The Customer Speaks: How the Users See the NIST Research Library

Published

May 1, 2003

Author(s)

Barbara P. Silcox, P J. Deutsch

Abstract

The Research Advisory Committee (RAC) at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in its 2000 Annual Report to the NIST Director expressed concern that the NIST Research Library would not be able to meet the research needs of the scientific and technical staff in the very near future due to inadequate and stagnant funding. Of particular concern was the rate at which the Research Library had cancelled journal subscriptions in the last three years to stay within its fiscal year allocations. In response to the RAC's concerns, the NIST Director requested that the Office of Information Services (OIS) conduct a customer survey to determine the NIST research community's use and satisfaction with the Research Library's information resources and to assess the impact of the recent journal cancellations on the NIST research environment. In October 2001, OIS conducted this customer survey. With 528 respondents from 48 out of 55 NIST divisions, the survey results represent the perspectives of a wide variety of NIST researchers. This article will address how the survey instrument was developed and the findings.

Citation

Information Outlook

Volume

7

Issue

No. 5

Pub Type

Journals

Keywords

NIST Research Library, research library, scientific research, technical library

Citation

Silcox, B. and Deutsch, P. (2003), The Customer Speaks: How the Users See the NIST Research Library, Information Outlook (Accessed May 10, 2025)