The University of Arizona's Music Library's Needs Assessment

Designed by: The Integrative Services Needs Assessment Group (ISNAG)

Special points of this Case Study 1) The use of a hypothesis

• A hypothesis is a proposed explanation for the occurrence of a particular phenomenon, that must be proved or disproved.

• The hypothesis for this needs assessment project identifies a possible causal relationship between characteristics of the library user and the relative importance of specific types of resources to the user.

• The original hypothesis posited that factors in the music respondent's subject specialization, class rank, teaching areas, research expertise and non-music respondent's purpose for using the Music Library influenced the level of importance the respondent attaches to specific types of resources, but these factors were not analyzed during the project.

2) The relationship of the research questions to the hypothesis hypothesis and the demographic information gathered about the targeted customer group.

3) The involvement of members from the customer group in designing the needs assessment project. Involving customers can provide the researcher with first-hand information and a base of customer support. Involvement also gives customers some stake in the success or outcome of the project.

4) The mix of methodologies used to gain information from customers. Some methodologies are more appropriate for some questions or for some customer groups.

5) The problems inherent in gathering survey-based data:

• Missing data

• Incomplete responses

• Incongruent responses

Study Questions for this Case Study

At the end of this case study, you will be asked for your responses to the following questions:

1. Was the hypothesis an appropriate and valuable one for this study?

2. What demographic information was each participant asked to provide? What other information about the targeted customer group might have been helpful in this survey?

3. Does the survey as designed address the research questions?

4. Which methodologies are most appropriate for this type of needs assessment?

Let's continue.