Library use is low when people have a low income or a high income. The greater the distance people must travel to get to the library, the less they use the library. Couples with children use the library more. You can determine these and other traits in your community from public records, which can help you identify needs for your community and encourage greater participation. Surveys Surveys and questionnaires involve asking individuals in the community about their library needs.
Response rates vary depending on the method used.
For example, mailed surveys tend to have the lowest response rates while surveys performed over the telephone tend to have higher participation rates. While mailed surveys are the most expensive option and get low response rates, the mailed survey method requires very little time to implement and is easy to coordinate. It is always a good idea to pretest your questions to help identify flaws in the question format. You might also want to solicit help from an experienced survey researcher at this stage, if you are performing the needs assessment yourself. In order to make use of the information you have collected, the results have to be interpreted.