What are survey methods?

In a general sense, survey methods encompass several major data collection strategies, including surveys of existing records, questionnaires, interviews, and focus groups. Earlier sections of this guide have presented materials related to surveys of existing records such as transaction log analysis, and a later section highlights interviews and focus groups. In the current section, the focus is on surveys that involve some sort of questionnaire.

Surveys are a way of collecting information to help you describe, compare, or explain knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors related to digital library use. Most often, within digital library evaluation, surveys are used to address issues that relate to user-centered concerns. Thus, the information derived from surveys can be used to inform decisions that will relate to issues relevant to users. Surveys are a good way to gather information about users':

• Previous or current behaviors
• Attitudes
• Beliefs
• Level of satisfaction

As with any other evaluation strategy, surveys require you to be clear about the decisions you wish to inform by collecting the information. A survey should be designed to address the questions that will help you gather information about the decisions that you or your stakeholders are facing. For example, if decisions must be made about resource cutbacks, then you would want to be sure to design your survey to include questions that will elicit as much information as possible related to the resources perceived as most valuable by your digital library patrons, and perhaps about those they consider to be superfluous as well.