Learning that there are free on-line resources for polls & surveys was a pleasant surprise. I can fully understand how important it is to allow patrons to have input into their library's services and library collections in order to have there needs met. Also, as a patron, the knowledge that my library values my opinion gives me a feeling of ownership and pride in the library.
In my situation here in the facility, patients do not have access to the Internet, but our staff do. I think, in part, because the library's name is the Patient Library, most staff don't borrow materials from the library. They may browse magazines when they are supervising groups, but not too many actually use the library's services. So I decided to design a survey for a sampling of the staff to gain information that might lead to an increase of staff taking advantage of the library's services.
I chose polldaddy as my online resource to use because it looked very simple to use. I liked the choice of formats and how easy it was to set up my personal options. In no time at all, I had a short survey put together. I had 12 respondents with 10 completed surveys. Here are the questions and responses I received:
1. Did you know that staff are able to use the Patient Library for their library needs? 8 yes 2 No
2. Have you ever borrowed materials from the Patient Library? 6 Yes 4 No
3. Did you know that the library's catalog in online and can be viewed from any computer in the facitlity?
3 Yes 7 No
4. Would you be more apt to use the library if you knew how to access the catalog online? 9 Yes 1 No
5. If you answered yes to the above questions, would you like the instructions sent via email or come to a
brief live presentation? 9 Email 0 Live Presentation 1 NA
What I learned was that 60% of the staff who responded have used the library at one time or another, but that 70% were not aware that the library's catalog was available to them online and that 90% would be more apt to use the library if they could access it online.
So that tells me that providing the staff with access information has an excellent chance to increase staff's use of the library. Not only will everyone know they are able to use the library, but they will also learn how to access it online from any computer in the facility.
As a result, I plan to email all the staff in the facility a short email explaining the easy steps to access the library's catalog online. It will be very interesting to discover how many new staff patrons I will gain from this very simple and easy-to-use online tool.
This has been a very helpful tool even for my small library and I can only imagine how helpful it could be for larger libraries.
Thanks for the experience and helpful information.
Ellen the Librarian
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