document supply met.

Our complaints process and experience
The library's commitment to service to clients is detailed in the service charter. A policy on complaints handling forms part of the adoption of the charter. The framework for the complaints process is based on the Australia Standards Complaints Handling standard (AS 4269-1995). All staff are trained annually in complaint handling, and the policy and procedures are contained in the library's manuals as an administrative circular.

Complaints are defined as follows:

... a formal expression of dissatisfaction received in writing, or through follow up in person/by phone by dissatisfied user with supervisor or other senior staff (that is where extra effort is made to complain).

A compliment is:

... a formal expression of satisfaction received in writing, or through follow up in person/by phone by satisfied user with supervisor or other senior staff.

Complaints and compliments for reference and collection delivery are recorded in the library in the following ways:

• complaints are recorded on an Access database,
  
  
• compliments are recorded on official files.
  
  

All complaints and compliments are recorded in accordance with the Administrative Circular, issued in support of the Service charter.

Complaints and compliments1999/2000

All complaints are investigated when they are lodged, with a response required within five working days. All complaints are also reviewed as part of quarterly reporting and an annual review occurs to ensure patterns and major issues are assessed and that any further action required takes place. For example a new assessment and set of actions has commenced on photocopying.

Every complaint is treated very seriously and discussed with staff up to assistant director-general level. To put the number of complaints in perspective we had in 1999/2000 approximately 115 000 reference enquiries and approximately 500 000 items delivered, 900 000 pages photocopied, the number of complaints (30) comprised 0.002 per cent of these transactions.

Over recent years the library has provided extensive staff training including fortnightly current awareness sessions and an annual training seminar to improve customer service and reduce complaints. This program has had significant benefits for users in terms of quality and consistency in service. An indication of the improvement in the library's service is the increase in user satisfaction and the improvement in consistency of service. Details of the survey follow.

Client perspectives
Over the past twenty years the National Library of Australia has used surveys to assess user satisfaction and review the expectations of our services by clients. In March and April 2000 we again surveyed users for their views on the library's reference services and facilities. Continuing a general trend the demographics of the users of mediated reference services showed an increase in age and in education.

This reflects a strong emphasis on personal research, research for a formal course of study (generally tertiary) and research for publication. These each carry a different set of expectations of service. Those studying for a qualification generally have very tight deadlines and require access to a set of resources defined by their lecturers. Their expectation of service is that the materials they request will be delivered promptly and accurately to the main reading room, and there is generally not a high level or reference request for information from the reference librarians. For those undertaking personal research and research for publication the primary emphasis is on obtaining a comprehensive high quality range of materials. Family historians, for example, require access to a range of electronic resources available in sixty-seven computers in the reading rooms and access to materials generally held on open access in the newspaper/microcopy reading room. Because they often use the microform and special material collections they are generally more critical of our reproduction services.

Because each category of research imposes different requirements, or more accurately different priorities for requirements from the National Library of Australia, the general service standards for turn-around time provide only a small part of the picture. Quality standards for reference services are important, very hard to define and measure and are addressed primarily through or in-house training and assessment process.

Some of the key findings of the survey are:

• Overall reader satisfaction: ninety-four per cent in 1998 increased to ninety-six per cent in 2000.
  
  
• seventy-four per cent of respondents in 1998 had high or very high levels of satisfaction with opening hours of reading rooms. The 2000 figure of ninety-one per cent indicates a higher level of satisfaction; however, opening hours were the subject of a number of comments with twelve per cent of those who made comments suggesting longer hours. Stack service hours were rated as very satisfactory by seventeen per cent of readers and satisfactory by sixty-six per cent of readers: fourteen per cent were dissatisfied.
  
  
• While the very high rating of staff service continued (ninety-four per cent in 1998, eighty-four to ninety-five per cent for a range of issues in 2000) there were significant changes in perceptions of staff performance. The 1998 survey found that thirty-four per cent of readers in the Main Reading Room were dissatisfied with the consistency of service. In 2000 this figure for all the reading rooms combined fell to eleven per cent. In terms of friendliness and approachability of staff the 1998 survey found eighty-eight per cent of readers ranked performance as satisfactory or highly satisfactory, while the 2000 survey found one-hundred per cent of off-site users and ninety-five per cent of on-site users ranked performance as satisfactory or highly satisfactory.

