I had forgotten about this discussion of the neutral options when I made the last revisions. After reading more about "central tendency bias" and what the causes might be I do think we should remove the neutral option from Q18. This is the question that has them rate the importance of various degrees, experience and knowledge. Apparently people are more prone to be effected by this when they are presented with a long list of items and in this question we're presenting them with 14 choices.

The other question that has a neutral option is just a single item to answer - "The way our digital preservation function is currently organized (staffing levels, expertise, where they are placed within the larger organization) works well." For this question we should probably leave the neutral option for the cases where people really do have a neutral opinion on this. Any thoughts?

Andrea 

 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: The NDSA Standards working group list [mailto:NDSA-
> [log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Mary Vardigan
> Sent: Tuesday, May 22, 2012 2:16 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: [NDSA-STANDARDS] please review revised version of the
> staffing survey
> 
> Jimi,
> 
> You raise an interesting point about the response scales used. For the
> social sciences these are generally based on the Likert Scale --
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Likert_scale. Jimi's point about "forced
> choice" is discussed here in the entry. I think there are varying
> opinions on whether including a neutral category or making the item
> forced choice matters -- the Wikipedia entry says the difference is
> negligible.
> 
> I took a look at three of ICPSR's most frequently downloaded studies --
> the National Survey of Adolescent Health, the General Social Survey,
> and
> the American National Election Study. GSS uses forced choice (but
> includes the "don't know" option) while the other two do not. We would
> probably find lots of variation across the whole ICPSR collection. I am
> thinking our survey is probably OK either way.
> 
> Mary
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: The NDSA Standards working group list
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of
> Jones,
> Jimi
> Sent: Tuesday, May 22, 2012 1:40 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: [NDSA-STANDARDS] please review revised version of the
> staffing survey
> 
> Hello all. I have some stray thoughts about the survey (which is
> looking
> great, y'all).
> 
> First, in Q4 maybe we could say for profit "entity" instead of
> "corporation." This might make it a bit broader for the for profit
> folks.
> 
> Something else caught my eye. In Q15 we have a "Neither Agree nor
> Disagree" answer option and in Q17 we have a "Neither Important nor
> Unimportant" answer option. As I think back to my days as a Psych major
> - one who had to put together a LOT of surveys - I remember being told
> by one of my professors that a good survey does its best to avoid
> having
> a "neutral" answer because people are, for whatever reason,
> disproportionately drawn to checking the box in the middle. A good
> survey leaves out this middle-of-the-road bias by having an even number
> of choices without a "neither here nor there" option. Yes, this gently
> tugs the user to make a decision ("well I don't have an 'OK' response
> option so I have to really consider my choice"), which may seem
> controversial to some folks but in my experience it really helps to
> break apart the bell curve, which can be more diagnostic. So I would
> recommend excising the "Neither Agree nor Disagree" and "Neither
> Important nor Unimportant" answer options. Thoughts?
> 
> And did we decide on what to say about ourselves at the beginning of
> the
> survey? I think we should say something like "This survey was put
> together by the Standards and Best Practices Working Group of the
> National Digital Stewardship Alliance (NDSA). For more about the
> Working
> Group go here:
> http://www.digitalpreservation.gov/ndsa/working_groups/standards.html
> and for more about the NDSA, including how your institution can become
> a
> member, go here: http://www.digitalpreservation.gov/ndsa/."
> 
> 
> By the way, I'm getting the posts to this listserv in strangely
> non-chronological order. My apologies if someone has already pointed
> these things out. Glad to see the discussions on the list though!
> 
> Best,
> 
> Jimi
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: The NDSA Standards working group list
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of
> Goethals, Andrea
> Sent: Tuesday, May 22, 2012 12:18 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: [NDSA-STANDARDS] please review revised version of the
> staffing survey
> 
> Hi Amy,
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: The NDSA Standards working group list [mailto:NDSA-
> > [log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Amy Kirchhoff
> > Sent: Tuesday, May 22, 2012 12:10 PM
> > To: [log in to unmask]
> > Subject: Re: [NDSA-STANDARDS] please review revised version of the
> > staffing survey
> >
> > Hi Andrea ~
> >
> > I like your proposal for Q10.
> [AG: ] Great. Before making this change I'll see if we get more
> feedback
> on it.
> 
> Speaking of big changes -- Mary had a good idea I want to run by you
> all. The question that I believe was Q11 asking "How many people in
> your
> organization perform digital preservation work either full or part
> time"
> is related to the question (Q14) that asks number of individuals
> performing specific dp functions. We could infer the overall number of
> indivs. by adding up the numbers in Q14. We wouldn't get FTE though
> (unless we changed #14). I noticed in the DigCurV survey they only
> asked
> about FTE and not number of indivs. Any thoughts in the group about
> getting rid of Q11 and/or asking about FTEs in Q14 instead of number of
> indivs.?
> 
> 
> >
> > For Q16, I would just propose we change the text of the question to
> be
> 
> > "and/or" to match the selector choice. :-)
> [AG: ] Gotcha!
> 
> Andrea
> 
> >
> > ~ Amy
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: The NDSA Standards working group list [mailto:NDSA-
