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Instead of using expensive off-the-shelf surveys or relying on a poorly worded survey, read Making Surveys Work for Your Library and design your own that collect actionable data.Library listservs and websites are littered with examples of surveys that are too long, freighted with complex language, and generally poorly designed. The survey, however, is a widely used tool that has great potential if designed well. Libraries can implement surveys for a variety of purposes, including planning, program evaluation, collection development, and space design.
Making Surveys Work for Your Library: Guidance, Instructions, and Examples offers librarians a contemporary and practical approach to creating surveys that answer authentic questions about library users. Miller and Hinnant have experience designing, deploying, and analyzing quantitative and qualitative data from large-scale, web-based user surveys of library patrons as well as smaller survey instruments targeted to special populations. Here, they offer library professionals a guide to developing-and examples of-concise surveys that gather the data they need to make evidence-based decisions, define the scope of future research, and understand their patrons.
List of contents
Acknowledgments
ixChapter 1. The Value of Surveys, and Why They're Hard to Get Right
Chapter 2. Planning a Library Survey
Chapter 3. Survey Methods That Work for Libraries
Chapter 4. Scopes of Experience
Chapter 5. Writing Survey Questions
Chapter 6. Survey Populations
Chapter 7. Survey Distribution
Chapter 8. Analysis of Results
Chapter 9. Taking Action
Appendix A. Sample Demographic Questions
Appendix B. Sample Questions About Services
Appendix C. Sample Questions About Spaces
Appendix D. Sample Questions About Communication
Appendix E. Sample Questions About Collections
Appendix F. Sample Programming Questions
Appendix G. Additional Resources
References
Index
About the author
Robin Miller was educated at Lehigh University (BSEE & unfinished MBA), and was an on-air personality on radio station WGPA. He wed Miss Lehigh Valley 1965, Nancy Desiderio of Bethlehem, with whom he had two children. He was General Chair of the 1969 Bethlehem Arts Festival, featuring Duke Ellington, the National Symphony, & Pennsylvania Ballet. After client-producing an IBM national sales film, he started Robin Miller, Filmaker Inc that he grew to the largest independent producer in Pennsylvania. He now researches and writes on various technical, health, and entertainment topics.
