Art
Libraries Society of North America 31st Annual Conference
Wyndham Baltimore Inner Harbor, Baltimore, Maryland - March 20-26, 2003
Effective
Library Surveys: Creating, Administering, and Analyzing
Organizer,
Moderator, & Recorder: Susan Craig, Art & Architecture Librarian, Univ.
of Kansas
Speaker:
Karen W. Bauer, Assistant Director of the Office of Institutional Research and
Planning and Assistant Professor in both Psychology and Women's Studies, Univ.
of Delaware
Recognizing
that assessment is now an essential tool for many libraries, this workshop's
intent was to provide some basic guidance for preparing effective surveys.
Whether participating in an accreditation study, planning new services, or
looking for user feedback, tools such as surveys, focus groups, utilization
studies and other assessment methods assist librarians in making choices and
testing assumptions. Focusing on
the use of surveys to assess user services and needs, the session covered:
·
various types of surveys
·
data collection strategies with tips
for increasing response rates
·
methods for survey administration
·
steps for survey design
·
special considerations for web surveys
·
considerations for sampling
A
power point presentation was the shown with many additional comments from Karen
whose 15 years of working with surveys in academia provided a strong foundation
of experience and advice. The 36 participants also brought a broad range of
assessment experience so the discussion was lively and the hands-on activity of
preparing a short survey on reconfiguring a library's space provoked a number of
alternatives. In addition to the power point text, registrants received a packet
with sample library surveys, a survey design checklist, a survey analysis
checklist, and a bibliography for further reading. The one disappointment for
the group was that time expired before a full discussion of survey analysis was
possible. It was suggested a future ARLIS/NA session be organized to address
this topic.