Bibliography

And the Survey Says....

Print Resources

Adams, Mignon S. and Jeffrey A. Beck, comps. User Surveys in College Libraries. CLIP Note. 23. Chicago: Association of College and Research Libraries, 1995.
Rather than just discussing how to create surveys, Adams and Beck have compiled surveys that have been administered in various academic libraries. They have also provided commentary on each survey, analyzing the methodologies employed by those administering the surveys, the results garnered, and the implications of each survey on future research.

Emery, Charles D. Buyers and Borrowers: The Application of Consumer Theory to the Study of Library Use. HAWORTH Library and Information Science. New York: Haworth, 1993.
While not strictly about survey creation, Emery has done a great job here of explaining how a library can be seen as a business. One of the business aspects that must be considered, then is -- you guessed it! -- market research, including surveys. However, the chapters on "Field Work" and "Data Analysis" do not make up a large portion of this work.

Fink, Arlene and Jacqueline Kosecoff. How to Conduct Surveys: A Step-by-Step Guide.. Beverly Hills: SAGE, 1985.
While this book is not as current as the others, the format and style make it easy to use, sort of a "Surveys for Dummies." Many examples are provided with clear explanations for why some things work and others fail.

Fowler, Floyd J., Jr. Improving Survey Questions: Design and Evaluation. Applied Social Research Methods Series. 38. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE, 1995.
Focusing on the design of survey question, this book shows how to word and format questions, develop questions that will find the answers to what you really want to know, and considers evaluation of surveys.

Kim, Choong Han and Robert David Little. Public Library Users and Uses: A Market Research Handbook. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow, 1987.
Lots of statistics and commentary on said statistics, this is the result of a survey process. It is included here because the evaluation of some of the data was quite interesting and may be helpful, especially to survey novices. Samples of Questionnaire forms are included in the Appendix.

Mangione, Thomas W. Emery. Mail Surveys: Improving the Quality. Applied Social Research Methods Series. 40. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE, 1996.
"How do you reduce sampling bias, question response errors, and obtain good response rates from a mail survey?" This book purports to answer these questions and more. Beginning with why a mail survey works best in some situations, the whole process of creating and evaluating a mail survey is covered here.

McQuarrie, Edward F. The Market Research Toolbox: A Concise Guide for Beginners. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE, 1996.
Aimed at a business audience, this handy little book goes above and beyond the call of duty. Besides surveys, McQuarrie examines secondary research, customer visits, focus groups, choice modeling, and experimentation. The list of "Dos and Don'ts" at the end of each chapter seems especially useful as a summary and reinforcement of what works best.

Oppenheim, A.N.Questionnaire Design, Interviewing and Attitude Measurement. London: Pinter, 1992.
A throrough examination of surveys, from design to implementation to evaluation and beyond! Each chapter includes a list of additional resources relating to a specific topic. Oppenheim uses clear examples to illustrate his points.

Salant, Priscilla and Don A. Dillman. How to Conduct Your Own Survey. New York: John Wiley, 1994.
All aspects of surveying are addressed here in an easy-to-understand, not too torturous to read format. Key points and questions can be found in the margins, and case studies make the intricacies of conducting successful surveys clear.

Staley, Merton. Analyzing the Library's Community. Trustee Facts File. N.p.: Illinois Library Trustee Association, n.d.
This tiny booklet is a dialogue between a trustee and a librarian. The focus of the discussion is community analysis. That is, they are trying to decide how to figure out what is best for the patrons. Surveys are one of the possibilities mentioned. This is a prequel to the more serious survey planning that may be in your future, just a warm-up.

Walters, Suzanne. Customer Service. A How-To-Do-It Manual for Librarians. New York: Neal-Schuman, 1994.
Part of a series that continues to be an asset, particulary to librarians working in public institutions, this book contains a number of ideas to help provide the best service possible to patrons. Chapter 9 is all about "Market Research" and even includes some sample surveys.

Web Resources

Buildings, Books, and Bytes
This web version of the recently published results of a study funded by the W. K. Kellogg Foundation and prepared by the Benton Foundation is an excellent example of a library survey that was well-planned, well-executed, and well-analyzed. Besides being useful as an example of a survey well-done, the results presented here -- a report on "librarians and the challenges they face in the digital world" -- are very timely.

Centre for Applied Social Surveys
The Centre for Applied Social Surveys is a British site, "run jointly by the SCPR [Social and Community Planning Research] and the University of Southampton, with the University of Surrey." There are some good links here, with an in-depth index to help you find precisely what you're looking for.

Information Literacy Survey
This study, conducted by the University of California at Berkeley, examines the measurement of library literacy in an academic library.

Joint Program for Survey Methodology
This site is the homepage for the Joint Program for Survey Methodology, a "unique educational structure.... devoted to training in state-of-the-art methods in survey research." If you are interested in becoming seriously involved with surveys, you may want to consider the classes offered here. However, even if you are not interested in studying surveys in-depth there are some great links off this site.

Survey Research Center
Created by the University of Maryland at College Park, this site provides information on methodology, a bibliography, and assorted other survey goodies.