Surveys and Data in the Time of COVID-19

Guest post from Sherry Machones, Director Northern Waters Library System and WLA President

I hope everyone is doing well during this difficult time.

While we all continue to address the issues facing everyone during the public health event, it is important to continue to use good information to help inform decisions and actions. The Public Library Association (PLA) is seeking a new round of feedback about the work of libraries as they respond to the COVID-19 crisis. Taking this survey is a great opportunity for helping us all make informed decisions and reiterates our statewide strategy for leveraging data within our libraries. Please complete the survey by Monday, May 18, by clicking on the following link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/libraries-respond-to-covid-19-may-2020. The survey should take about 15 minutes to complete and all completed respondents will be automatically entered to win one of ten $30 gift certificates to the ALA Store. To look at the first round of data collected in March, please visit here.

PLA and its ALA partners know that libraries across the United States are taking unprecedented steps to answer the needs of their communities, and this survey will help build a better understanding of those efforts. PLA and its ALA partners will use the results to advocate on behalf of libraries at the national level, communicate aggregated results with the public and media, create content and professional development opportunities to address library staff needs, and share some raw, anonymized data elements with state-level staff and library support organizations for their own advocacy needs.

For more specifics on the data that is being requested and how it will be used: All library types are encouraged to respond. PLA is surveying at the library administrative entity level and is not collecting outlet/branch data. Financial-related data will only be used in aggregate and not shared in raw data format. Any raw data that is shared with states or other library support organizations outside of ALA will be anonymized. Special thanks to the Colorado State Library’s Library Research Service and the Institute of Museum and Library Services, Public Library Data Alliance partners, Association of Research Libraries, and the Academic Library Trends & Statistics Survey Editorial Board.

​Please consider filling out this survey as soon as possible to help us all weather this storm together.

Be safe and stay well,

Sherry Machones, smachones@northernwaters.org

Posted by Cindy Fesemyer