NLS: Patron Survey (2003); Appendix A, NLS Patron Survey Questionnaire

I. Face Sheet

Date of Interview:

Interviewer's Name:

CATI ID Number:

Start Time:

TELEPHONE INTERVIEW INFORMATION

(e.g., information interviewer needs to conduct survey)

Phone Number: (area code + number)

Prefix Code: (Mr., Ms., etc.)

Subscriber Name: (First, Middle, Last)

Birth Year (From CMLS):

Library ID:

Library Location: (city, state)

RESPONSE CODES

(as defined in AAPOR, 2000, Standard Definitions: Final Disposition of Case Codes for Outcome Rates for Surveys. Lenexa, Kansas)

1. Interview

Complete (1.1)

____% applicable capability items valid (min. = 90%)

____% applicable demographic items valid (min. = 90%)

____% applicable remaining items valid (min. = 60%)

Partial (1.2)

____% applicable capability items valid (50 - 89%)

____% applicable demographic items valid (50 – 89%)

____% applicable remaining items valid (min. = 60%)

2. Non-Response (eligible, no interview)

Refusals (2.11)

Too busy, no time (2.111)

Not well enough (self-report) (2.112)

Don't know enough about Talking Books program (2.115)

Confidentiality concerns (e.g., don't want govt. to know my business) (2.113)

Concern about how results will be used (2.114)

Other suspiciousness of survey or caller (2.115)

Not interested (2.116)

Other-- SPECIFY: ______________________

Break-offs (interview breaks-off and does not qualify as a partial interview; includes interviews with valid data for less than 50% of all applicable capability and demographic items) (2.12)

TDD or fax/data line (4.20)

Non-working or disconnected number (4.30)

Number provided is incorrect (4.41)

Away from home during data collection period

Other—SPECIFY: _________________________________

Non-contacts (after the 5 call-backs: eligible respondent never responds, only answering device or another member of respondent's household is reached

3. Not Eligible

Age under 18 (4.11)

Deaf (4.12)

Deceased (2.31)

Physically unable to participate (2.321)

Who reports physical incapacity (relationship to R): _______________________

Exact words used to report physical incapacity: ___________________________

Mentally unable to participate (2.322)

Who reports mental incapacity (relationship to R): _________________________

Exact words used to report mental incapacity: ____________________________

Language (can't complete interview in English) (2.33)

Other—SPECIFY: ____________________________

II. Interviewer's Introduction

Q1. Hello, my name is _________. I'm calling on behalf of the Talking Book program at the Library of Congress. Is [first + last name of subscriber] available?

Q2. The Library of Congress' Talking Book program is conducting a national survey to help them design a new playback machine for reading Talking Books. You may have recently received a letter about this survey. We are contacting you and other Talking Book users to get a better understanding of our subscribers so we can design the new playback machine to better meet your needs.

Q2a. Before I proceed, are you 18 years of age or older? We need to be sure everyone surveyed is over 18.

Q3. This survey is voluntary, will take about 25 minutes, and responses will be kept strictly confidential. The questions I'm about to ask you will help the Library of Congress improve its Talking Book program.

III. Refusal Script

ANSWER: We are conducting this survey in order to assess users of the Library's Talking Books. Your participation could directly help you and many Talking Book users by improving the playback machines.

ANSWER: This survey will take less than 25 minutes. We can schedule the interview at a time convenient to you. A fair study needs the opinions of busy people like you, as well as people who have more time, if we are to present an accurate picture of what Library subscribers think.

ANSWER: I am calling for the Library of Congress Talking Book program of which you are a subscriber. If you would like, I can give you a telephone number to call to confirm the authenticity of the study.

ANSWER: The Library is beginning to develop new playback equipment to provide improved service. The results of this survey will be used to guide the design process. That is why we are asking for your help.