> > [log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Goethals, Andrea
> > Sent: Tuesday, May 22, 2012 11:53 AM
> > To: [log in to unmask]
> > Subject: Re: [NDSA-STANDARDS] please review revised version of the
> > staffing survey
> >
> > Hi Amy,
> >
> > Yes, Q10 is complex. You are right that the 2nd to last column is
> > intended to mean we're not currently doing it but would like to. We
> > could make the column heading say explicitly that.
> >
> > We can also split this up into multiple questions as I started to
> with
> 
> > adding #9. Based on feedback from Mary I think that #9 should be
> > reworded to "Which of these activities are considered part of the
> > digital preservation function at your organization, whether or not
> you
> 
> > are currently doing/outsourcing this activity?" (Because there was
> > ambiguity as to you if they should only select things they are
> > currently doing/outsourcing). Is the proposed rewording clear enough?
> >
> > We're currently asking many things in #10:
> > - whether or not they are currently doing them
> > - if they are currently doing them whether its in-house, outsourced
> > (or both because you can select more than one)
> > - in the case that they are not doing it, if they would like to add
> it
> 
> > to their program (actually this may be redundant information. With
> the
> 
> > proposed rewording of #9 we will know that any activities listed in
> > #10 that they didn't say they are currently doing are activities they
> > would like add)
> > - whether they would like to outsource activities
> >
> > Here's one option for #10. We could simplify it to just have the
> first
> > 2 columns (currently done in-house, currently outsourced). Then we
> > could have a follow-up question that lists the same activities as #10
> > and asks which they would like to outsource (we would know that any
> > they don't select they would want to do in-house).
> >
> > --------
> > Q16 - Currently they can select more than one so checking both asks
> as
> 
> > an and. We could change it to be more explicit with radio buttons and
> > have an option that includes both of the first 2 options. Does that
> > work better?
> >
> > Andrea
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: The NDSA Standards working group list [mailto:NDSA-
> > > [log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Amy Kirchhoff
> > > Sent: Tuesday, May 22, 2012 11:12 AM
> > > To: [log in to unmask]
> > > Subject: Re: [NDSA-STANDARDS] please review revised version of the
> > > staffing survey
> > >
> > > Hi all ~
> > >
> > > On Q10, I'm not quite sure what we mean by the 2nd to last column.
> > >
> > > Are we saying this is not currently done, but we would like to do
> it?
> > > And then we could click Would like to outsource, as well?
> > >
> > > So, one could combo:
> > >
> > > * Currently done in-house and would like to outsource.
> > > * Would like to add to our digital preservation program and would
> > like
> > > to outsource.
> > >
> > > But the other combos really only mean you are currently doing two
> > > things?
> > >
> > >
> > > I guess, I'm stumbling because it seems that selecting two or more
> > > things can mean different things:
> > >
> > > 1) it can mean you are doing two things.
> > > 2) it can mean you aren't doing anything and you want to do
> > something.
> > >
> > > But, you can't say you are currently outsourcing, but want to do it
> > in
> > > house
> > >
> > > I wonder if this is better as two questions?
> > >
> > > Or, move the Would like to add to our digital preservation program
> > > first, and add in a new column for "Would like to do in-house"?
> > >
> > > On Q16: should we make it "and/or", rather than just or?
> > >
> > > The survey looks great!
> > >
> > > ~ Amy
> > >
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: The NDSA Standards working group list [mailto:NDSA-
> > > [log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Goethals,
> > > Andrea
> > > Sent: Monday, May 21, 2012 2:13 PM
> > > To: [log in to unmask]
> > > Subject: [NDSA-STANDARDS] please review revised version of the
> > > staffing survey
> > >
> > > Hello,
> > >
> > > I made some revisions to the dp staffing survey based on:
> > > - feedback from our last WG call (defines FTE, gives example of
> > > other department, ability to indicate that an area isn't considered
> > > part of the dp function)
> > > -  feedback from Mary Vardigan via email (primarily about the
> > > privacy text, but also some new options for the type of
> > > organization, and the wording of the question about the amount of
> > > files being preserved)
> > > - best practice videos/manuals on building surveys (by Qualtrics
> and
> > > SurveyMonkey) Based on these I simplified how the number ranges
> were
> 
> > > presented for the question on amount of content, simplified some
> > > question text, and added some more N/A and Other options.
> > > - capability of Qualtrics - using a feature called "carry forward
> > > choices", they're now asked which areas are considered part of the
> > > dp function at their org, and in a follow up question they are
> asked
> 
> > > the status of any they had selected in the previous question.
> > >
> > > You can try out a test version of the survey with this link:  Try
> > > the test version of the
> > > survey.<https://harvard.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_7PdihNMVB9FnT6I>
> > > Currently 2 of the questions are required (name of organization,
> > > type of organization) so you won't be able to advance to page 2 if
> > > you leave these blank.
> > >
> > > Any and all feedback is welcome.
> > >
> > > For the "real" survey, Jimi and I were thinking that a month should
> > be
> > > sufficient time to keep the survey open once we're ready to publish
> > it.
> > > That should give us enough time to look at the number of responses
> > > coming in and send out reminders if needed. Any objections to the
> > > month length?
> > >
> > > Thanks,
> > > Andrea
> > >
> > > Andrea Goethals
> > > Digital Preservation and Repository Services Manager Harvard
> Library
> 
> > > [log in to unmask]
> > > (617) 495-3724
> > >
> > >
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