Beyond Surveys

Abstract

Librarians have many methods which can be used to determine how, why, and when their clients use their services. Too often they rely on questionnaires which have low return rates and require respondents to remember their own behavior. Observational methods often reveal more about information-seeking behavior than self-report surveys. Naturalistic inquiry and qualitative, subjectivist or ethnographic methods are well-suited for answering questions about why clients behave as they do. There is a recent body of literature reporting such studies and explaining how to do them in libraries.

Key Words:

• Library research methods
• naturalistic inquiry
• ethnographic methods
• qualitative methods
• subjectivist methods