We received some great questions from Tom Milligan at Ashtabula County District Library http://community.oclc.org/funding/archives/2008/07/starting-the-conversation.html#comments and thought others would be interested in the answers. Tom - we are glad that you found the report useful.  Your questions are important to putting this research into action so we hope these answers help.

1) Is there a way to estimate how viable the figure of 40% Super and Probable Supporters is in a given community? Ashtabula County has considerably lower per capita income and educational attainment than average. What's the likely effect of those factors on that 40% figure?

The segmentation study we conducted was national so we do not yet know if that percentage varies between communities.  The market typing study that is currently underway will look at different communities across the country to provide more information about the relative percentage of the different segments in different communities.  We are also working with our research partner, Leo Burnett, to develop tools that library systems can use to help identify Super Supporters and Probable Supporters in their local community. We will send out information when these tools are available.

2) Chapter 6, page 4: the "equal access for all" value came out "only after two hours of discussion and the use of projective research exercises." Could someone clarify what are 'projective research exercises?' And how do we know that this 'value' comes spontaneously out of the participants, and is not just a misleading artifact of how the 'exercises' played out?

Projective techniques are techniques that allow research participants to access thoughts, perceptions and emotions that are not necessarily on the surface and/or help participants describe their thoughts and emotions in more detail. The projective research exercises used in our research included asking participants to reflect on their first library experience, collage building to describe current perceptions of the library, and role playing to demonstrate how they would persuade their local community to raise taxes in support of the library. The discussion between the participants was definitely genuine and these approaches are widely used by leading market research organizations.  You are correct that the focus group situation created a 'hyper focus' on the topic that might not happen as easily in day-to-day living.  The goal of projective research is to get at latent perceptions that can be used to develop marketing messages that resonate. 

3) Chapter 7, at the end, talks about the 'market-typing' research planned for this summer, the first step in identifying a small number of test markets where a library support campaign could be fielded and evaluated. Could I get someone to consider Ashtabula County as a potential site? I think if you could accomplish the objectives of a "branding library support" campaign here, you could accomplish them almost anywhere.

Thank you very much for your interest. As you can imagine, we have had a lot of volunteers! Certainly, all parts of the country will be under consideration for the sites we may select as test markets. Our goal is to ensure that we select markets that will provide the most complete learning for the library community.

Thank you again.  We will keep you updated and wish you well in your endeavors.

Over the six years that Jenny and I have been at OCLC, we have had the opportunity to talk with hundreds of librarians and library advocates who share a belief that we must, together, find more ways to promote the brand, and increase the voice, of libraries.

We are pleased to be able to share the findings of a research project, graciously funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, that explores the potential of a large-scale marketing and advocacy program to make a difference for the library voice, and equally important, library funding. 

We look forward to your comments, feedback and ideas.  We will use this blog to share what we learn as we partner with you and the library community to put this research into action.  We look forward to the dialogue.