Be cautious if you need to collect any information that asks questions about race, ethnic background. Fink and Kosecoff provide guidelines for preparing informed consent statements, if that's something you need, for survey respondents and how to ask sensitive questions about ethnicity, income, and gender. This may not be an easy book to obtain. Any of the other on-line book services could order it as well, so don't let them tell you it's not in print. By the way, a quick search of the Dummies and Idiots Web sites did not show any books on how to conduct surveys.
Surveys require planning, time, expense, and skill to conduct.
In the end, you might decide to pay someone to conduct a survey for you. Even if you do, Fink and Kosecoff can help you discuss survey issues or management with how the survey is conducted. This book can make you better informed, and the survey, regardless of who conducts it, should be improved by your knowledge. Ronald W. Wolf is a freelance book reviewer. This review copyright 1999 by Ronald W. Wolf.