Re: Focus groups
goodgion@portland.lib.ct.us
Mon, 28 Jul 1997 17:57:22 -0400
Date: Mon, 28 Jul 1997 17:57:22 -0400
Message-Id: <199707282200.SAA07769@comet.connix.com>
From: goodgion@portland.lib.ct.us
To: Multiple recipients of list <conntech>
Subject: Re: Focus groups
We used focus groups a number of years ago when we did the PLA planning process
for the first time. I was new to Portland and the focus groups were a great way
for me to meet people and learn how they felt about the library. Because I knew
so few people in Portland at that time, members of the library board suggested
names to me. This worked very well. A board member personally contacted each
person and invited them to attend the focus session. If they agreed to attend, I
followed up with a formal letter thanking them for their participation and
reminding them of the date and the time. A member of the board attended the
sessions with me (different members for different sessions.) We held most of
the sessions in the evening and served coffee, tea and cookies. The sessions
were very useful to me in learning what people wanted from the library and what
they were unhappy with. The sessions also changed some people's attitude about
the library. As I remember, we held these groups: parents with young children,
people at mid-life, senior citizens, school officials, teens, board of
selectmen.
The session would start out with me asking a question and then going around the
group to give each person a chance to respond but they quickly turned into
informal discussions and were very productive.
We are planning to hold focus groups again. This time I am thinking about doing
them by type of service they use: people who use ILL (got this idea from
Newington) people who frequently reserve items, people whose children attend
programs, etc.
Laurel Goodgion
Portland Library
860-342-6771