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September 23, 2006
Books in libraries
One of the measures that retailers use and that public libraries used to use was the response to question "Did you find what you were looking for, or something suitable?" of the public as they leave the premises
Big retailers measure the response to these constantly- so that each month, or each quarter, they can see a trend upwards or downwards. Typically they would worry if the answer falls below 85% saying yes.
This week I saw the figures for a similar survey for a sample of public libraries. The answer to the question "Did you find what you were looking for or something suitable?" The number who anwered yes was just less than 3%. This survey was not carried out just among library users, but (effectively by the way it was done) among "people who have read or used a book in the last year".
I wondered for a while why that measure no longer appears in the public library standards. Now I know the answer.
Incidentally, in terms of resources for carrying out this kind of work, the public library service in the UK is far larger than any retailer- with 4,000 branches and more than 20,000 staff. It shouldn't be difficult to sample the quality of the service and measure what is happening.
Posted by Tim Coates at September 23, 2006 11:01 AM