We are currently conducting a pilot of the IMPACT Survey with a limited number of library systems to refine the survey processes and support materials. The deadline to register for participation in the pilot was September 26th. We wish to extend our thanks to those libraries who are participating in the pilot and hope to offer this survey tool to all public libraries in the future.
Your will receive a full-color, distribution-ready report on how your patrons are using and benefiting from the library’s computers and Internet connection generally, and across 8 specific use domains. You will also gain access to advocacy documents to help you share your survey findings with various audiences and advocate for support of public access technology. To hear how other libraries have used their survey findings, visit the Library Benefits page.
We're here for you! The IMPACT Team will provide you with as much technical support as you need throughout the survey process, including walking you through hosting the survey step by step - from installing your links, to promoting the survey to patrons, to making the most of your survey report. Please feel free to contact the survey coordinator at any time via the Contact Us form, or at (206) 543-4324.
Libraries can sign up at the system level with approval from the Library Director. By system we mean the library as an administrative entity, which may consist of one or several outlets. Unfortunately, we cannot accept registration at the outlet/branch level. We ask that one person register on behalf of the library system at http://impactsurvey.org Once your account is created, you will receive an email from [email protected] with instructions for completing your registration. We ask state libraries interested in coordinating statewide deployment of the survey to contact us to discuss options for this. For more information visit the How To page.
The survey collects information about how people in your community are using the library’s public access computers and Internet connection, and how this resource has helped them. The questions cover general use, as well as use in the following areas: employment, education, eBusiness; civic engagement; eCommerce; eGovernment; health and wellness; and social inclusion. The survey also collects information about use of specific library resources, help and training at the library, satisfaction, and patron perceptions of the importance of offering public access technology. Download a PDF of the survey questions for reference.
The survey takes about 10-15 minutes to complete. We’ve worked hard to keep the survey as short as possible, and have built in filtering questions so patrons avoid encountering questions that are not applicable to them.
You select your survey start and stop dates, and we suggest running the survey survey annually or biannually per your reporting needs and to monitor change. We suggest you run the survey for at least two weeks. You have the option to extend your survey fielding period up to a maximum of 4 weeks. This may be a good idea for smaller libraries, or libraries with limited number of public access Internet terminals. As you run the survey, the number of responses you have received will display on the My IMPACT dashboard (accessible to registered libraries), updated every 24 hours at 1:35 PST. If the count is unsatisfactory for your purposes, you may extend the survey fielding period while the survey is running... but not after. This is not a scientific study, so a theoretical target number of responses for your library does not exist. However, the more responses you receive, the more informative your findings will be.
You will install a link on your library’s website that connects your patrons to the web survey, which is hosted by us. We will provide you with buttons and banners of various sizes, and a JavaScript Lightbox which patrons can click on to access your unique survey URL. Your library patrons can then access the survey from your library’s website, whether from a library computer terminal, from their laptop, or from home. Libraries have also placed links to the survey on their online catalog. Detailed technical instructions for hosting the survey can be found on the How To page. We have attempted to make the process of installing and removing your survey links as easy as possible. It should take anyone with basic html skills less than 30 minutes to complete this. If you have problems, don't hesitate to contact us.
Yes! We would ask that you set the homepage on the Internet browsers on your public access Internet terminals to your library’s unique survey URL and that you post flyers around the computers and in other conspicuous places to inform your patrons about the survey. Click here to see a sample flyer. You can set the homepage on your public access Internet terminal browsers to your survey URL by doing the following:
In Firefox:
In Internet Explorer 8:
Yes. Some libraries have already have rotating banners or other devices on their website to draw attention to special events and highlighted services. We have a number of banners and buttons that can be used in this context. We just recommend that the survey link appear prominently on your website and that you put up flyers announcing the survey around your public access computer terminals. The more responses you receive, the stronger your report data will be.
No, we do not need access to your website code. The code we supply for linking to the survey can be inserted into your library’s website by anyone with basic HTML skills and should take less than 30 minutes. We will provide as much technical assistance as necessary, including walking you through the process step-by-step. Feel free to contact us with any questions.
Simply delete the code and files that you installed in your website source files. You may find it helpful to insert non-readable notes before and after the pasted code in your source files. Hopefully you also made a backup of your library website before you inserted the survey code. For more information on this, please see the How To page.
The survey is compliant with W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.0),and designed to be accessible to people with a wide variety of sensory, physical and cognitive abilities.
The survey does not collect any personally identifiable information from patrons. When a patron clicks on the link from your website to take the survey, your library’s unique survey URL (which includes your FSCS code assigned by the IMLS) is attached to the response. This code allows us to identify the responses that come from your library, but will not record any other information related to the patron, even if she/he is logged into their library account. The survey data is stored securely by the University of Washington’s Social Development Research Group (SDRG). All data is stored on secure servers with rights and permissions restricted housed in SDRG's offices. Physical access to the SDRG offices is access-card controlled. SDRG is very experienced in hosting web surveys on sensitive topics and have been previously granted a Certificate of Confidentiality from the National Institutes of Health.
We will use your library’s data to produce your report, and to populate several customized advocacy and communication materials available to you. At this time we are not able to provide your library's survey data set, but hope to develop this capability in the future. Each library retains the right to publish its own data.
There are a lot of valuable public library surveys out there. Your library may have participated in the Public Library Funding & Technology Access Study conducted by the ALA or recently completed the annual IMLS library survey. The IMPACT Survey is not directly affiliated with these efforts.
Respondents must be age 14 or older to take the survey. All respondents are required to enter in their year of birth at the start of the survey. If the year entered indicates the respondent is under the age of 14, they are exited from the survey. If the birth year field is left blank or indicates that the respondent is under the age of 14 on a paper survey, the survey responses are invalid and will not be included in your library's data.
 |
 |
 |
 |
