10 MAKING SURVEYS WORK FOR YOUR LIBRARY obvious to everyone involved, but these preliminary discussions can help you avoid the common pitfalls of surveys. Taking a cue from the practice of Design Thinking, the first survey design discussion should be framed around empathy. From the Oxford English Dictionary, the meaning of empathy is “the ability to understand and appreciate another person’s feelings, experience, etc.” In the context of survey design, empathy involves thinking deeply about the user expe- rience, considering questions like the following: • What information do you lack about the library user experience? • What do your users want you to know about their experience in the library? You may begin the design process knowing that you need to conduct a survey about a specific aspect of the library. In that case, your ques- tions will take the same form as given previously, but with slightly more specificity. For example, “What information do you lack about the patron experience with circulation policies?” Empathy sounds easy enough in a helping profession like librarian- ship. Unfortunately, some all-too-familiar dispositions may be obstacles to empathy: • “This is the way we do it.” • “We tried to change that, and it didn’t work.” • “If people would just . . .” • “I know this is complicated, but . . .” Empathizing with your library community will help you to ask ques- tions that may reveal information that challenges the status quo. Empa- thy might make you uncomfortable, but remember that surveys are about exploration—asking questions that help us understand and grow. Begin- ning a survey design process in this way helps us to set aside predispositions FIGURE 2.1. Planning Your Survey
Document Details My Account Print multiple pages
Print
You have printed 0 times in the last 24 hours.
Your print count will reset on at .
You may print 0 more time(s) before then.
You may print a maximum of 0 pages at a time.
Help
