Focus Groups Gauge Satisfaction of Interdisciplinary Customer Segments

Published

June 12, 2006

Author(s)

Nancy Allmang, Mylene S. Ouimette

Abstract

This poster describes a series of focus groups conducted by librarians at the Research Library at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to assess the information needs and satisfaction of three hard-to-identify, interdisciplinary groups of customers in three emerging, specialized research areas. An earlier comprehensive survey had highlighted a need for resources in these areas; collection development efforts had since addressed augmenting the gaps. The focus group format is one of a variety of assessment means used at the NIST Research Library to evaluate the needs of its customers. The focus group format was selected in this instance to permit librarian facilitators to drill down to obtain rich qualitative data about customer satisfaction with resources and services in the new specialized, cross-divisional areas. Participants were an amalgam of bench scientists, project leaders, scientific advisors, and technical managers whose work spanned multiple organizational units and experience levels. The poster includes sections on question development; identification and demographics of participants; group interview details, techniques, and dynamics; analysis; findings; and conclusions.

Citation

Special Libraries Association Conference

Pub Type

Others

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Citation

Allmang, N. and Ouimette, M. (2006), Focus Groups Gauge Satisfaction of Interdisciplinary Customer Segments, Special Libraries Association Conference, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=100943 (Accessed April 28, 2026)

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