ANSWER: We are trying to get a true picture of what all types of subscribers' need, not just what “experts” say. We are asking for your own opinions, which you know better than anyone else. Your participation in the survey will help improve the Talking Book program.

ANSWER: Your answers are completely confidential and will not be shared with anyone. We do this so that you can be comfortable telling us what you really think; not what you think the library or government wants to hear.

IF: I don't accept calls from telemarketers AND/OR: I am on the “Do Not Call” list.

ANSWER: We are not telemarketers and we are not trying to sell you anything. I am calling to request your participation in a national survey that will help your Library assess its Talking Book program.

ANSWER: I'm sorry. You have to be at least 18 years old to participate in this study. Thank you for your time.

ANSWER: That's ok. The letter was sent just to let you know that you may be contacted to participate in this survey. We can still proceed with the survey.

ANSWER: Those decisions have not been made yet. Your information and this survey will help determine the characteristics of the new player.

ANSWER: I will be happy to schedule a call back that would be convenient to you.

IF STILL REFUSES, THANK RESPONDENT AND CATEGORIZE CASE BASED ON APPROPRIATE RESPONSE CODE.

IV. Ordering and Returning Tapes

NOTE: QUESTIONS WILL REFER TO NLS' REGIONAL AND LOCAL LIBRARIES AS “TALKING BOOKS LIBRARY.” USE RESPONDENT'S TERMINOLOGY INSTEAD, IF APPLICABLE.

Q. 1 Thinking back to the beginning of this year, to January of 2003, have you received any cassette books or magazines from your Talking Book Library since then?

Q. 3 So far this year, do you think you've received more than 20 books from your Talking Book Library, or do you think you've received 20 or fewer books?

Q. 4 When you have more than one cassette book or magazine on hand, how do you usually tell one cassette from another?

Q. 5 When it's time to return the tapes to your Talking Book library, do you usually return them yourself, or with help from someone else, or does someone else return the tapes for you?

Q. 8 Now I have some questions about other sources of reading material. Do you listen to a Radio Reading service?

Q. 9 Have you gotten cassette books or magazines from an organization other than your Talking Book library in the past year?

V. Listening Habits

Q. 13 During a typical week, how often do you listen to cassette books or magazines? Do you listen every day, almost every day, at least one day a week, or less than one day a week?

Q. 15 When you're listening at home, is your playback machine always set up in the same place, or do you move it from one place to another?

Q. 16 How often do you listen to cassette books and magazines away from home—often, sometimes, rarely, or never?

Q. 17 Whether you are indoors or out, how often do you use your playback machine on battery power—often, sometimes, rarely, or never?

IF NO OR UNSURE, PROBE: Some tapes have tones to help readers locate chapters, stories, articles, and so forth. You might have heard these tones during fast forward or rewind.

Q. 19 Have you ever used these tones to find certain parts of a book or magazine?

VI. Early Experiences with the Playback Equipment

Now I have some questions about your experiences with the Talking Book service and your playback machine.

PROBE IF NECESSARY: This is the service you get from the library in [LIBRARY CITY AND STATE, FROM FACE SHEET].

Q. 21 Do you have a cassette player supplied by the library for the blind [or Talking Book Library in CITY, STATE]?

PROBE: You may also know it as your Talking Book machine or your yellow cassette player.

1=Machine from the library for the blind/Library of Congress/Talking Book library/yellow machine

SAY: I have some more questions about cassette players. Please tell me specifically about your experiences with the [Talking Book/yellow] machine from the library for the blind.

Q. 24 When you first got your [Talking Book/yellow] cassette machine from the library for the blind, did someone help you learn how to use it?

Q. 25 Please answer yes or no: Did you have any problems learning how to use the machine?

Q. 27 Did you (try to) solve those problems by yourself, or did someone (try to) help you solve them, or did someone (try to) solve them for you?

VII. Machine Operation

Q. 28 When you want to listen to a tape, do you usually operate the cassette machine(s) by yourself, or does someone usually help you operate it, or does someone usually operate it for you?

