Earlier today I sent the message below to my fellow members on the Massachusetts IMLS Connecting to Collections Statewide Planning Grant Advisory Board. It references the minutes of our first meeting, and seeks to continue the conversation about addressing critical issues that may otherwise reduce participation in the survey.
The next meeting of the board is November 18. We hope to accomplish a considerable amount before then.
If you have comments or suggestions, please add them below.
To the Connecting to Collections Advisory Board,
The notes do a pretty good job of capturing the main points. Reviewing them now reinforces the concern several people mentioned at the meeting: How will completing the survey benefit the institution that participates?
Without a straightforward, compelling answer to this question, we’ll have a difficult time addressing the four issues listed in the minutes, which really boil down to these two:
– Participation–Ensuring that the response is representative of the institutions (by type, size, and location) across the state.
– Design–What information do we want to gather?
These two are fundamental, and go right to the heart of whether this effort succeeds.
It would help all of us if an answer can be proposed and posted to the forthcoming [Massachusetts Board of Library Commissions-created] blog for comment.
Along these lines . . .
- After reviewing a handful of the funded proposals—they’re linked from the bottom of this page—it appears that several states are using the grant for both data gathering and for holding regional meetings and workshops. (Note that most states received the same size grant, approx. $40K.) Because the content is based on the findings, there’s a closer link between taking time complete the survey and getting something in return.
- Given that studies roughly similar to the present one have taken place here in Massachusetts over the last several decades, are there specific improvements or programs that were tied to these earlier studies? Where can we find the documents describing the efforts over the last several years? It will help build a case for participating if we make sure that others are aware of these efforts, and the easiest way to do that is to publicize where these can be found online. I wouldn’t be surprised if these will be new news to many.
