The WPLC and the WPLC User / Non-User Survey Workgroup invite your proposals to run your own research project to better understand your library users and non-users. This research can take many forms, such as surveys, focus groups, interviews, analysis of other data about your communities, and more. In the webinars presented as part of this program by Morrill Solutions Research, the WPLC offered educational opportunities to learn about how to create and gather this information and now you can turn what you’ve learned into your own focused research project.
Funded projects will receive free private consultations with Morrill Solutions Research to refine and implement the proposed research projects and analyze the project results. The results and materials developed by the funded projects will be freely shared with the library community. The selected research projects will be required to present about their project, process, and findings at WLA 2017 on October 17-20 in Wisconsin Dells.
The proposal deadline is Friday, May 26th.
Up to five proposals will be selected based on this criteria established by the WPLC User / Non-User Survey Workgroup.
Proposals should contain the following sections and should not exceed four pages in length. Proposals can be uploaded to this form after April 26th.
- Project Overview: Purpose and Need
- What questions are you trying to answer and why do they need to be answered? Needs should be clearly stated.
- Partnerships
- What other organizations or people are contributing to this project? (If you are looking for potential partners, check the bulletin board.)
- Project Timeline
- Can your project, or a significant portion of it, be completed within the timeframe of the User / Non-User Research Program?
- Methods
- What questions will you ask?
- How will you target the people who need to answer your questions?
- What vehicles will you use to capture responses or data?
- What outside data sources will you use, and how?
- Generalizability
- Will your research questions and methods be useful to other libraries in the WPLC community?
- Will your research results be useful to other libraries in the WPLC community?
- Anticipated Outcomes
- When the process ends, what do you hope to know and what do you hope to do with that information?
Questions? Contact wplc-info@wils.org.