Through gritted teeth

I usually quite enjoy filling out surveys. If the topic of the survey is something that I am concerned about, answering some questions and (especially) filling in the free-text bits can be a good way to vent my feelings. I recently enjoyed telling the powers that be (anonymously of course) what I thought about the room booking system here.
Now I’m seeing it all from the other side – I have created an online questionnaire and have started getting some responses. I realise that sometimes survey responses tell you more about the responder than about the question they are answering.
It is an internal survey to ask our researchers how they use the library and library services, what they think of it and what they need from it in future.
We do have a rough plan – reducing the space given over to print storage; increase the amount of study space; develop more ways to help staff get the best out of information tools; continue to provide as much online access to everything as we can possibly afford – but we want to fine tune it with some input from the users, and verify that there is a body of users who do value what we are proposing.
Of course different people have different needs or even no needs and we are realistic enough to expect quite a range of responses to questions about “Would you value help in setting up subject alerts?” or “Is the Library blog useful?”. But one or two responses made me see red. I had to go away and sit down quietly for a bit to recover my composure.
One respondent suggested that we had a library blog just because someone thought it was “cool”, but that’s not what blogs are for and we are all out of touch with the real world and the internet. I know that petulance is never an attractive character trait, but this response made me want to stamp my little foot and say “Up yours Mr Clever-clogs-know-it-all!” But I’m much too professional to give in to such feelings. I’ll just blog about it instead, even though I’m out of touch with the real world and the internet.
Well, I have recovered now (I think), and feel a bit sorry for that respondent in their splendid state of unknowing. As more survey responses have come in we are seeing a more well-rounded picture emerge, and my faith in human nature has been restored. What that response has taught me though is that I need to put still more effort into communicating about what the Library offers its users – though perhaps not via a blog.