Results of the 2011 Midwest Chapter/MLA Membership Survey ...

Submitted by Midwest Chapter/MLA Membership Committee: Katherine Chew, Chair; Anne Beschnett, and Mary Pat Harnegie

This is Part II of the survey of the Midwest Chapter membership. Part I was published in the Spring 2012 edition of MIDLINE.

Question 11: What do you feel the Midwest Chapter could do differently to better serve its membership? This was an open-ended response question where members could write in the comments. An analysis of the responses can be found further along in this report.

Question 12. Please indicate how many times you have attended these events within the last three years.

Other state and local library meetings are the?most well attended, but the Midwest Chapter Annual Conference edged out MLA Annual meeting for attendance by Midwest Chapter members. Only about 25% of respondents indicated they have attended a health sciences meeting or other national library meeting.

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Question 13. Please rate these factors as to how they may have influenced your decision to attend or not attend Midwest Chapter conferences.

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Administrative support for travel, program topics, cost of registration, and networking opportunities had the highest proportion of ?important? or ?very important? ratings for factors influencing their decision to attend Midwest Chapter conferences.

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Question 14: Are there any other factors that influence your meeting/conference attendance? This was another open-ended response question. The responses to this question were included in the analysis of question #11.

Question 15. Please rate in order of importance your means of learning about Chapter events and member news.

While the MIDLINE Newsletter ranked among the least important of the perceived benefits of Chapter membership (question 9), it has one of the higher proportions of ?very important ?or ?important? ratings for methods of communication, along with Chapter listserv and website.

Based on results from question 9 and 15, the ConnectMidwest Blog is neither a preferred communication vehicle nor a perceived benefit of membership, and almost a quarter of the membership surveyed is not familiar with the ConnectMidwest blog. The Facebook presence of Midwest Chapter is also not indicated as preferred communication method.

Open-Ended Questions Response Analysis (Questions #11, 14 and 16)

Overview:

There were a total of two hundred twelve (212) responses to the open-ended questions (#s 11, 14 &16), after redundant (repeated in exact wording) entries were eliminated. Of these, one hundred thirteen (113) were to the question ?What do you feel the Midwest Chapter could do differently to better serve its membership?? (#11), sixty-nine (69) to the question ?Any other factors that influence your meeting/conference attendance?? (#14) and thirty (30) responses to the question ?Thank you for taking this survey. Feel free to make any additional comments.? (#16). The Membership Committee members found that the responses frequently addressed one or more topics, but could easily be sorted into categories. The comments were sorted into the following categories:

• Continuing Education/Professional Development
• Communications
• Annual Meeting/Conference
• Committee/Board Work/Chapter Involvement
• Advocacy
• Membership
• Networking
• Awards
• Students
• General positive comments

Overall, the top three themes that emerged concerned continuing education/annual meeting, communications and advocacy, with a general over-riding theme of creating more opportunities for online engagement.

The following is the analysis, by category, of the comments that seemed to best fit into those categories.

Annual Meeting/Conference (99+ comments)

The Annual Meeting/Conference generated the most comments, both from the general open-ended question and the specific open-ended question about meeting attendance. According to the survey, the top four factors influencing conference attendance are (in order): Administrative support for travel; chance to network with colleagues; program topics and then cost of registration. In the open response question concerning annual meeting attendance, the top reasons were all largely due to financial ? if funded, many members can only afford to physically attend one meeting per year, so registration, travel and lodging costs are big factors, while desirability of location (sight-seeing/cultural/distance) and time away from the work place also are significant.

Continuing Education/Professional Development (23+ comments)

Continuing education was the second most mentioned topic in the comments. The vast majority of these asked for the availability of online CEs, with a few calling for free online CEs. There were also suggestions about offering CEs throughout the year, rather than just during the annual meeting.

Communications (17+ comments)

Comments on communications was the third highest category. Most of the comments centered on streamlining the communication process, as some members find the plethora of communication venues confusing. There are also some issues within hospital libraries of firewalls blocking access to some communication tools, such as Facebook.

Advocacy (9 comments)

The comments on advocacy stressed the need to promote visibility, championing the value of the library to the organization and health care outcomes, and encouraging professional research.

Networking (5 comments)

While a need was expressed for more networking opportunities, there were also many positive comments about experiencing the benefits of networking within the Midwest Chapter.

Awards (5 comments)

Members are generally pleased with the awards program. They also feel that it could be expanded to include more professional development awards or special recognition awards, such as hospital librarians.

Committee/Board Work/Chapter Involvement (4 comments)

Comments about committee/board work ranged from praising the leadership of the Midwest Chapter to noting that there needs to be more involvement by less ?well known? members.

Students (2 comments)

All comments allude to the need for more student involvement/opportunities in Midwest Chapter

Conclusion

The survey results were presented to the Chapter Executive Board during the Fall 2011 meeting as well a poster on the survey results at the meeting poster session. The open-ended comment analysis, along with potential action items based on the responses, was presented to the Chapter Executive Board at the Spring 2012 Executive Board meeting on 30 March in Indianapolis, IN.

Source: http://midwestmla.org/midline/?p=1451

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