Program Evaluation?

[ProgrammingLibrarian]

A recent topic on the Public Programs discussion list involved program evaluation, specifically:

1. How can libraries improve their response rates? and

2. What's the most efficient way to organize responses and analyze data?

How do you handle program evaluation in your library?

[CynthiaH]

One of the things we do at our library's events is to hand out Evaluation cards along with pencils near the end of certain events for which we want feedback. The card has spaces at the top for event name, date and the library location at which it was held. Below that, it has categories for people to grade on a scale of 1 to 5 on what they thought of the events: Location, Day/Time, Format, and Content.

In order to get more information on marketing events, we have a small section below the one mentioned above asking:
How did you learn about the event?
Would you go to this event if we did it again?
What can we do to make this event better?
Would you like to be contacted about future events? If yes, we have a section for their e-mail address.
The back is left blank for additional comments.

You have to make an effort to mention these cards at the end of the event, so people will fill them out, but the responses are quite candid...and helpful.