Survey says...#18

Surveys are everywhere. From reader polls on online newspapers to online stores for customer service follow-up, surveys are an easy way to get some quick info. Certain stores even put them on their receipts. I usually don't mind participating in random surveys, except when they get too long and redundant.

I never created my own survey before using any of the online applications, but I have taken surveys that have used Survey Monkey (we use this in Circ. ) and Zoomerang. The Singer Group sent a library wide survey a while back using Zoomerang. Survey Monkey and Poll Daddy seem like a good applications for basic surveys although the free accounts have limitations on the number of questions and responses. Question Pro and Zoomerang seemed to have more options to analyze results and they seem like applications for a more professional approach.

In circulation, a survey is useful in getting a quick information or an opinion from everyone on a topic. Everyone typically has a moment in the day to check e-mail and take a quick survey. We could use small surveys to get patron feedback on things such as our website, if they use self-check, or whatever questions come up that we would like a fast answer to. In-house we could use Survey Monkey for feedback on things such as Staff Day programs etc.

I used Survey Monkey to create a survey. It was fairly simple to use however, there were a few options I had to play with to get the questions set up correctly. You can edit questions and preview them until you get your survey set up how you would like it. The most difficult part was thinking of the questions. Take a quick survey here. Click Here to take survey