Dear all Many thanks to all who responded. I apologise for not replying to you all individually, but I got so many replies that I hope you accept this message as thanks.  kind regardsJen The incentives on offer obviously vary according to the scale of the survey being done, but here are your ideas, along with some comments on how they have been used: LollipopsBeer Money1st prize - Meal to the value of £50 at popular student haunt: 2nd prize - Amazon voucher £25: 3rd prize (of which there were 2) - A free ticket to Formal Hall in College.3 different types of vouchers - Top prize of £50 of Tesco vouchers, then another 25 x £10 vouchers split between Tesco, book and wine vouchers.£15 vouchers for Virgin, which could be exchanged for CDs, or mobile phone credit (DVDs as well now!)2 prizes of £20 record or book tokens and one for £10Amazon vouchers£25 book token£50 book token£5 book tokensHMV tokens and Borders vouchers of various amounts from £10 - £30£20 HMV voucher£25 Amazon voucher£20.00 Waterstone's book token£5 Waterstone's gift vouchers for participating in focus groups USB memory sticksPrize draw for attending first year library induction - 3 lucky winners will receive an MP3 player with voice recorderCinema ticketsChampagneiPod3 iPods!1 iPod and 1 iPod shufflea mini I-pod as our main incentive, and some Amazon vouchers as runner up prizes (This prize draw gathered 40% more responses than the previous year's book token prize draw, although increased marketing activities also accompanied the change in prize.)Freeview boxesDigital cameraBooks that came free from the bookseller, plus a cuddly (singing) unicorn!Photocopy/print cards -- 1000 units 1st prize, 100 units 2nd, and 20 units 3rd.
(The 1000 unit card would have cost them £45, and would amount to
a year's printing needs ... but of course it only cost us 8p to buy!)bottle of wine or £15 book token (Most will take the wine)Book tokens, shopping centre vouchers, John Lewis vouchers and photocopy card credits.  Strange to say, our students weren't too taken with the idea of book tokens and many failed to collect them. The shop vouchers were popular though!Vouchers for free usage of some of our facilities (health spa, gym etc). Failing that, vouchers for the student union bar.We offered students £30 of HMV vouchers to encourage them to fill in our 
questionnaire. This increased the response slightly, although I wouldn't 
say it made a significant difference.  Other tips:Don't run your survey at the same time as other surveys on campusSet your staff to hover over students whilst they complete the feedback formsThe prize may skew the results: that is one person may fill in several forms in the hope of increasing their chance of winning * photocopier/printing credits to their account can ensure that each Offering more than one prize helped as the chances of winning something were higher.I found that record tokens got more response than book tokens. I suppose that record tokens/cd or even dvds etc were more exciting than book tokens. After all, why buy books when you can get them from the library!!!!For a web-based survey, e-mail the students, put links on your website, catalogue and intranet. Hand out flyers at your service desk, put up posters around campus, create a display in your entrance area, get articles in campus newsletters and use a slogan.  Jenny Delasalle
Service Innovation Officer
Research and Innovation Unit
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/library/subjects/riu/University of Warwick Library
Gibbet Hill Road
Coventry, CV4 7AL
Tel: +44 (0)24 765 75793