Legal Research

USA Today and Biased Surveys

USA Today has posted the results of a survey of ?youth 8 - 18,? It's a nice graphic that USA Today does so week.

Respondents were asked whether they ?have visited a public library or its website in the last year.? They were also asked whether they visited the library for personal or school use. Answers:

?Personal use? 78%
?For school? 67%
?Read there? 34%
?Visit website? 34%.

The current snapshot asks:

?When was the last time you visited a public library or its website??

The options were,

?Can?t remember,?
?Within past year,?
?More than a year ago,?
?Never.?

We didn't do too bad. And at least the question included the web presence.

Hmmm, I think I'll do a survey of our library users. My question could be:

When was the last time you read a newspaper?

The options could be the same:

?Can?t remember,?
?Within past year,?
?More than a year ago,?
?Never.?

Hmmmm. Libraries are mostly open daily or 6-7 days/week. Newspapers publish 6-7 days a week, although USA Today only does 5. Why not ask it as an annual question. Seems fair....

The good news is that the numbers weren't too bad. Tonight it showed only 2% hadn't visited a library and 61% had been in the last year.

Stephen

Full post as published by Stephen's Lighthouse on February 04, 2008 (boomark / email).