The Physical and the Virtual: The Relationship between Library as Place and Electronic Collections

Jennifer Gerke is Assistant Professor and Government Publications Librarian and Jack M. Maness is Assistant Professor and Faculty Director of the Engineering Library at the University of Colorado at Boulder Libraries; e-mail: [email protected], [email protected]. ©Jennifer Gerke and Jack M. Maness A statistical analysis of responses to a LibQUAL+TM survey at the University of Colorado at Boulder (UCB) was conducted to investigate factors related to patrons’ satisfaction with electronic collections. It was found that a respondent’s discipline was not related to his or her satisfaction with the Libraries’ electronic collection, nor was the frequency with which the respondent used the Libraries’ facilities or used commercial search engines. The factors significantly related to users’ satisfaction with electronic collections were the frequency with which they used the Libraries’ Web site, and, most interestingly, the physical library they most often visited.