To collect more in-depth information on the needs of readers a series of focus groups have met since July with both non-library users and library users and have identified performance requirements as readers increasingly use electronic services through the internet and to an increasing degree move to research use of the library.

In addition to using surveys to assess quality of service the library has responded to readers with a range of initiatives including opening the newspaper/microcopy reading room for an additional two evenings a week and developing a new marketing program.

Discussion
The service charter and complaint mechanism were established in acknowledgment of the need for clear statements of service. Monitoring of performance has continued regularly to ensure that standards are met, complaints are well handled and to consider further development to the standards. In addition to these regular assessments, detailed occasional reviews have occurred, most notably that of reference services in 1999. This was designed to assess the appropriateness and effectiveness of current services in meeting the library's service obligations and to assist the Library to plan for the next decade. The review's first recommendation was that the library maintain the current high level of user satisfaction by adapting its reference services to meet changing circumstances in information demand and provision. Other findings, dealing with staffing practices, staff skill development, extension of activities to off-site users, provision of leadership and the development of collaborative partnerships, indicated directions for the development of relevant and quality reference services.

The review has been implemented in the library through a range of actions including:

• new work practices including flexible staffing which has enabled e-mail enquiries to open six days a week;
  
  
• a development program in general reference skills and to improve the specialist knowledge of all staff providing reader services;
  
  
• a better response to off-site users through mediated service (off-site reference enquiries increased by fifty-seven per cent in 1999/2000 compared with 1998/99) and by developing new unmediated services, including subject guides, collection guides and web pages, such as the Indexes and Databases service;
  
  
• partnerships with other libraries to develop innovative service options, such as our participation in the Library of Congress Collaborative Digital Reference Service and the Council of Australian State Libraries Reference Issues Working Group.

Since the Review an analysis of the changing pattern of our services has found that there is a continuing increase in the use of reference services electronically and of digital collections. The comparison of digital reference enquiries to traditional letter/fax enquiries shows a distinct transfer to use of web and e-mail services:

The balance of use of our collection items is also shifting from printed to electronic materials. Statistics on the use of selected electronic collections follow:

These changing means of access to services carry with them changing expectations of service by clients. These will affect our service charter in the future. At present the focus group and a planned survey of electronic reference users are critical to the assessment of our services and the needs for the next service standards and charter.

Some general conclusions for our research so far:

• our clients have long memories for any problems in service (or collection policies);
  
  
• they have high expectations of quality;
  
  
• they expect a very rapid service (and we delivery it);
  
  
• new technology is requiring us to move from mediated to unmediated service;
  
  
• customer knowledge of the service charter is low; and
  
  
• market competition needs to be seen differently in the electronic environment; should we move to benchmark ourselves against the Internet?

Activities to support better customer service
In the past two years the National Library of Australiahas concentrated on four major areas to improve customer service: staff, research, procedures and skills. Our development program for staff, comprising at least fortnightly sessions and an annual training day has ensured that staff are aligned with the library's strategic directions and confident of their skills. This is supported with revised and simplified manuals and guides. Research, both qualitative and quantitative, has been conducted to develop a better understanding of customer expectations. Research by the State Library of New South Wales and the Australian War Memorial has also provided an excellent basis from which an institution like ours can consider service needs. Our procedures have undergone a major review, particularly those in the Petherick Room, focusing on workflows, staff responsibility and the library's needs in each situation. Finally a range of tools to measure the service regularly, including the monthly reporting, quarterly reporting and complaints and compliments information has given insight to the ongoing quantity, quality and effectiveness of service. The surveys have added more detailed information on specific aspects of our service.

The National Library of Australia can be seen to be at the leading edge in service standards in the printed environment, and will continue to review service standards and delivery, particularly with the changing opportunities of the electronic environment.