ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries 391 Focus on focus groups By Vicki Y oung A step-by-step guide to running focus groups F ocus groups are one type o f qualitative research. They are used to explore people’s beliefs, perceptions, and attitudes about a cer­ tain topic. Focus-group research is becoming one o f the most popular forms o f market re­ search. The most common use o f focus groups is at the beginning o f a research project, usually fol­ low ed up by survey or questionnaire (quanti­ tative research). They are called focus groups because the discussions start out broadly and gradually nar­ row down to the focus o f the research. They are not a rigidly constructed question-and-an swer session. Focus groups are used in a vari­ ety o f situations often to test new product ideas and evaluate commercials. Focus groups typically consist o f 8-12 people, with a moderator who focuses the dis­ cussion on relevant topics in a nondirective manner. Depending on the situation, homoge­ neous groups are often recommended, since various constituencies share concerns and views. For example, faculty expectations and perceptions o f the library are often different than student views. There has been an increase o f focus group use in colleges and universities, and even li­ braries. W h y use focus groups? Focus groups have several advantages over other forms of research. These advantages include: • Participants use their ow n words to ex­ press their perceptions. • Moderators ask questions to clarify comments. • The entire focus-group process usually takes less time than a written survey. • Focus groups offer unexpected insights and more complete information. • In focus groups, people tend to be less inhibited than in individual interviews. • One respondent’s remarks often tend to stimulate others, and there is a snowball effect as respondents comment on the views o f oth­ ers. • Focus-group question design is flexible and can clear up confusing responses. • Focus groups are an excellent way to col­ lect preliminary information. • Focus groups often detect ideas that can be investigated further using quantitative re­ search methods, such as a questionnaire. 12 steps fo r successful focus groups 1. Use moderators from outside the li­ brary. Moderating your ow n focus groups is like fixing your plumbing. It isn’t as easy as it looks. More than anything else, the success o f a focus group depends on the moderator. You cannot moderate your ow n focus group for a number o f reasons. Participants might be reluctant to discuss issues with you and it is impossible for you to be objective when you have a vested interest in the outcome. 2. Select m oderators based o n skills. They should have go o d com m unication skills and experience w ith group dynam ­ ics. In addition to having a healthy curiosity themselves, several very important skills/be­ haviors that moderators should have include: • The ability to ask questions in ways that are not leading. • The skill o f knowing when to probe and ask for clarification. • The restraint to resist reacting to partici­ pants’ statements (n o matter how erroneous). Vicki Young is head of public services, Xavier University Library, Cincinnati, Ohio. This is an expansion o f a presentation that was made at ACRL’s Sixth National Conference in April 1992 as part o f a program entitled “Beyond the Survey: Using Market Research Techniques to Improve Library Services and Collections. ” 392 • The ability to involve those not participating. • The skill o f establishing rapport quickly. • The ability to summarize areas o f agree­ ment and differences through paraphrasing. • The ability to direct but not control the discussion. The moderator does not have to be an ex­ pert on the subject under discussion. The mod­ erator must realize that focus groups are dis­ cussions and not question-and-answer sessions, and that the role o f a focus group is not to educate. 3. W h en recruiting, ask fo r volunteers. Screen participants for desired characteristics. A good way to recruit volunteers is to send a brief questionnaire to your target population. Questions may include name, telephone, ma­ jor, class standing, and how often they use the libraiy. Include a question asking if they would be interested in participating in a librarywide study that w ould require tw o hours o f their time. You may want to indicate that they would receive a small gift as a token o f appreciation. Try to get a representative sample from your target market. For example, if your campus has graduate students and undergraduates, be sure both o f those groups are represented. 4. Use stratified groups. Separate faculty from students, undergraduates from gradu­ ate students. D o try to include all aspects o f the target population, such as dorm , commuters, full-time, part-time. Because you are trying to create an atmo­ sphere that leads to self-disclosure, it is impor­ tant to keep the groups homogeneous. It is also important that these focus groups repre­ sent each constituency. 