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February 16, 2008
PLUS: Public Library User Surveys
Attention was drawn below to the shortcomings of the operation of CIPFA (The Chartered Institute of Public Finance Accountants) in the matter of their work for the public over public libraries.
In addition to the annual incomprehensible and tardy document called 'Public LIbrary Actuals' -they also oversee and process a programme called PLUS (Public Library User surveys). Most library authorities conduct these once every three years and they comprise a set of questions asked of a sample of people using the libraries under their management.
The market research manager of any large consumer driven corporation (or even any political pollster) will tell you that understanding your market needs several measures. Users are only one of the groups. 'Lapsed users' ie- the group of people who would normally use your service but are choosing not to- are the most informative group, they tell you what you are doing wrong. However if you do use 'user' surveys
- they need to be reasonably frequent to show trends
- the questions need to be the same each time, otherwise the measure is distorted
- the management who read them need to be told that they are only a small part of the picture and are not a really reliable picture of how the whole market views your offering
I looked last week at some PLUS surveys conducted in 2006. The questions had been changed from surveys of 2003 and no explanation came with them as to how to interpret what they meant. They are thus a huge waste of public money and management time.
PLUS need to be conducted by a professional marketing body who know what they are doing in this field-- not a bunch of amateur committees who don't. They need to be overhauled-- like all the data production for the public library service. That should have been done by the DCMS 10 yrs ago or the MLA 5 years ago-- it was the obvious first job.
Posted by Perkins at February 16, 2008 8:50 AM