Page 82 - DLIS401_METHODOLOGY_OF_RESEARCH_AND_STATISTICAL_TECHNIQUES

Unit 5: Research Techniques and Tools

Select Words With Care Notes

Avoid wrong words. Wrong words are vague, too specific, misunderstood, objectionable, irrelevant,
and uninteresting. It takes time to select the right word. One researcher went through 41
versions of a question before the words were just right.
Insure that words are uniformly understood and provide brief definitions if needed. For example,
how will the patron define “use” when asked questions about the degree of library or information
center use. Words like “often,” “rarely,” “few,” and “many” are used flexibly and different
people have very different ideas as to what these words mean.
Use simpler, but specific words. For example, “free-time” is better than “leisure time.” Substitute
specifics for “several,” “most,” “usually,” and the like to insure better reliability. When possible,
use shorter words. Clearly define professional words if the audience is not professional, for
example “volume” and “bibliographic instruction” may mean little to most college students.
Insure that each word in a question is necessary. What would happen if that word was
removed.
Avoid abbreviations and initialisms. If used, do spell out in the first mention, and again later
if at some distance from the first mention. Read and reread for directness and clarity. For
example, how clear is “What changes should the government make in its policies toward
libraries?”
Avoid the too specific and use ranges instead. Few respondents will know how many books
they have checked out from a public library in the last year.
Avoid value-oriented words that might bias the response, i.e., “should the library collection
contain filthy books?”

Avoid self-incriminating questions such as “have you ever abused [definition needed] library
materials” and attempt a more subtle approach. For example,
• Do you consider abuse of library materials to be a problem?

• Has abuse of library materials increased in the last year?
• Do you know anyone who has abused library materials?
• Have you ever considered abusing library materials?

• Have you ever abused library materials?
Avoid double questions such as “are reference librarians friendly and knowledgeable” and
use two separate questions instead.
Avoid negatives such as “should the librarian not be directly responsible to the city manager?”
Insure that choices are exclusive. For example, there is a problem if age choices are “ 18-35
years” and “35-50” years. Similarly, asking “how did you learn about our new library service”
with the values “from a friend or relative,” “at work,” or “from the newspaper” is problematic
because the values are not exclusive.
Avoid questions that assume too much knowledge such as “do you agree with the governor’s
stand on regional libraries?”
Do provide appropriate time referents such as “how many times have you gone to the library
in November of this year?”

Avoid speculative questions because the response are often not reliable. For example, the
question “if the library provided a full-text database on blumpf, how often would you use it?”
is likely to yield information of minimal value.

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