How It Works

Librarians and library staff work hard to provide technology services that meet the needs of their patrons. Impact Survey takes the guesswork out of understanding how patrons use computers, the Internet, and other technology services, what type of assistance they need, and how this access improves their lives. The Impact Survey is designed to be user-friendly and requires minimal time and technology skills to implement. And our team is available to answer questions and provide tech support when you need it.

You can download a PDF of the survey questions in English or Spanish for reference.

Create a user account

Create an Impact Survey account for your library from the http://impactsurvey.org homepage, where you will fill out a brief registration form. Any U.S. public library with a website and public access computers can use Impact Survey. Only one Impact Survey account can be created per library system, which may have a single outlet or multiple outlets; we cannot enroll libraries at the branch level. State libraries can also create an account to see the results from their state and also take advantage of special aggregate reports.

Log in and get started

When you access your library's Impact Survey account at http://impactsurvey.org, you will be directed to the My Impact dashboard. The My Impact page displays information about your library that we've prepopulated based on data from the Institute of Museum and Library Servers. From there you will be asked to verify your library's basic information, and to upload your library's logo and photo to customize your reports. Libraries with multiple outlets will also be asked to verify their locations and provided with an opportunity to add or remove outlets. We also ask that you complete a short intake questionnaire about your library's technology.

Select your survey start and stop dates

When you are ready to run the survey in your library, you will choose your library's survey start and stop, or fielding dates. We recommend fielding the survey for at least 2 weeks. Smaller libraries and those with few public access computers or a limited web presence may wish to extend their fielding period to 4 weeks or more to encourage more responses. The number of completed surveys is updated automatically on the My Impact page so you can keep track of how many responses you have received. You have the option of extending your survey fielding dates to up to 6 weeks if the number of initial survey responses is unsatisfactory for your purposes.

Link to the survey

From your My Impact dashboard you will be able to link to the survey using buttons and banners embedded with a unique URL created just for your library. Simply select the links you want to use on your library's website, and copy and paste the code provided into your home page. The process is fast and easy, requires only basic knowledge of HTML, and the Impact Survey team is available for one-on-one help should you need it. The links are hosted by Impact Survey, so there's no need to upload images or make any other changes to your website. Libraries can also create their own website buttons and banners if they wish.

Get library staff involved

Inform your library staff about the survey's purpose and procedures and get them involved in encouraging patrons to complete the survey. We provide handouts, sample email language, and other tools that will help library staff communicate with patrons about the survey and answer any questions that come up. We also provide other helpful tips for making the survey visible and accessible to your patrons.

Patrons take the survey

The online survey contains detailed questions about the benefits and outcomes of using technology services. It takes approximately 8-12 minutes to complete. In our experience, patrons are willing to spend this amount of time to "give back" to the library. Patrons must be 14 years of age or older to take the survey. Prepare to generate as much patron participation as possible by using the customizable materials (flyers, table tents, etc.) Impact Survey provides. We also recommend that public computer browsers are set to default to the survey website. Some libraries have improved their response rate by having a dedicated computer for survey taking. Libraries can also promote the survey in their communities through social media outlets and at events, such as technology classes, at the library. *New: You can now set a custom end page for the survey. You can link back to your homepage, or you can use something as simple as a google form to gather email addresses for an incentive prize drawing.

Download your reports

At the end of your survey fielding period, you simply remove the code embedded in the website to take the down the survey links. If your library has used the paper survey option, you will be asked to enter the responses to those surveys through a special interface that makes entering the data fast for library staff. Once that's all done, you will be able to download your library's customized reports which you can use to communicate the value of your public access technology program. Libraries can also download their survey responses in a .csv file, if they want to do additional analysis. View sample reports below:

Library Login