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Shaping the Future of CHLA/ABSC: Focus Groups & Survey

Shaping the Future of CHLA/ABSC: Focus Groups & Survey. 9 th European Conference of Medical and Health Libraries 23 September 2004 Patrick Ellis, Laurie Scott & Tim Tripp. CHLA/ABSC. Canadian Health Libraries Association / Association des bibliothèques de la santé du Canada. Founded 1976.

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Shaping the Future of CHLA/ABSC: Focus Groups & Survey

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  1. Shaping the Future of CHLA/ABSC: Focus Groups & Survey 9th European Conference of Medical and Health Libraries 23 September 2004 Patrick Ellis, Laurie Scott & Tim Tripp

  2. CHLA/ABSC • Canadian Health Libraries Association / Association des bibliothèques de la santé du Canada. • Founded 1976. • Mission: To improve health and health care by promoting excellence in access to information.

  3. CHLA/ABSC • Approximately 400 members. • 18 chapters across the country – large and small, urban and rural.

  4. CHLA/ABSC • Chapter membership does not require national membership. • Chapters address local issues and raise these issues nationally. • DOCLINE implementation in Canada was coordinated through chapters.

  5. Challenges • Both federal and provincial governments control and fund health care. • No national library of medicine. • No consistency in organization and governance of health science libraries across jurisdictions.

  6. Issues • We knew very little about the demographics of our membership. • Communication between the national Board and the chapters was largely limited to listserv queries on specific issues as they arose.

  7. Issues • CHLA/ABSC was approaching its 25th anniversary. • No survey of Canadian health information professionals had been done since the association was founded.

  8. Board discussions • Started out discussing a survey of continuing education needs. • Developed into a desire to conduct a much more comprehensive survey.

  9. Board discussions • Survey would cover member demographics, issues being faced locally, member readiness to accept an online-only version of the journal, etc.

  10. Focus Groups - Why • Presentation by a consultant planted the idea. • Would provide input from chapters to CHLA/ABSC Board.

  11. Focus Groups - Why • Issues would be identified for CHLA/ABSC survey. • Opportunity for outreach from Board to membership.

  12. Focus Groups – How • Consultant versus Board members – which to choose? • Consultant would bring neutrality, but very costly.

  13. Focus Groups – How • There was a vast geographic area to cover – could we manage all 18 chapters? • Costs were a major a concern.

  14. Focus Groups - How • In the end, we decided to have 2 Board members do the sessions. Reasons: • The consultant proposed doing 5 or 6 regional sessions.

  15. Focus Groups - How • For similar cost (Board members would not charge for their time, only travel), they could do all 18 chapters. • Board members wouldn’t have a “learning curve” about the association as a consultant would have.

  16. Focus Groups - How • Having Board members travel and meet with chapters a clear demonstration of chapters’ importance to the national leadership. • We felt the loss of a consultant’s neutrality was offset by the other advantages.

  17. Focus Groups - Who • Patrick Ellis, then Past President and Laurie Scott, then Continuing Education Director, took on the task. (Guess which of them this is.)

  18. Focus Groups - Who • Both had employers’ and families’ support. • Both had experience on the Board. • In September, 2001, they embarked on their “Road Show”.

  19. The Road Show

  20. The Road Show • Patrick is based in Halifax, Nova Scotia; Laurie in Toronto, Ontario, over 1,800 kilometres apart. • Patrick is 6,400 kilometres from Vancouver – our western-most stop on the trip.

  21. The Road Show • Southern, Eastern and Central Ontario • 9 chapters • September 24 - October 5, 2001. • Travelled by car. • Had a flat tire.

  22. The Road Show • The Maritimes and Newfoundland & Labrador. • 2 chapters plus a Board meeting • October 15 - 21, 2001. • Travelled by plane and car. • Drove through a hurricane.

  23. The Road Show • Northwestern Ontario, the Prairie Provinces and British Columbia • 6 chapters • November 5 - 13, 2001 • Travelled by plane. • Amazingly, no snow!

