As users of the Library you are entitled to know what levels of service you can expect from its key activities. We are therefore providing a statement of service intent, together with a series of service standards and commitments. These are outlined below. We intend to monitor our services against these standards regularly and publicise the results, including any actions that are appropriate.
Customer service statement
The university’s vision and mission includes a set of values one of which is that:
“We care for our students and staff, and value our reputation for service and friendliness.”
In line with this sentiment here is the Library Services commitment to you.
We aim to:
Base our services and facilities on the needs of our users
Be approachable, courteous and helpful to our users
Train and develop our staff so that users receive a high quality service
Listen to the suggestions, comments and complaints of users and act upon them, where appropriate
Continually look for ways to improve the services we offer, particularly through new technology
Publicise our services and any changes or developments as widely as possible.
Customer service standards
“Unfortunately, due to financial constraints, there may be occasions during this year when these standards are not achieved as consistently as we would expect. We apologise for this.”
We will ensure that users are served at Information and Services Desks within 5 minutes of joining a queue.
We will ensure that enquiries received via e-mail:librarysupport@southwales.ac.uk, will receive a response within one working day.
We will reshelve books and other items within 48 hours of their return during 90% of the time.
We will provide users with 90% of inter-library loan material requested within 10 working days of requests being made.
We will add to the library collections 90% of the books and other items ordered within 8 weeks of the order being received by an Information Librarian.
We will make available prioritised journal issues within 24 hours of their receipt and other journal issues within 4 working days.
We will respond to official suggestions, comments and complaints within 7 working days.
Customer service commitments
We will tidy the book and journal shelves every working day.
We will order for the library at least one copy of a book title included, as essential or recommended reading, on a lecturer’s reading list received by an Information Librarian.
We will provide our users with access to over 6,000 electronic journal titles.
We will liaise and consult regularly with Academic Schools, through our team of Information Librarians, to aim to identify and meet their needs and objectives.
We will offer all new students an introduction to the library.
We will offer all students one hour’s post-induction information skills training, as a basic minimum.
We will seek the views of library users every year to find out how services can be improved.
We will publicise early in the next academic year any actions taken as a result of suggestions, complaints and feedback via surveys.
We will aim to ensure that library services and learning resources are accessible to all users.
If there are other service standards you would like to see included here, we would be pleased to hear from you. Please contact Lynne Evans, Associate Director: Head of Library Services or use the suggestions scheme. Suggestion boxes are available in all our libraries.