While I have never done any "field work" per se through creating my own research question and studying it, I have participated in the TPL's "Survey Week" every quarter for almost eight years now. Survey Week brings groans and nervous sweats to everyone participating, particularly pages, whose job is to collect and count every piece of "artefact" (Lankes) left by library users, then record it on a paper. Mostly these numbers are exaggerated, since the higher the number, the higher the public financial support (or so they say, anyway). This is a tedious time for library workers. It is inefficient, often fabricated (or at the very least, lightly embellished) and tedious.
Since the columns are vague (print, media, etc) I do not see how we could really garner any important knowledge about library users. It is simply about money, which saddens me. When and why did library workers become so detached to those they truly serve (the people), rather than what they are enslaved to (funding)?
I don't know much about TPL, but in the Halton Hills system people usually don't look through their books in the library. Usually if books are left on tables it means that they were rejected. It sounds like the survey might not work as well for materials like DVDs or CDs, because they probably wouldn't be used within the library.
ReplyDeleteOh Maggie, I can't tell you how much I dislike survey week - I can only imagine how awful it is in a large district branch. I think my frustration comes from the inconsistency and subjectivity of the process. I know that for us, we've used relatively the same tally sheets for years. Yet every few times we do it, they change their minds about what type of interaction gets marked in each category. Also, you're absolutely right about number of books left around being inflated, even though we all know the amount of mess left behind is rarely a true indication of library usage. There just has to be a better, more efficient way, of measuring library performance.
ReplyDeleteI think it's a tricky issue. The library needs some way to gain an idea of how their services are being used and by what demographics. I wonder if there are better methods of doing so instead of tallying numbers of stray books and reference questions four times per year.
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