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Library Communities Vote! Poster Maker Tool (ALA Emerging Leaders Project)

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Survey Graphics and Documents

Survey

Survey Purpose and Design:

As part of the project, the group distributed a survey to:

  • determine what should be included in the end product
  • assess library employees' attitudes and beliefs around civic engagement and civic literacy
  • identify existing needs

The survey had three parts:

  1. User Information. In this section, we collected information to help us broadly identify patterns in the survey data. This information was also asked so we could design resources for different types of user groups.

  2. Civic Literacy and Civic Engagement. In this section, we asked questions to help us identify patterns related to attitudes and beliefs around civic literacy and engagement. We intentionally included definitions so that individuals had a baseline for what we were using as our definitions. Based on the survey data, the goal was to help identify a community-defined description our team could use for the project.

  3. Needs Assessments for increasing civic engagement and civic literacy efforts. In this section, we asked questions that would identify barriers and opportunities around civic engagement and civic literacy efforts. This section intentionally included the most open responses because we wanted to identify patterns in the data.

Survey Responses:

Responses came from 37 states and Washington, D.C. Of those responses:

  • 59 came from academic libraries
  • 82 came from public libraries
  • 3 came from school libraries
  • 3 came from special libraries

Results Summary:

  • Perception:
    • 84% surveyed library staff felt confident in their civic literacy skills.
    • 94% felt confident in locating voter information relevant to their communities.
    • 94% agreed that libraries are integral to civic engagement.
    • 96% agreed libraries should provide resources and programs that encourage civic engagement.
    • Only 40% surveyees reported that their libraries provide programming to increase civic engagement.
  • Issues Facing Libraries:
    • Voting requirements (e.g. ID, proof of residence): 56%
    • Attitudes toward voting (e.g. disengagement, mistrust): 55%
    • Misinformation about policies on the ballot: 49%

See more:

See pages 3-12 of the Final Report for further description of the survey and survey findings.