5. S c h e d u le 8– 12 p e o p le p e r fo c u s group, but overschedule, especially if us­ in g student groups. Send several rem ind­ ers to participants o f date, time, and place o f session. Using the recruiting forms, have someone call by phone and give participants several choices o f time and day o f the week. Several days before the group is scheduled to meet, send reminder postcards and you may want to call them as another reminder the day before the scheduled focus group. 6. Schedule sessions fo r 1 ½ to 2 hours. This is based on both experience and the literature. Since focus groups use a funnel ef­ fect, starting out broad and narrowing, ample time must be allowed for this process to hap­ pen. 7. D e v e lo p a g o o d d isc u ssio n gu id e based o n goals and objectives o f the re­ search. Pretest the question s o n a test sa m p le a n d m o d ify as n eeded . Even a quick pretest is likely to point out p ro b ­ lems. The discussion guide should be short. The design o f the interview guide is crucial in the success o f the focus groups. It is the interview guide that makes a focus group dif­ ferent from question-and-answer sessions or group discussions. The interview guide should be designed as a projective technique, designed to deliberately stimulate a relaxed free-flow o f associations and bypass people’s built-in censoring mechanisms. … discussion guides provided the inform ation that we wanted: perceptions, attitudes, and beliefs about both the library’s sewices and collections. 8. Run 3–4 groups p er target audience fo r the best results. More than four groups will be overkill, and less than two may not provide enough data. Collecting information from a diverse popula­ tion may require many group sessions, which can be time-consuming and costly. Recruiting participants w h o represent your target population can be more difficult and time- consuming than is immediately apparent. 9. H old sessions in a centrally located, easy-to-find room . Use a ro o m that allows fo r audiotaping and observation beh in d a tw o-w ay m irror. You want a setting that will be relaxed and inviting. Seating should be carefully arranged. Participants at a small table with the moderator seated among the group is the best arrangement. 10. Rew ard participants fo r their time. In industry, participants are usually paid for attending focus groups. I f you d o n ’t have money, a certain dollar amount o f free ILL or photocopying, or a mug filled with candy will serve as a token o f appreciation. 11. In analyzing the data, look fo r trends o r comments that are repeated in several sessions. Analyze the sessions through the audiotape, flip chart paper, and your ow n observation 393 notes. Compile and summarize the results for each session. Look for repeated trends or prob­ lems to study further. 12. D o not overgeneralize inform ati gained from focus groups, and d o n ’t use it fo r policy decisions. Because o f the nonscientific sampling and the inability to quantify results, you need to use the information carefully. Focus groups should be follo w ed up with statistically sound quantitative research. Like any tool, a focus group must be used correctly to obtain m axim um benefit. Cautions in using focus groups Like any tool, a focus group must be used cor­ rectly to obtain maximum benefit. It is inap­ propriate to try to gather quantitative data from focus groups, such as how many or how much. Instead use focus groups to answer how or w h y questions. Remember: the information from a focus group may not accurately reflect the attitudes o f the entire population; participants in focus groups are not necessary a representative sample; focus groups should be only part of the research process; and don’t use the raw data as the basis for final decision making. Focus groups can be misleading for several reasons. The most common reasons are the moderator’s lack o f questioning skills exper­ tise, a bad discussion guide, and focus group participants who don’t resemble the target market. X a v ie r ’ s exp e rie n c e w ith focus groups After tw o years o f constant change in the li­ brary including automating and renovating, the library staff wanted to know how the library was perceived by the students and faculty who use it. So in the spring o f 1990 w e ran a series o f focus groups at the suggestion o f a friend w ho works at Procter and Gamble, a com pany known for their marketing expertise. W e used the focus groups to identify strengths and prob­ lems, and to form a basis for questions for a follow-up written mail survey. W e Used moderators from outside the li­ brary and ran a total o f 24 groups (4 faculty, 6 o graduate, and 7 undergraduate) over a three- w eek period. W e used tw o different discussion guides, nr epresen tin g tw o approaches. Both w ere demonstrated by professional moderators. Our moderators could then choose the method they preferred. O ne discussion guide was designed by my friend at Procter and Gamble and used brain­ storming techniques to elicit attributes o f an ideal library. Participants generated a list o f li­ brary attributes important to them, and