Q. 29 If you have a problem now with the playback machine—for instance, if the tape gets stuck—do you usually fix the problem yourself, or does someone help you fix it, or does someone fix it for you?

Q. 30 Do you have extension levers installed on your [Talking Books/yellow] cassette player?

PROBE, IF NECESSARY: These are long, finger-like levers that stick out in front of the machine and make it easier to press the keys.

Q. 31 Using your cassette player, as you know, involves different tasks—pressing buttons, turning tapes over, and so on. Some people have difficulty with these tasks, and others do not. For each task that I mention, please tell me whether you have any difficulty. Let's start with . . .

IF DIFFICULT: Is it somewhat difficult, very difficult, or are you unable to do this at all?

a. inserting and removing the tape from the yellow machine's tape compartment. Is it at all difficult for you to do this?

Q. 32 I have some questions about the controls on your [Talking Book/yellow] cassette player. Do you have any trouble finding the correct control to do what you want?

IF YES, PROBE: Do you have some trouble, a lot of trouble, or are you sometimes unable to find the correct button at all?

Q. 33 I'd like you to think about the buttons that you push, such as the play key or the rewind key. Do you have any trouble pushing the buttons hard enough to make them work?

IF YES, PROBE: Do you have some trouble, a lot of trouble, or are you unable to push the buttons at all?

Q. 34 Most Talking Book machines have slider controls that can be moved to the right or the left. Some machines' volume control is a slider, for example. Does your machine have any slider controls?

IF YES, PROBE: Do you have some trouble, or a lot of trouble, or are you unable to move the sliders at all?

Q. 36 One of the switches on your [Talking Book/yellow] cassette player is the side selector switch, or track switch. This switch gives you access to all four sides of each tape. Do you understand how to use this switch very well, or partly, or not at all?

IF MORE EXPLANATION NEEDED: You set it so you can listen to sides one and two on a cassette, and then switch it so you can hear sides three and four.

Q. 37 In general, thinking about all the different controls on your (yellow) cassette player, do you ever have trouble figuring out which control to use, or figuring out what each control does?

Q. 38 As you know, a raised symbol identifies some keys on your (yellow) playback machine. Are these symbols very useful, somewhat useful, not very useful, or not useful at all?

VIII. Satisfaction Issues

Q. 39 (Still speaking about the yellow cassette player from the library for the blind,) all things considered, would you say your cassette machine is easy to use or difficult to use?

PROBE: Would you say it is very easy/difficult or somewhat easy/difficult?

NOTE: ACCEPT THE ANSWER TO THIS QUESTION IF RESPONDENT HAS EVER HAD AN NLS PLAYER, EVEN IF S/HE DOESN'T HAVE ONE NOW.

Q. 40 If there were just one thing you could change about your cassette player, (supplied by the library for the blind,) what would that be?

Q. 42 During the next few years, the people from the Talking Book program will be developing a new playback machine. They want to know which improvements are the most important to Talking Book subscribers. For each type of possible improvement I mention, please tell me how important that improvement is to you.

a. Better sound quality than now when playing tapes at the normal speed. Is this not at all important to you, somewhat important, or very important?

b. Being able to slow the reading down or speed it up without changing the pitch of the reader's voice. Is this not at all important to you, somewhat important, or very important?

c. Being able to listen to a book without turning a tape over or using a side selector switch.

h. Being able to set the player so it automatically skips over particular parts of a book, such as footnotes

IX. Use of Computers, the Internet, and other High-Tech Devices

Q. 43 When you want to telephone someone, do you usually dial the phone yourself?

Q. 44 Please answer yes or no: Do you use a computer at all, at home or somewhere else?

Q. 47 Does someone else ever use this computer on your behalf, that is, to do something for you or to help you with something, such as sending an e-mail?

Q. 48 Do you ever use a computer somewhere other than your home—for example, at work, at a library, at school, and so on?

