In early 2023, as part of our 2021-2023 IMLS grant, the Hyku for Consortia team surveyed users of the collaborative Hyku Commons Repository. This was a follow-up to our initial baseline survey conducted in the Fall of 2021. The purpose of the survey was to gather data about users' satisfaction with the Hyku Commons platform and service as a whole, including the administrative functions, front-end user interface, and support/training provided.
We used Google Forms as our data collection instrument. The survey had 16 questions, which were a combination of Likert scale and open-ended responses. A total of 10 responses from PALNI, PALCI, and LOUIS users were recorded, and the anonymous survey results are provided below. We very much appreciated this feedback to help gauge the Hyku Commons' improvement over the past two years.
All survey respondents reported that they are either Satisfied or Very Satisfied (100% combined) with Hyku Commons overall. This is an increase over the previous 2021 survey results, where an already high 80% of respondents reported they were either Satisfied or Very Satisfied.
Most users report that they are either Satisfied or Very Satisfied (70% combined) with Hyku’s administrative functions. This is an increase over the previous 2021 survey results, where 48% of respondents reported they were either Satisfied or Very Satisfied.
Users were most satisfied with Adding works to collections, Uploading/creating single works, Describing/editing single works, Creating/editing collections, and Ability to control feature settings, as seen by the number of Very Satisfied responses below.
When looking at the Very Unsatisfied and Unsatisfied responses together, we find that users are least satisfied with Existing metadata templates (worktypes), User management, Control over appearance and layout, Ability to control feature settings, Availability of repository activity statistics, and Availability of other repository statistics.
There was only one Very Unsatisfied response recorded, and that was for User management. The number of Unsatisfied responses are presented below.
Most users report that they are either Satisfied or Very Satisfied (75% combined) with Hyku’s end-user interface. This is an increase over the previous 2021 survey results, where 63% of respondents reported they were either Satisfied or Very Satisfied.
There were also several Haven’t evaluated this or Not Sure (18% combined) responses in this category.
Users were most satisfied with Usability and Searching and search results, as seen by the number of Very Satisfied responses below.
When looking at the Unsatisfied responses (there were no Very Unsatisfied responses), there were single responses for Usability, Searching and search results, Metadata display, and Digital object presentation, as seen by the number of Unsatisfied responses below.
Most users report that they are either Satisfied or Very Satisfied (80% combined) with Hyku Commons support and training. This is an increase over the previous 2021 survey results, where 51% of respondents reported they were either Satisfied or Very Satisfied.
There were also several Haven’t evaluated this or Not Sure (20% combined) responses in this category.
Users were most satisfied with Help with troubleshooting, Communication with other Hyku administrators, Feature demonstrations, and Training sessions, as seen by the number of Very Satisfied responses below.
There were no Unsatisfied responses in this category.
As the Hyku for Consortia team moves closer to the completion of their 2021-2023 IMLS grant, the satisfaction survey results demonstrate the significant improvements made to Hyku in an effort to provide an affordable, open-source, and collaborative institutional repository solution. Our work has centered around Hyku development prioritization based on the user community input. The charts below show how this method has resulted in an increase in the number of users who intend to continue using Hyku. The 2023 survey chart shows that 70% of respondents plan to continue using Hyku, with the remaining 30% responding that they may continue. This is a vast improvement when compared to the 2021 survey results, where 47% expressed their intention to continue using Hyku, with 33% being unsure and 20% not planning to continue.
| Do you plan to continue using Hyku as a public repository service? |
| 2021 Results |
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| 2023 Results |
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While there were some variations between the 2021 and 2023 satisfaction surveys, namely different sets of Hyku users completing each survey and a different total number of responses, our takeaway is that the Hyku for Consortia team’s approach has led to Hyku meeting the needs of more users. The Hyku for Consortia team will continue to collect and evaluate both informal and formal feedback on Hyku as we move out of our grant and into a production service.