Community Needs

Assessment
St. Petersburg College Libraries
McKindree J. Borges
Christopher Worcester
John Pickens
Rowan Neumeister
Jakob T. Knudsen

School of Information, University of South Florida

Course Number: LIS 6511
Dr. Natalie Taylor
3/03/2024
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Table of Contents
Table of Contents.............................................................................................................................1
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Demographic Analysis.....................................................................................................................3
Circulation Trends...........................................................................................................................6
Methodology Overview...................................................................................................................8
Review of Existing Data...........................................................................................................8
Student Survey.........................................................................................................................8
Staff Survey..............................................................................................................................9
Library Administrator Focus Group.........................................................................................9
Community Input...........................................................................................................................10
Student Survey...........................................................................................................................10
Faculty Survey...........................................................................................................................14
Focus Group Interview: Library Admins...................................................................................15
Library Services:....................................................................................................................16
Addressing Specific Community Needs.................................................................................17
Physical Catalogue.................................................................................................................17
Proposed Actions...........................................................................................................................18
References......................................................................................................................................19
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Introduction
In general, academic libraries serve a vast group of people, from faculty to students, and from

pre-med to gen ed. What an academic library focuses on should depend on the needs of their

students and staff. As a result, it’s our responsibility as the library staff for the St. Petersburg

College to ensure we’re delivering quality materials and services to our patrons, and to ensure

we’re doing so in the most efficient way. In this essay, we will examine the needs of our

community and propose actions we can take to respond to patron feedback. While our goals are

to mainly adjust according to student feedback, we also want to ensure our faculty and staff can

access the library’s resources as efficiently as possible, even if it’s to help direct their students to

the resources available.

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Demographic Analysis
Saint Petersburg College has a total student population of 24,591; of which the majority (74%)

are part time. Similarly, 75% of the 1,298 faculty are part-time.

58% of the student population is white, 17% is Hispanic and 13% is black. The age of the student

population is very diverse. Each of the following age groups equally account for nearly 66% of

the population; 18 and under, 19-21, and 26-35.

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Over half of the students are online only, while the rest of the population is evenly split between

hybrid and face-to-face instruction.

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Most of the students are pursuing an Associate in Arts, Associate in Science, Baccalaureate

Degree, or are undeclared. Of the Baccalaureate students, most are enrolled in Management and

Organizational Leadership. The majority of Associate in Science students are Health Sciences

majors and the majority of Certificate seeking students are enrolled in Cybersecurity.
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Circulation Trends
According to the yearly IPEDS report, in the past four years, there has been a decline in the

library's physical collection circulation in the last two years, with the most significant drop

occurring in the last year. Every physical item in circulation has been declining in their

circulation.

This drop in the circulation of physical items could be attributed to the increased circulation of

digital/electronic items. The circulation of digital/electronic items has been increasing while

circulation of the physical collection has been decreasing. The circulation of digital/electronic

books has increased in the past year, whereas circulation of media and serials has slightly

decreased.
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Methodology Overview
To assess the library needs of Saint Petersburg College’s student and faculty bodies, the St.

Petersburg College library has conducted two surveys and a focus group interview with the

administrators of each campus’ library.

Review of Existing Data

To assess the community of students, staff, and faculty members that comprise St. Petersburg

College, data from the year 2021-2022 regarding St. Petersburg College and similar colleges

were reviewed.

 Self-reported information was collected from St. Petersburg College Fact Book 2021-22

(St. Petersburg College, 2021)

 Information from the National Center for Education Statistics was collected from its 2022

IPEDS report (NCES, 2022).

Student Survey
To assess library usage and perception from the library student body, a seven-question survey

was developed on qualtrics.com, and distributed to students via their student email. Student

emails were selected at random from the school database via a random number generator to

ensure a simple random sample was selected. In the schoolyear of 2021-2022, St. Petersburg

College had a total unduplicated headcount of 35,831 (NCES, 2022). Using that number as our

population size, we used Quatrics’ Sample Size Calculator (2023) to determine that our ideal

sample size was 381, in order to have a 95% confidence level and only a 5% margin of error.

