Beyond indicators and measures. Understanding the user's reality through a qualitative approach

González-Teruel , Aurora . Beyond indicators and measures. Understanding the user's reality through a qualitative approach., 2016 In: The identity of the contemporary public library. Principles and methods of analysis, evaluation, interpretation. Ledizioni LediPublishing, pp. 75-95. [Book chapter]

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English abstract

The present work considers the necessity of chang¬ing the perspective from that which we professionals observe users and from where we make decisions, decisions in which users are absolutely involved. We can no longer think only about “adapting users’ requirements” in terms of products and services, but must increasingly think about “blending into the user’s reality”. In other words, thinking about in what way it is possible to integrate the li¬brary into the user’s reality. From the methodological viewpoint, this involves putting in second place measures of transactions between users and the library through library statistics, and focusing our interest in knowing users and their social setting. It is a matter of seeking in-depth knowledge about potential users rather than representative results. Not being limited to only evaluate the library with standard surveys about satisfaction, but finding out what is beyond the good or bad evaluations that users give, and acting accordingly.

Item type: Book chapter
Keywords: Information behavior, information practice, Content analysis, Social network analysis, Discourse analysis
Subjects: A. Theoretical and general aspects of libraries and information.
B. Information use and sociology of information
C. Users, literacy and reading. > CB. User studies.
Depositing user: Aurora Gonzalez-Teruel
Date deposited: 05 Jul 2016 07:27
Last modified: 05 Jul 2016 07:27
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10760/29573

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