5 thoughts on “ALA Survey

  1. Looks like a great survey and I got about halfway through it, but some questions I just dont feel comfortable asking.

    they ought to have a “I dont want to disclose that information” option available for all the questions. kind of dumb that they dont have that.

  2. There’s no option for that because:

    1. It’s completely anonymous.
    2. Incomplete data creates inconsistencies and makes data harder to score.
    3. It’s honestly that that intrusive. If you’re not comfortable naming a $20,000 range for your salary, or if you’re happy in your current position, just don’t take the survey.

    30,000+ people took it last year with no privacy issues.

  3. “…if you’re happy in your current position, just don’t take the survey”

    Then this becomes a survey of only those unhappy in their current positions. This is one reason that surveys are so unreliable. If you depend on surveys to guide you, you are most likely headed for failure.

  4. This survey is for anyone in the industry, whether or not they are happy in their current position. We want to hear from everyone in the field, not only the unhappy people.

    So far this year, more than 20,000 have answered, and a quick peek at the results shows nearly three-quarters of them are happy– well, satisfied, anyway– where they are right now.

    As was said, the data that is eventually released will be anonymized, as was done last year. If there are things for which we need to be especially aware, please let us know in the comments on the introduction article at http://alistapart.com/articles/survey2008/. Thanks!

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