Conducting an Information Needs Assessment--FAQS

What is the most common format for an Information Needs Assessment? Format options include: a written questionnaire mailed to users, an electronic version of the questionnaire delivered via email or available at a web site, faceto-face interviews, or focus groups. Electronic surveys are generally easier to manage and compile, especially when surveying a large and geographically dispersed user base, but if your organization runs on paper, they may not solicit a high response rate. You need to gauge which method will be most successful for you. To get the level of detail you desire, you may choose to begin with a written or electronic survey and follow up with face to face or telephone interviews to validate your findings or to obtain additional qualitative information. What is the appropriate time frame for planning and conducting an Information Needs Assessment? Four to six months from initial planning to delivering analyzed survey results is an ideal time frame, with a typical planning calendar as follows: Weeks 1-3 : Create the questions and refine them Weeks 4-6: Identify those who will receive the Assessment Weeks 7-8: Produce and deliver the survey to those selected Weeks 9-10: Time for users to respond. Note: You may want to build in a reminder at the end of the first week to increase response. Weeks 11-13: Completion of face-to-face or telephone interviews Weeks 14-18: Analysis of the feedback The two areas that may easily take much more time than allotted are the interviews and the analysis. Scheduling of the interviews, especially with executives and top managers, can be time consuming because their availability is limited. The analysis may take longer than expected if you have a very high response rate and a large number of feedback forms to evaluate. If there are major surprises in the responses or major variances in responses, you may need to do some further probing to understand the reasons for these variances. Remember to set expectations when you undertake the Assessment so that your management does not expect to see instant results. Good research takes time but will be worth it in the long run. How can I get all the information I want/need from this survey? Be careful to define the objectives of your Information Needs Assessment, e.g., moving to a virtual environment, altering the topical focus of your collection, etc. before you do anything else. Direct the questions in the Information Needs
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Assessment vehicle to obtain maximum understanding of your users views as they relate to your objectives. Refrain from asking too many questions. Keep the Needs Assessment direct and brief. Make it easy for users to respond. Who should be included in the survey? Literature about Information Surveys or Information Needs Assessments recommends surveying 1-10% of the total population. (You also have to define total population. It can mean the entire organization, a division, or a specific geographic location). A cross section of departments, functional areas, and levels is recommended. Dont forget to include corporate leaders, thought leaders, change agents, some current users of information services and some individuals who are not taking advantage of information services currently offered. That said, there may be occasions when the objective of the survey is so narrowly defined that it is appropriate to target a narrowly defined population of users, e.g., when determining types of company information required by your sales force. How do I encourage participation and response? How about asking an influential person in your organization to sponsor the Information Needs Assessment? You can draft a message for this person to send to target participants--highlighting the reasons for undertaking a Needs Assessment and encouraging participation. This tactic heightens visibility of your efforts and typically improves the rate of response. What are my options for compiling and interpreting survey responses? This part of the Assessment process can be time consuming and tedious so you will want to carefully consider which tools to use for compiling survey responses. You might consider enlisting the expertise of other professionals in your organizatione.g., market researchers, demographers, or statisticians. It is likely that they have sophisticated sampling and surveying tools. If you are in conversation with them from the outset of the project, they can provide valuable insights on designing the Needs Assessment tool as well as compiling and interpreting the responses. Survey responses can be tallied in a spreadsheet or a basic database program as well. It is a good idea to test your survey instrument with a few individuals before sending it to the entire target audience. This allows testing clarity of the wording of individual questions in the survey, and also allows testing how easily the responses can be tallied. If you have enough funding for the project, you might hire a company that specializes in survey design to help youboth with writing the survey and

Unit 1 Identifying Corporate Information Needs Dow Jones InfoPro Resource Center

tabulating the results. Student interns might also help you with this part of the Needs Assessment process. How should my survey findings be used? You can get lots of mileage out of the survey results. First of all, use survey results to make strategic changes in the way you are providing information services. Share the survey findings with your management, and use them to recommend and implement change. Include highlights in your Information Center strategic and operating plans. Offer to contribute to the strategic and operating plans of other departments by sharing with them your plans for improving information access to various user groups. Share survey findings with those who participated in the survey. Use survey findings to build partnerships with vendors and stakeholders in your organization. What follow-up is necessary? As a courtesy to those persons who participated in the Needs Assessment process, consider sending them a brief thank you message that includes highlights of the Assessment results. This gesture not only demonstrates your appreciation, it provides another opportunity to communicate that user needs are driving changes in information management in your organization.

Unit 1 Identifying Corporate Information Needs Dow Jones InfoPro Resource Center