Guidance on conducting research (eg Judith Bell's book published by the Open
University) recommend carrying out a pilot survey to make sure that the
questions provide you with the information you want. This could be amongst a
few willing volunteers, who would be willing to provide comment on the
questionnaire structure as well as the questions. I've found this to be an
extremely useful procedure, & means you see the problems before it's too
late! I think looking at surveys carried out by others would be less useful
- they may be looking for different information, or indeed have found that
they're survey was less than perfect.
Another suggestion I would make, if your survey is going to cover everything
you do, is to ask people if they would be willing to answer a follow-up
questionnaire or interview to provide you with more detailed information on
specific services. Otherwise the rersponse (unless you have a mamoth
questionnaire) will be so general that ti will be of limited use.
Malcolm S. Dobson
Librarian
James B.P. Ferguson Library
Lanarkshire NHS Board
14 Beckford St
Hamilton ML3 0TA
01698 281313 ext 6209
'Knowledge is power' - Christopher Dresser
The views expressed above are my own and not those of NHS Lanarkshire
> -----Original Message-----
> From: her, library [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: 04 January 2005 11:15
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: User Surveys/Questionnaires: request for information
>
> ** Apologies for cross posting **
>
> Dear all
>
> We are about to undertake a user survey and obviously would like to make
> it as useful an exercise as possible. Therefore, before we start we were
> wondering whether anyone out there would be willing to provide any
> tips/hints to a successful user survey/questionnaire. If possible we would
> like to look at some of the actual surveys themselves to gain ideas on
> ways in which questions can be phrased to elicit useful information. On
> previous occasions when we have undertaken surveys, we have been able to
> see quite clearly what questions worked and which didn't only when we
> started to receive the responses! If possible we would like to gain both
> qualitative and quantitative information from our survey, and try to gain
> responses to quality standards (but as we all know, that issue is a can of
> worms!). We are hoping that we can try and devise a survey which covers
> the library service as a whole (rather than concentrating on one area such
> as training) so its even more crucial that every question is as targeted,
> relevant and useful as possible in order to cover the wide range of issues
> necessary.
>
> Any help/advice/assistance gratefully received.
>
> Kind regards
> Library Staff
>
>
> Herefordshire Clinical Library Service
> Postgraduate Medical Centre
> County Hospital
> Hereford
> HR1 2ER
> Tel: 01432 355444 Ext.5840
> Fax: 01432 355265
>
> Visit our intranet library mini-site at
> <http://nww.herefordshire.nhs.uk/hht/libraries/index.asp>
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