The extraordinary power of a 1-minute library exit survey
We must have run more than 100 library user surveys in the past 20 years. We’ve mapped library user demographics, access preferences, usage patterns, satisfaction levels and community impact. And in the last week we might just have seen our best ‘bang-for-buck’ survey yet.
It’s a short library exit survey with only 7 closed (pick a box) questions. It has an average completion time of 62 seconds and it’s designed to be administered as the library user leaves the library after their 2, 20 or 200 minute stay. “Excuse me. Could I stop you for a moment to complete a short survey about your visit to the library today”. An enthusiastic staff member or volunteer. A couple of iPads with the survey loaded on them. And maybe some 1-page paper forms with a handy pen or pencil and a quick data entry exercise at the end of the day. It doesn’t have to be everyone who visits the library, but as far as possible it should be a representative sample of library users.
So what is it that makes this survey special? It’s having the right mix of questions to give deep insights from minimum response burden. Would I have liked to include a measure on user satisfaction and an open-ender on community value? Of course. But that turns a 1-minute survey into a 2-minute survey and suddenly your response rate drops away. Save those for another time and try just these questions.
What did you do at the library today? Choose up to 3 responses from 10 options
How long were you at the library? 5 options
Did you come to the library alone or with others? 3 options
What is your gender? 4 options
What is your age? 8 options
Do you speak a language other than English at home? No vs Yes (please specify)
As a result of having visited the library or used a library service today, to what extent do you feel more connected to your community? 7-point scale from ‘much less’ to ‘much more’ connected.
The magic is that I get four useful views on library use.
First – Demographics. Q4 to Q6 tell me who uses the library. Different ages, different genders, different cultural backgrounds. It’s rudimentary data but it’s enough to get a picture of the different people who walk through the library door. (And Yes, I understand that in this case I’m missing out on people who only use online library services. That’s for another day).
Second – Basic library use. Q1 to Q3 tell me what services were used. Of course the highest proportion of people come to browse and borrow books, and if there’s a program running I’m going to see that in the data too. But I can also see who used the library and didn’t borrow books (the study/work cohort, the PC/wifi users).
Third – User archetypes. Here is where it gets really interesting. As we start to cross-tab different questions we can see the different library archetypes emerge. For example:
Which sets of use activities cluster together? Do people borrow and ask the librarian for help? Or are the people asking for help the older people using the computers?
How long, on average, do the study/work in the library people stay? 1 hour, 2 hours, more? And how does this compare to the people who are in and out in 10 minutes as they pick up their reserved items, or the people attending a library program?
What do people who come to the library with others do differently to those who come alone? Do they stay for a longer or a shorter time?
And so it goes. The only thing that stops you digging deeper is the volume of data and the number of survey respondents in each cell (too few and the data is not statistically reliable). But once you get up around 400-500 survey responses you can really get a deep understanding of who uses your library and how, and that can inform what you offer, how you offer it, and how your library is laid out.
Finally – Community connection. There is only one outcome or value question in this survey. There are many other things you might ask here but for now this is the one I like best. Why? Because in a world where social and digital inclusion are incredibly important to wellbeing, where belonging matters to our sense of identity, and where the fragmentation of communities is becoming far too common, it’s good to think that public libraries can be a positive mechanism for bringing people together. And it’s even better when you have data to back up your hypothesis to share with your key stakeholders.
For example, from 150 responses to this 1-minute survey we can say …
More than 50% of people who visited the library felt ‘more’ or ‘much more’ connected to their community after their visit (53%).
It’s actually 79% if we throw in ‘a little more’ connected, with 19% no change and 2% on the ‘less’ connected side.
The five groups that expressed the strongest feelings of community connection from having visited the library were (and here I’m combining ‘more’ and ‘much more’ connected):
Older people … 76% of those aged 60-69 years
People who asked the librarians for help … 74%
People who used the computer or wifi … 73%
People who speak languages other than English at home … 71%
People who stayed at the library for 2 hours or more … 71%.
It’s unrealistic to think that someone who pops in to grab three books from the reserve shelf is going to express a deeper connection to community. But if I can say that three-quarters of the library users listed above feel more connected to their community because they visited a library today, then I think that library is probably a good investment in community cohesion. Let alone the other benefits in terms of literacy, wellbeing and access to services.
Which brings me back to where I started. Data can be incredibly powerful, and it can be mind-numbingly boring. But if you ask the right questions of the right people in a highly efficient way you can construct strong narratives about the profile, value and impact of your library.