Focus group invitation for public library workers

February 2018

Dear Colleague,

I am a former librarian teaching at the University of Wisconsin-Madison's information school. I am writing to you because I am looking for public library workers to participate in virtual focus groups this spring. We're looking for both paraprofessional and professional library workers. Would anyone on your staff be interested in participating?

The purpose of the research is to better understand the challenges and rewards of providing health information in public libraries. We are interested in library workers' questions, experiences, concerns and success stories – it's all useful to us!

The focus groups will happen by telephone and will last 1.5 hours; we are scheduling on all days of the week except Sundays. Audio tapes will be made of the groups and only members of the study team will transcribe these audiotapes. No individual person or library will be identified in the transcripts or publications; individual speakers will be referred to as, for example, “Reference Assistant Kansas-1.” Participation will last approximately 1.5 hours. As a token of our appreciation, each participant will receive an Amazon gift card worth $25 (which can be donated to your library if employees are not permitted to be compensated).

If you can help us by participating, thank you!

TO SIGN UP, PLEASE CONTACT ME DIRECTLY. My contact information follows below:

Catherine Arnott Smith
Preferred contact: Email: casmith24@wisc.edu
Office phone: 608-890-1334

Please do not hesitate to contact me if I can answer any questions for you about this study.

Best wishes,

Catherine Arnott Smith, PhD
Associate Professor,
The Information School
University of Wisconsin-Madison
600 N. Park Street Madison, WI 53706