Easy Patron Surveys

Easy Patron Surveys from Library Juice Academy

Instructor:  Jennifer Sweeney

Course overview

Surveys are one of the most useful and least expensive ways to gather information about your patrons! This course will orient participants on basic survey procedures, techniques, tips, and tricks. Topics will include sampling and response rate, question/response design, interpreting results, and ethical questions. The course provides readings, hands-on exercises, example survey questions and response patterns, discussion, and up-to-date online resources. Participants will finish the course prepared to collect and analyze survey data from library users on a number of different topics.

At the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Select and reach the most respondents for typical survey topics
• Design relevant questions and useful response categories
• Use a spreadsheet to analyze survey results
• Understand basic ethical principles in survey design and use, such as protecting respondent privacy.

My summary

This course ran over four weeks. Each week covered a different topic: Overview of Survey Research, Sampling, Question Design, and Analysis and Reporting. I found the course to be a good balance between theory and practice.  This is a huge subject, and it is easy to spend a lot of time gathering information that isn’t really what you were looking for. Since I had done some patron surveys in the past, I think I was able to get even more from the class. I especially appreciated the methodology presented to assist in analysis (I was a math major after all).

How it fits in the big picture

I am interested in finding ways to measure the impact of the public library on its community beyond statistics and anecdotes.  This course has helped me start small, by developing surveys we can use after patrons attend classes or programs. I was also made aware of LibQUAL +, a suite of services libraries use ”to solicit, track, understand, and act upon users' opinions of service quality.” Perhaps it will be worth the investment at some point for WCFL to engage LibQUAL+ in order to focus and improve our services.