This term the Arthur Holt Library will be conducting a small scale demographic study of how staff and students use our services and spaces. We strive to provide the very best services possible and therefore we must also ensure that we regularly check that the reality matches our expectations. The Library is a place where learning, literature and leisure maintain a complex and changing relationship for each student and each member of staff over time.
As part of this study, we will be using an application called RateIt, developed by an Australian startup company and used by many retail, corporate and government entities to track the experience of “users” as they engage with services and products. For example, you may have seen RateIt tablets near the entrance of a KMart or TopShop awaiting your verdict on the customer experience of a particular store.
We have designed a custom set of questions relating to the core business of the Library, requiring only about 15 seconds for students, staff and visitors to enter their thoughts on their experience and to add further comment if they wish. RateIt will filter any ‘outlying’ ratings or comments, in other words, deleting any ratings that are clearly inappropriate or incomplete. The bulk of the feedback will be used to gain insights into which spaces and services are being used, in what way and by which members of our school community.
At the end of this term, the AHL team plan to analyse the information we have gained from the RateIt app, and other data points, and reflect on our provision of services moving into the second half of 2018 and into the future.
We hope that this will give us the best insights from those who make the space come alive with learning.
By Mr Esterman
