What are interviews and focus groups?

Interviews and focus groups essentially boil down to asking people questions to which they respond verbally as opposed to in writing. Patton (1990) identifies three types of interviews typically used in evaluation or research. These are: the informal conversational interview, the standard open-ended interview, and the interview guide approach. Each of these types of interviews serves its own individual purposes well.

Informal conversational

This type of interview is the most flexible and open-ended. Informal conversational interviews depend on the natural flow of interaction between two people and allows the evaluator to pursue questioning in any direction, not having to rely on a script. These informal interviews will rarely be appropriate within a substantive evaluation, but they may be useful when you are in informal settings and meet patrons of your digital library.

Standard open-ended

This type of interview relies on a standard set of questions (called a protocol) that has been created ahead of time to elicit in-depth responses from participants. This type of interview is typically used when there is a team of evaluators, and you want to limit the variation between interview experiences. Using a standard open-ended interview allows for easier comparison between participants' responses, since each respondent is asked the same questions, typically in the same order.

Interview guide

The semi-structured, guided interview is a combination of the informal conversational and standard open-ended interview. There is an interview guide or protocol that serves as a checklist of topics that should be covered during the interview. However, there is no set order in which the questions need to be asked, and some questions may be skipped and others may be added. It is semi-structured, in the sense that there is a set of topics that needs to be covered, but the evaluator has the flexibility to explore certain questions in greater depth as he or she deems appropriate.

Focus groups

Interviews conducted in a group setting are often called focus groups. Focus groups can be used much like the individual interview, to elicit in-depth responses to topics of importance to the digital library evaluation. Generally focus groups consist of 6 to 8 participants and a moderator, and last anywhere from 30 minutes to 90 minutes. Typically the interaction is audio-taped, or sometimes video-taped, and later transcribed. A focus group protocol is very similar to the semi-structured, guided interview protocol, in that the moderator typically has a list of questions and topics to discuss with participants, but the order and depth in which the topics are discussed is flexible.