Part II: Methodology for Gathering Data

A. Choosing the instrument

From the beginning, the team realized that reaching the broadest and largest customer base possible would give them the best information. Interviews and focus groups are very useful for gathering succint and highly relevant information, but reach fewer people relative to other instruments. The team thus decided to use a survey as their main instrument, followed by focus groups to get more in-depth information.

They chose to use a web survey in conjunction with a paper survey in order to capture the different ways that individuals like to respond. Staff would not need to be present for the surveys to be completed. The web and paper versions would need to be identical in content to facilitate inputting and analysis of the data. Both needed to be easy to read, short enough to be inviting, and focused on a few critical services.

B. Planning the survey content

To get ideas on how to design their assessment instrument, the project team contacted other teams in the Library that had completed formal needs assessment projects. The project team asked these questions:

A. Have you performed needs assessment on potential customers?
B. If yes, how did you do it?
C. What would you do differently?
D. How long did it take?
E. What was the sample size?
F. What was the instrument?
G. What were the costs?
H. How did you determine who potential customers would be?

After gathering and sharing this information, the team developed these questions to jumpstart the design of their own instrument:

• Do we target particular customers? specific libraries or service sites?

• Which aspects should be focus on: collection maintenance or circulation or both?

• What incentive measures will get good results?

• Should our results be weighted in the analysis (for example, have faculty responses weighted more than student reponses)?

At this point in their deliberations, the team considered focusing their questions to customers using this framework:

• How important is [X service] to you?

• Are you satisfied with [X service]?

• What changes would you make to [X service]?

Let's continue.