Economic Impact Survey

NorthStar Economics has been retained by the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction to study the economic impact of public libraries in Wisconsin. To gather information for the study, they are surveying library users and non-users throughout the state. They would like to receive responses from a broad range of Wisconsin residents and are requesting that the survey be widely available. Libraries, systems, and communities throughout Wisconsin are encouraged to make the link to the online survey broadly available and to distribute information about the survey link to local media.

The survey can be found on their home page: http://www.northstareconomics.com or the direct link is: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=qyjYazUcsULPwoJ4nWVoHw_3d_3d. The direct link can also be reached from: http://wislibsurvey.notlong.com.

Questions about the survey or the study can be directed to either Alan J. Hart, Vice President & Director of Operations or David J. Ward, President at nstar@northstareconomics.com.

Regional focus groups and data collection will be conducted throughout Wisconsin during February and early March, 2008. The results of the study will be announced at the Wisconsin Association of Public Libraries Conference on May 1, 2008 in Stevens Point. Information on other state and regional studies of the economic impact and taxpayer return on investment of public libraries can be found here: http://dpi.wi.gov/pld/econimpact.html.

From Channel Weekly, Vol. 10, No. 9, posted with permission.