Introduction
This section will give you an overview of the sector in which we work and how what we do as a service is affected by our place within the University, the library community we belong to and other external factors. In other words, it’s about where we fit into it all!
Learning outcomes
By the end of this section you will be able to:
-
Outline the University’s vision and values and describe the role of the Library in delivering this for the benefit of our customers
-
Explain why customer satisfaction matters and describe how this is measured at the University
-
Identify how our approach to customer service is influenced by trends in the HE Library Sector
The University Vision
We are a world-leading university, advancing knowledge, providing creative solutions and solving global problems. Following extensive consultation, the University launched a new vision and strategy in 2018.
Check out the University vision video to get started...
The Vision is underpinned by three values (excellence, creativity and impact) and four guiding principles (working together, visibly leading, freedom and opportunity to succeed, and responding to current and future challenges), that together are formed into four University strategies (education for life, research for discovery and impact, engagement and place, and global).
The University's vision and strategies guide everything we do in the Library as they give us a clear indication of our overall focus and ethos. The role of our service is often as an enabler, supporting our customers in fulfilling the University's strategy and achieving its vision. For example:
We support 'Research for discovery and impact' through our collections, via training the Liaison team offer to researchers and postgraduates, with EndNote support, and with the Open Access and Research Data management service.
We support 'Education for life' through reading lists, information literacy teaching, and the Academic Skills Team, our customer support, and opening hours - to name just a few.
Visit the Who We Are section of the University website to find out more about the vision and strategy.
Understanding our sector
As an academic library, we are influenced by not only Newcastle University's vision and strategies but also by our position in Higher Education generally and more broadly by the wider HE library community. Let's take a closer look at how these different forces can impact our service:
If the slides do not display, view the content via the pdf below:
There are 3 academic faculties at Newcastle University:
- Faculty of Medical Sciences (FMS)
- Humanities and Social Sciences (HASS)
- Science Agriculture and Engineering (SAgE)
Each Faculty is made up of Schools, research institutes and research groups, all working under the same vision and strategies. The experience and expectations of our customers from across these different areas can vary greatly. The Library has quite a unique position of working across these areas to deliver an equitable experience.
The numbers show that while the student population is predominantly undergraduate, it is worth remembering that our customers include postgraduates, researchers, academics and support staff too.
Visit the Who We Are section of the University website to find out more about the Faculties and Schools.
The University's reputation and success is measured in a number of different ways, including student satisfaction. The annual National Student Survey (NSS) is one way that we are ranked as a University and is based on a series of questions about student satisfaction, including one specifically about the Library. University rankings are important as they are seen as an indicator of quality and can therefore have a significant impact on student recruitment.
Higher Education and the local economy
The North East universities, together with the expenditure of their international students and students from the rest of the UK, generated 32,246 jobs in the region. This was equivalent to 2.76% of the workforce in employment in 2012 (ONS regional summary of labour market indicators for 2012 (1,167,000 people in employment in the North East) the sector.
Have a look at pages 8-9 in your booklet which cover the topic of tourism impact. Read through the 'Why is tourism important?' list in the booklet. Compare that with the impact of N8 Universities to the North East economy. Do you notice similarities between the Higher Education and Tourism sectors in terms of the impact they have on the local economy?
Test your University Knowledge
We keep track of many different types of statistics in the library service here at Newcastle University. Here's a sample of what we've found, can you guess the correct answer for these questions?
