Montgomery County Library
Survey Project
Cameron Dunaj,
Civil Engineering
Matt Babina,
Brendon Dubois
Electrical Engineering
Mechanical Engineering
Advisors:
Prof. David Lucht
Prof. Peter Hansen
Liaisons:
Lennadene Bailey
Eric Carzon
Motivation and Goals
• Montgomery County Library
– Reestablish direct customer feedback
– Assess library customer satisfaction
– Highlight areas in need of change
• WPI Project Team
– Assist the libraries with self-improvement
– Become well-rounded engineers
– Fulfill IQP degree requirement
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Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Mission Statement
This project’s objective is to assist the
Montgomery County Public Libraries in
assessing the services it provides to its
customers by creating statistical surveys to
gauge the public’s satisfaction with the county
library system.
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Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Objectives
•
Create short surveys assessing the following
areas:
–
–
–
–
–
•
•
•
Circulation
Facilities
Information Services
Information Technology
Customer Programs
Develop a database of questions
Pilot test surveys at multiple library
branches
Develop Data Analysis tool
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Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Survey Creation
• Options considered
– Interviews
• Personal
• Video
– Surveys
•
•
•
•
Phone Surveys
Mail Surveys
Internet Surveys
Paper Surveys
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Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Survey Creation
•
•
•
•
•
Brainstorming
Discussion with library staff
Observation of customer interaction
Writing standardized questions
Vetting the questions for approval
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Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Sample Survey Questions
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Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Question Database
• Stores all questions for consideration
• Provides the possibility of future
expandability of the surveys
• Sorting questions by several criteria
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Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Question Database
• Nomenclature consists of eight dimensions:
–
–
–
–
Survey Title
Question Number
Version
Two dimensions of importance
• Program Measure/Not Program Measure
• Included on Survey/Not Included on Survey
– Three dimensions of question design
• Multiple Choice/Open Ended
• Qualitative/Quantitative
• Response Type
• Dimensions can be easily added or modified to suit
future needs.
Worcester Polytechnic Institute
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Data Analysis Tool
• Input Form
– Designed to be easy to use
– Integrated with the Question Database
• Database
– Contains all survey questions
– Accepts data recorded by Input Form
– Displays all responses for all questions
• Charts
– Charts automatically created for program measures
– Display percent response in bar chart format
– Tabulates results for each response option
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Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Data Analysis Tool
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Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Data Analysis Tool
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Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Data Analysis Tool
Circulation Survey
96.30% of the customers surveyed rated The Time Waited in Line as "Very Good" or "Good"
Percentage of Responses Rating the Time Waiting
in Line at the Circulation Desk
66.67%
70.00%
60.00%
50.00%
29.63%
Percentage of 40.00%
Responses 30.00%
20.00%
3.70%
10.00%
0.00%
0.00%
0.00%
Very
Good
Good
Fair
Poor
Very Poor
Rating
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Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Data Analysis Tool
Circulation Survey
84.48% of customers surveyed rated Availability of Library Materials as "Very Good" or "Good"
Percentage of Responses Rating Availability of
Materials Offered
48.28%
50.00%
45.00%
40.00%
35.00%
30.00%
Percentage of
25.00%
Responses
20.00%
15.00%
10.00%
5.00%
0.00%
36.21%
12.07%
3.45%
Very
Good
Good
Fair
Poor
0.00%
Very Poor
Rating
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Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Data Analysis Tool
Information Survey
100.00% of the customers surveyed rated The Helpfulness of the Information Received
as "Very Helpful" or "Somewhat Helpful"
Percentage of Responses Rating the Helpfulness of
the Information Received at the Information Desk
100.00%
100.00%
90.00%
80.00%
70.00%
60.00%
Percentage of
50.00%
Responses
40.00%
30.00%
20.00%
10.00%
0.00%
0.00%
0.00%
Very
Helpful
Somewhat
Helpful
Not Very
Helpful
0.00%
Not Helpful
At All
Rating
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Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Data Analysis Tool
Information Survey
97.62% of the customers surveyed rated The Time Waited in Line as "Very Good" or "Good"
Percentage of Responses Rating the Time Waited in
Line at the Information Desk
83.33%
90.00%
80.00%
70.00%
60.00%
Percentage of 50.00%
Responses 40.00%
30.00%
20.00%
10.00%
0.00%
14.29%
2.38%
Very
Good
Good
Fair
0.00%
Poor
0.00%
Very Poor
Rating
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Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Data Analysis Tool
Programs Survey
100.00% of the customers surveyed rated Quality of Service as "Very Good" or "Good"
Percentage of Responses Rating the Overall Quality
of the Programs
80.00%
71.43%
70.00%
60.00%
50.00%
Percentage of
40.00%
Responses
30.00%
28.57%
20.00%
0.00%
10.00%
0.00%
0.00%
0.00%
Very
Good
Good
Fair
Poor
Very Poor
Rating
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Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Pilot Testing
Observations
Solutions
Back of survey often not filled
out
Added a “please continue” arrow
on bottom
Receiving comments about other Moved date/branch block from
branches
back to front
Large number of best-option
responses to Information survey
Adjusted procedure to
remove possible bias
Crowdedness caused by running Adjusted procedure to relieve
surveys
crowding and confusion in
library during surveying
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Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Pilot Testing
How would you rate the time you waited in line at
the circulation desk today?
Percentage of
Responses
Number of
Responses
Very Good
60.00%
36
Good
26.67%
16
Fair
3.33%
2
Poor
0.00%
0
Very Poor
0.00%
0
10.00%
6
Don't Know
Total
60
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Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Recommendations
•
•
•
•
•
•
Sample Size
Surveying Techniques
Focus Groups
Branch-Specific Surveys
Multi-Language Surveys
Alternative Data Entry
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Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Special Thanks
• Lennadene Bailey, Eric Carzon, John
Greiner
• Rockville, Gaithersburg, Bethesda ,
Quince Orchard, and Little Falls
Library Staff
• Prof. David Lucht, Prof. Peter Hansen
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Worcester Polytechnic Institute