Q. 50 Please answer yes or no: Do you use the internet at all, including email or Web TV, at home or anywhere else?

Q. 52 What type of connection do you have—a dial-up connection or a high-speed connection like DSL or cable?

IF UNSURE: If you have a dial-up connection, your computer makes a screeching sound while it's setting up the internet connection. A high-speed, or broadband, connection doesn't make that sound and provides faster access to the Internet than a dial-up connection does. Usually it is either DSL or is supplied by your cable company. Some high-speed connections use a satellite or fiber optic cables.

IF NO OR HESITANT: Some people call it “a computer voice” or “computer speech”.

Q. 54 How often, if at all, have you listened to synthetic speech—often, occasionally, rarely, or never?

Q. 55 I have a short list of reading materials that ~~are~~ could be presented in synthetic speech. For each one, please say whether or not you would be willing to listen to it in synthetic speech.

c. (Would you be willing to listen to) books of fiction, such as novels, (in synthetic speech)?

d. (Would you be willing to listen to) non-fiction books (in synthetic speech)?

Q. 56 I have a short list of adaptive devices designed for people with vision problems. Please tell me whether or not you use each one.

My next questions ask about other technology you might use in your everyday life.

Q. 57 To make a purchase, do you ever swipe a debit card or credit card through a card reader?

Q. 59 Do you use a remote control for your TV, or your stereo, or other equipment?

Q. 61 Do you have any trouble handling the CDs, for example, when inserting them into the player or when removing them?

Q. 62 Do you ever insert batteries into a household device, such as a flashlight or radio?

X. Background Characteristics

I have just a few more questions, and then we'll be done. To help us understand people's experiences with Talking Books, we need some background information. I'd like to start with a few questions about your health and disability.

Q. 63 Would you say your health in general is excellent, very good, good, fair, or poor?

Q. 65 Do you have serious difficulty seeing, even when wearing glasses or contact lenses?

Q. 67 When you are trying to distinguish or “make out” an object, how useful to you is having a strong contrast between light and dark? Is strong contrast very useful, somewhat useful, or not useful?

Q. 68 As you know, there are two types of contrast between light and dark. One type is the contrast between a dark object and a light background; most newspapers, for instance, are written in black ink on white paper. The other type is the contrast between a light object and a dark background; some signs on streets or highways, for example, have white lettering on a background of black or dark green.

Which type of contrast is more useful to you: a dark object on a light background or a light object on a dark background?

Q. 70 Do you have a physical condition that prevents you from holding a book or turning pages?

Q. 71 About how old were you when this condition began to affect your reading books or magazines?

Q. 72 Do you have a learning disability, such as dyslexia, that makes it hard for you to read print material?

Q. 77 How do you describe your race: White, Black or African-American, Asian, American Indian or an Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander, or some other race?

Q. 78 What type of community do you live in? Is it a rural or farming area, a small town, a suburb, or a city?

Q. 79 Are you currently employed?

Q. 81 What is the highest grade or degree that you completed?

Q. 82 Please tell me which of the following categories best describes your household's total income, before taxes, for 2002. In 2002, was your total household income less than $20,000, between $20,000 and $39,000, between $40,000 and $59,000, between $60,000 and $79,000, or $80,000 or more?

This is the end of the survey. Thank you so much for taking the time to participate in this important study. A summary of the findings will appear in Talking Book Topics early next year.

XI. Interviewer's Section

NOTE to Interviewer: Q3 SHOULD BE ON A PAGE and/or FILE BY ITSELF, FOR “TEAR-OFF”, TO BE SENT TO NLS.

3. If the respondent has any questions or problems that s/he wants to talk with NLS staff about, please complete the following form to be submitted to NLS:

XII. Additional Information from CMLS

Additional CMLS data that will be kept with each subscriber's record for possible future analysis:

NLS: That All May Read

Appendix A

Questionnaire Outline