  24. The Road Show • ASTED Section Santé • January 25, 2002 • Laurie travelled by train; Patrick by air. • Not nearly enough time in Montréal!

  25. Focus Group Sessions • Agenda: • Introductions • Identification of Issues • Prioritizing Issues • Identification of Strategies • Update from the Board

  26. Focus Group Sessions • Early on realized that chapter members who were not national members would need to be included. • Otherwise, valuable source of input, and opportunity to demonstrate value of national association would be lost.

  27. Focus Group Sessions • Each session had its own character. • For some, issues of geography were dominant. • For all, budget cutbacks were a prime concern.

  28. Focus Group Sessions • Issues raised were captured on flip charts, grouped into major themes, and prioritized by participants.

  29. Focus Group Sessions • Input was later transferred into spreadsheets and used to help shape the survey. • Data was summarized and reported to the members via our journal.

  30. The Survey • Survey of Canadian Health Information Professionals conducted in 2002. Its goals: • Provide a demographic “snap shot” of the membership of CHLA/ABSC and its Chapters;

  31. The Survey • Allow Association, Chapter members and others to identify issues and concerns, and suggest ways CHLA/ABSC might address them;

  32. Survey • Allow Association & Chapter members the opportunity to provide feedback on CHLA/ABSC services, priorities and activities;

  33. Survey • Assist the CHLA/ABSC Board of Directors in strategic planning, and establishing goals and priorities for the Association;

  34. Survey • Provide health science information professionals in Canada with their first salary survey.

  35. Survey Instrument • The survey instrument was in multiple parts: • Demographics • Academic & Professional Background • Employment & Compensation

  36. Survey Instrument • Continuing Education & Professional Development • Issues • BMC (journal), Web Site & CanMedLib • General Comments • Future Surveys

  37. The Survey • We decided to run two parallel surveys – one in English, one in French. • Results were to be tabulated and disseminated to members via the web site and the journal.

  38. The Survey • Much discussion about how to administer the survey – print versus online. • Costs associated with printing, postage, data analysis were a concern.

  39. The Survey • As with focus groups, we decided non-members of CHLA/ABSC had to be included. • That meant mailing print surveys was not an option.

  40. The Survey • Fortunately, Tim Tripp, PR Director, knew of an online survey tool called SurveyMonkey. • Tim had used it before with success. • We decided to go with it.

  41. SurveyMonkey • SurveyMonkey is an intuitive tool. • You create surveys by selecting from types of questions (single choice, multiple choice, rating scales, drop-down menus and more).

  42. SurveyMonkey • Options allow you to require answers to any question and control the flow with custom skip logic. • Online analysis tools allow you to view results as they are collected in real-time.

  43. The Survey • The survey was promoted to the CHLA/ABSC membership and the community at large via CanMedLib. • Over 4 weeks, 348 respondents completed the survey – some from as far away as Australia!

  44. The Survey • Given CHLA/ABSC has approximately 400 members, that’s quite a response!

  45. Data Analysis • SurveyMonkey made data analysis much easier. • Survey questions are selected as parameters, assigned a Boolean operator and combined with other parameters. • The results are imported into an Excel file.

  46. Lessons Learned • The salary survey had minimal value. • It merely captured the sorry state of health library salaries in Canada. • Not only was the data not useful to members in salary negotiations, it was potentially detrimental.

  47. Lessons Learned • Doing the survey in two languages was problematic. • Items were alphabetized in each language and didn’t allow for smooth merging of data. • Always number responses – don’t put them in alphabetical order.

  48. Using the Results • Results from the focus groups and survey are valuable to the association Board in setting priorities and implementing changes. • Many exciting innovations have been introduced over the past 2 years.

  49. Using the Results • Better communication from the Board to the chapters and membership is a major thrust. • President’s E-News (electronic newsletter) introduced in 2002.

  50. Using the Results • New logo introduced in 2002:

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