In December 2007, L-net had 2,327 chat sessions and 74 e-mail questions. As usual, most of the questions we got were answered by QuestionPoint backup staff and the 24/7 cooperative. Oregon librarians answered 224 questions for the cooperative in return.
I was updating our page that shows progress on our official goals and objectives and I got to looking at survey data and user feedback.
One of the changes we made recently was to stop using QuestionPoint's built-in surveys in favor of one on this site. We no longer associate a specific survey with a specific transcript, but I really like that we can ask whatever questions we want.
The survey is mostly the same for now, but one change we did make was to allow patrons to select multiple answers for the question, "How did you hear about this service".
For July 1 - October 31, 2007, when patrons could only choose one answer, the results were:
| how did you hear? | count | percent |
|---|---|---|
| library website | 194 | 55% |
| school teacher/librarian | 61 | 17% |
| surfing the net | 40 | 11% |
| friend/relative | 33 | 9% |
| librarian / public library | 14 | 4% |
| librarian / academic library | 7 | 2% |
| bookmark/flyer | 3 | 1% |
| newspaper/radio/television | 2 | 1% |
354 survey respondents answered this question, and each chose only one answer.
For November 1 - December 31, 2007, when patrons could choose multiple answers, the results were:
| how did you hear? | count | percent |
|---|---|---|
| library website | 68 | 35% |
| teacher | 59 | 30% |
| librarian | 56 | 29% |
| on the internet | 43 | 22% |
| friend | 30 | 15% |
| bookmark | 8 | 4% |
| poster | 5 | 3% |
| brochure | 4 | 2% |
| pencil | 3 | 2% |
| advertising on a bus or a train | 3 | 2% |
| on the radio | 2 | 1% |
| advertisting on the internet | 2 | 1% |
| newspaper article | 1 | 1% |
| on television | 0 | 0% |
| advertising on the radio | 0 | 0% |
195 survey respondents answered this question, and 151 chose only one answer. Of the other 44, 19 chose two, 13 chose three, 7 chose four, 4 chose five and 1 chose eight of the 15 options listed here.
My hope was that we would get a better sense of exactly how many people were hearing about us from our marketing efforts, especially when we really *do* start advertising on tv and radio and other places.
Several responses got a boost and are hopefully more accurate now, though 'library website' dropped 20% and I'm not sure why - perhaps there are too many choices.
For now, it looks like our bookmarks, pencils and brochures have not been very effective, but I don't want to be too hasty to make that conclusion. Bookmarks and pencils serve as reminders, not as primary ways to reach patrons, and brochures are directed at teachers, not students. We also have no way of knowing if the people in the audience for these materials have been filling out the survey lately.
Conclusions? Nope! But it is something for our marketing team to look at.
I wear my L-net t-shirt when
I wear my L-net t-shirt when I work out and around town. I often wonder if I'm making people aware of the service. Sometimes they ask but not very often.
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