It’s that time again—the Biennial Survey & Library Needs
Assessment!
I’ve gotten a few emails from Selectives that have already
completed the survey—and at least one question concerning how to answer
Questions 2/2a.
These are the questions in which you are asked to estimate
the number of users for your entire collection and the number of users for your
depository collection as a discrete sub-set. To complicate things even
more, the questions ask you to give both a potential user count and an actual
user count of these two user groups.
Looking again (and again!) at these questions and
remembering what other Regionals have said about them, I offer you this
suggestion from one of my Regional colleagues:
. . . we based our answers to
question 2 on the state's population (potential) and our institution's number
of student/staff/faculty (actual). Question 2a was our institution's number of
student/staff/faculty (other library services users) and a semi-educated guess
(number of depository services users).
I realize that not every one of you keeps separate stats for
users of depository services; but if you do, that’s your answer to “2a: Number
of Depository services users.” However, if you do not keep stats, you
really will have to do a rough estimate based on your experience with the
collection; and since this same question seems to show up regularly on the
Biennial Survey, you might consider keeping stats on depository usage—beginning
right now—so you’ll be prepared for the next survey.
For those new coordinators who have never done a Biennial
Survey, please ask me or Abby to assist. The survey is not something to
fear, but it is mandatory. GPO will not let you rest until you’ve turned
one in!
And, finally, if you haven’t been able to locate the survey
yet, here’s a screen shot of what it looks like on the FDLP Desktop:
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