Hello,
As promised here is a summary of the responses I received.
On the whole, it was considered a better idea to communicate with people on
a one-to-one basis while they were completing the questionnaire. Some
authorities had staff who were bilingual, however even if the staff did not
speak the apporiate language having an extra member of staff to go through
the form to someone with a limited understanding of English was quite
productive. Blackburn libraries commisioned a social enterprise to do some
outreach work with the appropriate communities. South Tyneside consulted
the University of Northumbria for work with refugee and asylum speakers and
gathered their information using focus groups. A list of thoughts to stimulate
conversation is attached. Simply sending the forms out to the groups had a
low return rate, and translating the documents to and from the appropriate
language was too expensive and time consuming.
I have details of a project in Canada, which I can send to you if you are
interested. Community development librarians worked with a diverse set of
communities traditionally considered to be socially excluded, including people
new to Canada, people of aboriginal descent, people recovering from or living
with mental illness and young people at risk. There are two large PDF files
including a community toolkit which are too large to share on the list!
As noted by someone at Manchester "If you were to translate into other
languages and include open questions, you would also have to have all the
answers/comments translated. From my experience any questionnaire that
leaves the library to be completed at home, never finds it way back or
response is very poor".
I feel the best way to get feedback is to ask a bilingual member of staff (if
you're fortunate to have one) to talk through the questions with the
customer. Either the customer or staff member can complete the form. Yes it
would be time consuming, but response rates would be much higher and it's a
really good way of consulting our customers.
Obviously we can never cover every language in which case I would still opt
for the personal touch. Some of our customers would still be able to convey
their views using 'broken English'. A list of questions in English would be quite
daunting without the additional support from staff. Even if bilingual staff are
not available, I still think it would be better to have a staff member on hand to
help, should the customer need it. "
And of course, there is the CILIP diversity group to consult as well
http://www.cilip.org.uk/get-involved/special-interest-
groups/diversity/Pages/default.aspx
Didn't get much luck with the MLA toolkits but I suspect I may have missed
something http://www.mla.gov.uk/what/support/toolkits
Regards,
Sarah Jenkin, Community Librarian
Medway Libraries [log in to unmask] 01634 337349
|