The University Book Store will conduct surveys of 1,850 faculty in an effort to determine what changes could be made to improve the store.

This is not the first time UBS has conducted a faculty survey, said Sadja, marketing director for UBS.

“Our surveys are based on wanting to improve our services, not because of any problems,” she said. “Surveys are good to do periodically, and it’s time to do it again and find out more about what our customers want.”

Sadja said the survey will address many issues with faculty members, such as which aspects of the store are most important to them and how well the store meets their needs.

Specific points in the survey will include an evaluation of the availability and cost of textbooks; the knowledge, friendliness and accessibility of personnel; and their overall satisfaction with reference books, school supplies, art and engineering supplies and ISU clothing, Sadja said.

“We’re trying to find out more about our own book store,” she said. “We want to know how faculty feel because sometimes how they feel can directly affect how many students use our store. We hope to get a lot of feedback and suggestions and hopefully some positive feedback as well.”

Elizabeth Schabel, temporary instructor of English, said she will be one of the faculty members offering a positive report of the store.

“I order six to eight novels for my freshman Honors English class, and they have always been there within a reasonable amount of time,” she said. “I’ve ordered special things and never had problems.”

Sadja said the book store is hoping for a large response from faculty members.

“We have an idea of some things people are unhappy with,” she said. “We’re ready for the comments. It’s always better to know — we can’t just go on intuition alone.”

The store hopes to begin making improvements as soon as it receives the results of the surveys, Sadja said. The surveys will be returned to the book store and immediately forwarded to the National Association of College Stores, which designed the survey. It will compile the results into a report detailing how the store compares to others around the country and what other stores have done to improve shortcomings found in their surveys, she said.

Sadja said the association also assisted with Student Watch, a survey program that ended last week that had approximately 800 ISU students. The student surveys will be used in conjunction with the faculty surveys to decide what improvements can be made on the store. “Out of 800 surveys, we’re hoping to get a minimum of 50 back,” she said.