Conducting an Information Needs Assessment--FAQS
What is the most common format for an Information Needs Assessment?
Format options include: a written questionnaire mailed to users, an electronic
version of the questionnaire delivered via email or available at a web site, faceto-face interviews, or focus groups. Electronic surveys are generally easier to
manage and compile, especially when surveying a large and geographically
dispersed user base, but if your organization runs on paper, they may not solicit
a high response rate. You need to gauge which method will be most successful
for you. To get the level of detail you desire, you may choose to begin with a
written or electronic survey and follow up with face to face or telephone
interviews to validate your findings or to obtain additional qualitative information.
What is the appropriate time frame for planning and conducting an
Information Needs Assessment?
Four to six months from initial planning to delivering analyzed survey results is an
ideal time frame, with a typical planning calendar as follows:
Weeks 1-3 :
Create the questions and refine them
Weeks 4-6:
Identify those who will receive the Assessment
Weeks 7-8:
Produce and deliver the survey to those selected
Weeks 9-10:
Time for users to respond. Note: You may want to build in
a “reminder” at the end of the first week to increase
response.
Weeks 11-13:
Completion of face-to-face or telephone interviews
Weeks 14-18:
Analysis of the feedback
The two areas that may easily take much more time than allotted are the
interviews and the analysis. Scheduling of the interviews, especially with
executives and top managers, can be time consuming because their availability
is limited. The analysis may take longer than expected if you have a very high
response rate and a large number of feedback forms to evaluate. If there are
major surprises in the responses or major variances in responses, you may need
to do some further probing to understand the reasons for these variances.
Remember to set expectations when you undertake the Assessment so that your
management does not expect to see instant results. Good research takes time
but will be worth it in the long run.
How can I get all the information I want/need from this survey?
Be careful to define the objectives of your Information Needs Assessment, e.g.,
moving to a virtual environment, altering the topical focus of your collection, etc.
before you do anything else. Direct the questions in the Information Needs
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Assessment vehicle to obtain maximum understanding of your users’ views as
they relate to your objectives. Refrain from asking too many questions. Keep the
Needs Assessment direct and brief. Make it easy for users to respond.
Who should be included in the survey?
Literature about Information Surveys or Information Needs Assessments
recommends surveying 1-10% of the total population. (You also have to define
“total population”. It can mean the entire organization, a division, or a specific
geographic location). A cross section of departments, functional areas, and
levels is recommended. Don’t forget to include corporate leaders, thought
leaders, change agents, some current users of information services and some
individuals who are not taking advantage of information services currently
offered. That said, there may be occasions when the objective of the survey is so
narrowly defined that it is appropriate to target a narrowly defined population of
users, e.g., when determining types of company information required by your
sales force.
How do I encourage participation and response?
How about asking an influential person in your organization to sponsor the
Information Needs Assessment? You can draft a message for this person to
send to target participants--highlighting the reasons for undertaking a Needs
Assessment and encouraging participation. This tactic heightens visibility of your
efforts and typically improves the rate of response.
What are my options for compiling and interpreting survey responses?
This part of the Assessment process can be time consuming and tedious so you
will want to carefully consider which tools to use for compiling survey responses.
You might consider enlisting the expertise of other professionals in your
organization—e.g., market researchers, demographers, or statisticians. It is
likely that they have sophisticated sampling and surveying tools. If you are in
conversation with them from the outset of the project, they can provide valuable
insights on designing the Needs Assessment tool as well as compiling and
interpreting the responses. Survey responses can be tallied in a spreadsheet or a
basic database program as well.
It is a good idea to test your survey instrument with a few individuals before
sending it to the entire target audience. This allows testing clarity of the wording
of individual questions in the survey, and also allows testing how easily the
responses can be tallied.
If you have enough funding for the project, you might hire a company that
specializes in survey design to help you—both with writing the survey and
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tabulating the results. Student interns might also help you with this part of the
Needs Assessment process.
How should my survey findings be used?
You can get lots of mileage out of the survey results. First of all, use survey
results to make strategic changes in the way you are providing information
services. Share the survey findings with your management, and use them to
recommend and implement change. Include highlights in your Information Center
strategic and operating plans. Offer to contribute to the strategic and operating
plans of other departments by sharing with them your plans for improving
information access to various user groups. Share survey findings with those who
participated in the survey. Use survey findings to build partnerships with vendors
and stakeholders in your organization.
What follow-up is necessary?
As a courtesy to those persons who participated in the Needs Assessment
process, consider sending them a brief thank you message that includes
highlights of the Assessment results. This gesture not only demonstrates your
appreciation, it provides another opportunity to communicate that user needs are
driving changes in information management in your organization.
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