odincindio marine information management training course 13-24 february 2006

ODINCINDIO Marine Information Management Training Course 13-24

February 2006

Evaluating the need for an Information

CentreMurari P TapaswiNational Institute of Oceanography, Dona Paula 403 004 Goa, India

[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

ODINCINDIO Info Mgmt Trg Course Feb 2006

Realization of the need… 1

• Waste of funds in acquiring same information • Unable to lay hands on the available /

scattered information

• Limited time to carefully study and select useful information

• Duplication of efforts in searching information


Realization of the need… 2

• Same information required by many departments

• Unable to make quick decisions due to non-availability of readymade information

• Waste of time and money in searching information


End result…

• Establishment of an Information Centre------------------------------------------------------

Beginning of the business of the Information personnel


Understand……

• Objectives of the organization– Documents that speak

objectives: Memorandum of Association, Policy Statement, Mission Statement, etc.

- Documents that speak activity and scope: Organizational Charts, Statements of Responsibility, etc.


Know the people…

• Who wish to– Use your services and facilities – Don't !

• The way – Needs assessment surveys

? Best time for Needs Assessment Surveys


Time for assessment surveys

• No one good time• Continual process• Do it as and when

– Technology/ environment changes– Users change

• Good reason to have a dialogue with the users!


Needs assessment surveys: How

• Identifying the customer or customer group

• Planning for data collection• Collection of data• Analysis• Action on findings


Needs assessment

• The people we serve• The users for whom the service is

targeted at• Client base vs perspective clients• Method to find them

- User identification- Planning- Data collection- Analysis- Action


Needs assessment

• Available options in offering information/ service

• Informal discussions– Understanding vocabulary of the user– Distinctive value of the service to the users

• Assessment with qualitative or quantitative data, or a mixture of both– Qualitative info provides in-depth info about fewer

cases– Quantitative info provides more breadth of info

across a large number of cases



Needs assessment

• Different ways– Surveys (print forms/ online/ e-mails)– Interviews (personal / over phone)– Focus groups– On-site observation



Needs assessment

Surveys (print forms/ online/ e-mails)• Advantages

– Can be administered among large populations

– Less intrusive (and biased) than other methods of data collection

– Statistical applications on digitized quantitative info lead to excellent results

• Simple, well tested questionnaires result in accurate and positive rate of return



Needs assessment

Surveys (print forms/ online/ e-mails)• User satisfaction vs User needs surveys

or both in two sections• Purposeful• Decide before hand how data for each

question would be analyzed• Open ended questions (allow subjective

interpretation) vs close questions



Needs assessment

Surveys (print forms/ online/ e-mails)• Close questions/statements with ranked

choice– e.g. You would prefer to receive reminders

for the books that are due (1 2 3 4). 4 – highest in agreement

• Close questions with forced choice (yes/no)– e.g. Should we charge late fee for delayed

returns (yes/no)



Needs assessment

Interviews (personal / over phone)• Interviewee can ask clarification on the

question• Replies may turn to qualitative nature

and loose track• Replies may get influenced by

interviewers preferences and body language

• Recording of replies is an art• Good for smaller populations



Needs assessment

Focus groups• Knowledgeable/ experienced small

group of experts• Expensive • Feedback can help in designing future

surveys



Needs assessment

On-site observations• Time-consuming method• Users may not know that they are

observed• Observer must be knowledgeable to

draw conclusions• Log of every small observation is

required to be kept• Best to be used in combination with

other types of evaluations



Needs assessment

• Different approach for analysis of qualitative and quantitative data

• Qualitative data needs to be converted to common threads from set of responses

• Selection of appropriate statistical packages for analysis

• Plotting data in Impact vs Ease chart



Needs assessment

• Plotting data in Impact vs Ease chart


High

High

Ease

Impact

Low

AB

CD

? Squares A to D in order of preference for action


Needs assessment

• The items/suggestions that are of high impact and easy to implement to be taken up first. Rest in sequence of possibility of implementation/importance

• Feedback user with the results and actions after the survey



Needs assessment: Other tools

• Standards– Smaller libraries can base needs of their

users by established standards which have been derived from experiences by other libraries

• Suggestion box– Needed to be opened at fixed short

intervals

• Discussions with fellow users– Informal / formal


Needs assessment: Other tools

• Online survey softwares – built in survey templates– Web-based surveys – nothing to download– View results real-time– Examples:

• http://www.questionpro.com/ • http://www.sectorresearch.com/


Sources for further studies

• Good description– http://digital.library.arizona.edu/nadm/tutorial/

– http://nnlm.gov/ner/nesl/9410/tol.html • Electronic survey form examples:

– http://www.kaiaghok.com/A55885/pulp.nsf/survey – http://library.uthct.edu/libsurvey1.htm


Needs assessment survey assignment

Design a needs assessment survey for a service in your library and state how would you go about on following three aspects:

• Purpose• User identification• Planning• Data collection• Analysis• Action