The "Effect of School Report Card Design on Usability, Understanding, and Satisfaction" study examined the District of Columbia Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) online school report card. The study assessed the effect of different designs on how easy the report cards are to use and understand, how easy it is to find…

Launched in June 2016, the Smithsonian Learning Lab (SLL) provides access to the digital resources from across the Smithsonian's 19 museums, 9 major research centers, and the National Zoo, to be used as real-world learning experiences. It is designed to aid students in building lasting knowledge and critical skills that take learners from simply…

This new report details findings from a study OCLC conducted with libraries in mid-2011 to learn about their priorities, initiatives, thoughts on the future of their service points and the sources they use to keep up with developments in the library field. Most public library staff: (1) Anticipate that the top reason patrons are using their…

This supplement contains documentation on the explicit and implicit stratification variables included in the PIRLS 2011 data files. The explicit strata are smaller sampling frames, created from the national sampling frames, from which national samples of schools were drawn. The implicit strata are nested within the explicit strata, and were used…

This report explores the world of e-books and libraries, where libraries fit into these book-consumption patterns of Americans, when people choose to borrow their books and when they choose to buy books. It examines the potential frustrations e-book borrowers can encounter when checking out digital titles, such as long wait lists and compatibility…

Over the past decade, policy discussions about public access computing in libraries have focused on the role that these institutions play in bridging the digital divide. In these discussions, public access computing services are generally targeted at individuals who either cannot afford a computer and Internet access, or have never received formal…

This paper presents additional information from the 2009 survey of young people's reading and writing. The authors conducted an online survey of 17,089 pupils aged 8 to 16 from 112 schools, conducted in November-December 2009, which consisted of 32 questions exploring young people's background, reading and writing behaviour, perceived ability and…

The Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) received a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to conduct research, develop strategies, create materials and evaluate the potential of marketing and communications programs to sustain and increase funding for U.S. public libraries. The quantitative study targeted two audiences: residents in…

Distributed on a random basis to 3,000 patrons, this survey was conducted to provide the administration of the Edmonton Public Library with a comprehensive evaluation of the service the library provides to the public. The results, which were tabulated using frequency distribution tables and which make up the major part of the report, are presented…

The University of Memphis (Tennessee) Libraries conducted a library user survey of undergraduate students in the fall of 1999. The survey was designed to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of current library resources and services, to ascertain usage patterns and user satisfaction with resources and services, and to identify future needs of…

This report presents the methodology and results of a patron use and satisfaction survey conducted during four one-week periods in 1997-98 at the Ferndale Public Library (Michigan). Survey questions focused on patron self-description, library use, and resource evaluation. In all, 1,424 surveys were distributed and 1,222 returned for a response…

During a 5-day period in 1990, a total of 1,401 reciprocal borrowers in the North Suburban Library System (NSLS) received questionnaires asking about their choice of library and other aspects of borrowing behavior to provide data on the reciprocal borrowing characteristics and patterns within the system. This survey was designed to identify the…

The diagnostic instrument SERVQUAL has been developed to measure customer expectations and perceptions of service. This article describes a study that investigated how applicable SERVQUAL is to academic libraries and how influential the study's findings might be in changing concepts of the management of academic library services. Two SERVQUAL…

This report summarizes data from surveys of users at the Georgia College library from 1989 to 1992. Results in the following areas are presented for each fiscal year (i.e., 1990, 1991, and 1992): (1) affiliation with the college and academic major; (2) status (i.e., faculty, staff, student class); (3) whether the library visit was in support of…

This pamphlet summarizes the results of a national survey funded by the U.S. Department of Education which asked Americans how they perceived the role of the public library in their lives. Those surveyed included a cross section of the national population, minority groups, and community opinion leaders. Most of those surveyed regard public…