“You’re So Basic!” From Creation to Completion: Survey Formation, Data Collection, Coding, and Analysis 101

Library and technology teams should employ data-driven decision-making to plan for, manage, and achieve outcomes. Surveys are created with the intended goal of implementing future services, initiatives, and programs aimed at gathering information that will lead to improvement for the entire institution. Simple, high-quality surveys enable teams to engage in meaningful dialogue with their customers (patrons and users). When “good” data exists and is analyzed properly, results easily demonstrate how departments address institutional concerns and objectives, such as budget, time constraints, and ABA standards.

Unfortunately, the data we receive is often not “good”. This is because traditional survey creation has innate challenges. Successful surveys ask the right questions, reduce bias, and address the proper audience. Teams often overcomplicate the survey creation process and ignore these points by creating faulty or leading questions. Additionally, anecdotal data leaves room for misinterpretation and bad analysis. Whether departments are working with survey results or large data sets, analyzing qualitative data requires basic coding to compare “apples to apples”. Successful surveys require participation from invested stakeholders and consider institutional objectives to ensure the collection of useful data for outcome-driven decision-making.

This session delves into how departments can create simplified surveys that align with institutional concerns/objectives and why basic coding of qualitative data leads to better analysis and decision-making for your team. Session attendees will walk away with best practices on how to create surveys that yield useful data sets, how to code qualitative data easily, and analyze data to produce results that align with institutional priorities. Attendees do not require specialized training or knowledge prior to this session. All attendees can benefit from the session and will be equipped to teach other institutional stakeholders how to use these best practices.