Expecting that student response rate was unlikely to be higher than 30%, 1,300 emails were sent

(Lindemann, 2021).
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Staff Survey
To assess faculty opinion of library services, a three-question was developed on qualtrics.com,

and distributed via staff email. Emails were sent to all instructional staff. As there were 646

instructional staff members as of 2022, a sample size of 241 is necesary to have a 95%

confidence level and a 5% margin of error (NCES, 2022; Qualtrics, 2023). However, accounting

for the 30% email response rate, the number of responses gathered from 646 staff is most likely

to be around194 (Lindemann, 2021). Although the sample size formed by the respondents were

not selected probabilistically, a wider breadth of responses was favored over a far smaller

probabilistic sample.

Library Administrator Focus Group

To compliment the survey data with insight from administrative staff from St. Petersburg

College’s Learning Resources division, the Associate Director that manages each of the eight

SPC library location will be interviewed as part of one focus group. A two-hour meeting was

held at the St. Petersburg College EpiCenter location, in which the Community Needs

Assessment Research Team led the discussion of library needs.

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Community Input
 Student Survey

 Faculty Survey

 Focus Group Interviews

Student Survey
The Saint Petersburg College Library could use your input. To best address the needs of our

community, an online survey has been created with our student body in mind. Please answer the

following questions to help members of the library staff understand how students use the library.

The results of your feedback may influence improvements to be made to our facilities and our

collections.

Collection Questions:

- Do you use the library website to find digital resources?

o Yes

o No
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- On a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being “almost never” and 5 being “almost always,” how often

do you use the library website to find digital resources? If you never use the library

website, select N/A

1 2 3 4 5 N/A

- Do you use the physical library collection to find print resources?

o Yes

o No
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- On a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being “almost never” and 5 being “almost always,” how often

do you use the physical library collection to find print resources? If you never use the

library website, select N/A

1 2 3 4 5 N/A

Physical Space Questions

- Outside of borrowing items and utilizing our digital resources, what do you do in the

library? Check all the following boxes that apply.

□ Print papers and make copies

□ Use the study rooms to study/work
□ As a meeting space
□ As a quiet place to read or relax
□ To access a computer
□ None of the above
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- On a scale of 1 – 5, with 1 being “poor” and 5 being “excellent,” how well does the

library’s physical space meet your needs? If you never use the library’s space, select

N/A

1 2 3 4 5 N/A

- What hours do you most frequently visit the campus library?

□ 8 AM – 10 AM
□ 10 AM – 12 PM
□ 12 PM – 4 PM
□ 4 PM – 6 PM
□ 6 PM – 8 PM
□ Never
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Faculty Survey
The Saint Petersburg College Library could use your input. To best address the needs of our

community, an online survey has been created with our faculty in mind. Please answer the

following questions to help members of the library staff understand the needs of college

professors. The results of your feedback may influence improvements to be made to our

collections.

- On a scale of 1 – 5, with 1 being “poor” and 5 being “excellent,” how well does the

library’s collection meet your classes’ needs?

1 2 3 4 5
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- What areas of the collection need to be expanded? Check all that apply.

Computer Science Philosophy & Psychology Social Sciences Language

Science Technology Art & Literature History & Geography Religion

- How much do you agree with the following statement: I have a strong understanding of

the libraries' resources and I know how to demonstrate these resources to my students.

Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree Unsure

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Focus Group Interview: Library Admins

In total, SPC has eight campus libraries located in St. Petersburg, Tarpon Springs, Seminole,

Pinellas Park, and Clearwater. Communication between these facilities is vital for the sake of

SPC’s student body and the communities each of our libraries serves. To best address the

college’s learning resource needs as well as the unique needs of individual libraries, a focus

group interview was conducted with library administrators from all our locations during a staff

meeting. The following topics were discussed at length over one and a half hours:

· Library Services

· Addressing Specific Community Needs

· Physical Catalogue

Library Services:
As much of SPC’s community consists of distance learners, SPC’s partnered libraries must

remain vigilant in addressing the needs of our online students. It has been evident through survey
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data and the experiences of staff members that more can be done in this regard. The admin focus

group noted the following.

 “Book boxes” are an interesting trend that might help libraries reach some of SPC’s

distance learners

 Ease of access remains the greatest barrier for patrons wanting to check out

physical items

 Tech support has been noted to be inconsistent by some patrons

 Tech support is understaffed

 Tutoring services have been largely successful, and admins are considering how to

expand them.

Addressing Specific Community Needs

The needs of specific parts of SPC’s community vary tremendously. Our libraries' operations are

unique, so the needs of individual libraries within our greater community are also unique. The

following items were mentioned as areas of concern during the focus group interview:

 When regarding the hours of operation for the Allstate Center Library and the SPC

Downtown Library, some frustrations have been expressed

 Many of our students are employed, and lack time to conduct schoolwork during

weekdays

 The Tarpon Springs Library has seen an uptick in interest regarding crafts, do it yourself

(DIY) books, and self-help books.

 Books for these topics are limited in the library.

 More electronic resources need to be promoted on the library website to address

this trend
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Physical Catalogue
The topic of books and physical materials was discussed during the interview. Some details were

noticed and noted during the interview:

 SPC’s demographics indicate young adult (YA) fiction would be popular among readers

 An uptick in Management & Organizational Leadership enrollments has been observed.

 Many books and physical resources for health services are outdated
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Proposed Actions
Two main points of action we have in mind consist of two main outcomes: greater connection

between the faculty and library staff, and more efficient distribution of materials to distance and

online students.

Similar to the “Little Free Libraries” in many U.S. cities, (Cottrell, 2018) the idea of a

“book box” may help with online learners that can’t easily access the print resources in the

library’s collection. What we can’t scan due to copyright, we could send to a drop-off point that

the student can later pick up from, providing a convenient resource for the students who would

not be able to access the library. This would provide wider access to books and other print

resources for students to utilize.

In addition, we also want to ensure the faculty and librarians alike have a thorough

understanding of their collections to ensure we’re providing the best quality materials. At the

University of South Dakota, for example, a select few library faculty members may be

responsible for a handful of subjects to ensure a strong connection with each department.

(University of South Dakota, 2024) This model may prove useful for St. Petersburg College,

especially with such time-sensitive subjects such as cybersecurity, management and

organizational leadership, and health sciences.

In response to the interviews, we could also diversify the selection of books available for

loan, such as with self-help books and YA fiction. Encouraging the students to engage with the

library in ways other than purely academic may allow for more insight into what the library has

to offer. In addition, expanding our operating hours to accommodate students who work full-time

will likely encourage more students to utilize library resources.

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References
Cottrell, M. (2018, January 2). The Question of Little Free Libraries: Are they a boon or bane to

communities? American Libraries.

https://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/2018/01/02/question-little-free-libraries/

Lindemann, N. (2021). What’s the average survey response rate? Pointerpro.

https://pointerpro.com/blog/average-survey-response-rate/

National Center for Education Statistics. (2022). IPEDS Data Feedback Report 2022 for St.

Petersburg College. U. S. Department of Education.

Qualtrics. (2023). Sample size calculator. QualtricsXM.

https://www.qualtrics.com/blog/calculating-sample-size/

St. Petersburg College Fact Book 2021-22. St. Petersburg College. (2021, November 15).

https://ir.spcollege.edu/wp-content/uploads/Factbooks/2021-22-SPC-Fact-Book.pdf

University of South Dakota. (updated 2024, January 16). Library Liaisons.

https://libguides.usd.edu/liaisons