were then asked to choose their top three. For each o f the top attributes, the Xavier library was rated in three categories: strong, okay, or should be improved. The second discussion guide was developed by the chair o f Xavier’s Marketing Department w h o has been involved with numerous focus groups in the not-for-profit sector. His approach con cen tra ted on p e o p le ’s im pressions o f Xavier’s library: what they use the library for, what they like and dislike about the library, and what they w ould like to see different. Both discussion guides provided the infor­ mation that w e wanted: perceptions, attitudes, and beliefs about both the library’s services and collections. W e pretested the discussion guides on a group o f library staff and made the appro­ priate changes. W h a t w e le arned On the positive side, the focus groups were good P.R. for the library. Students, especially, appreciated the chance to be heard and felt that w e really cared enough to listen. W e did hear more positive than negative comments both from faculty and students. Both groups commented on the helpfulness o f library staff, especially the reference librarians. On the negative side, scheduling the groups was a nightmare. Between room availability, m oderator availability, and guessing what w ould be good times for students and faculty, it was difficult to schedule the groups. Obvi­ ously w e overcame the obstacles, having sched­ uled 24 groups. It was alarming to hear widespread miscon­ ceptions. For example, one student thought that the library was only open four hours on Satur­ day. Students wanted services that the library actually had such as ILL fax service. Students and faculty had unrealistic expectations, such as the library should have all the journals in­ dexed in all the CD-ROMs. 394 It was very hard for the library staff to sit in the closet when they wanted to burst into the room to correct the erroneous information. Conclusion Focus groups, if conducted properly using the 12 steps presented, can provide a wealth o f information. They are a g ood method for de­ termining what issues and concerns should be addressed in follow-up quantitative research. Remember that focus groups are only one part o f the research process. References Baker, Sharon L. “Improving Business Services Through the Use o f Focus Groups.” RQ 30 (Spring 1991) 377– 385. Hayes, Thomas J., and Carol B. Tathum (eds.). Focus Group Interviews: A Reader. Chi­ cago: American Marketing Assoc., 1989. Merton, Robert K., Marjorie Fiske, and Pa­ tricia L. Kendall. The Focused Interview : A M a n u a l o f Problem s a n d Procedures. N ew York: Free Press, 1990. Morgan, David L. Focus Groups as Q ualita­ tive Research. Newbury Park, Calif: Sage Publi­ cations, 1988. Stewart, David W., and Prem N. Shamdasani. Focus Groups: Theory a n d Practice. Newbury Park, Calif: Sage Publications, 1990. Templeton, Jane Farley. Focus Groups: A Guide f o r Marketing a n d Advertising Profession­ als. Chicago: Probus Publishing Co., 1987. W id d ow s, Richard, Tia A. Hensler, and Marlaya H. Wyncolt. “The Focus Group Inter­ view: A Method for Assessing Users’ Evalua­ tion o f Library Service.” College a n d Research lib ra ries 52 (July 1991) 353-359 ■ (Controversial materials cont. f r o m p a ge 3 8 8 ) shows a high incidence o f theft and mutilation. Many books like A Secret Garden or The Story o f O have been bought for the general collec­ tion, but replacement copies have been sent to reserve after experience has shown w e cannot keep them safe in the stacks. For certain other materials, such as The Joy o f Lesbian Sex‚ it seems foolish not to assume that the probabil­ ity, o f theft is so high that w e should not put the first copy on reserve and be done with it. The general philosophy w e have com e to is that pragmatism can g o a long w ay to defuse or deflect issues that are often injected with an overload o f symbolic significance. Much as the identification o f erotic materials with books on racquetball or chess serves to defuse a poten­ tially controversial collection developm ent is­ sue, the location o f highly sensitive materials on reserve is made less questionable by their sharing this designation with B illboard‚ Roll­ ing Stone‚ and the used car price guides, which w e have also determined cannot be kept se­ cure in the general collection. 6) In retrospect, and in light o f the though ful discussion available in the Intellectual Free­ dom Manual, our policy probably over-empha- sizes erotic materials and should place more stress on matters o f religious belief or political ideology. I f w e w ere to rewrite the policy and to see it through the twists and turns o f the governance process, w e would include a greater defense o f diversity in collections. ALA’s care­ ful delineation o f diversity as a goal, (in contrast to the more cautious, yet inevitably more controversial goal o f “balance”) as laid out in section 2.6 o f the Intellectual Freedom Manual, should be reflected in any future iteration o f our policy.4 Notes 1Office for Intellectual Freedom o f the Ameri­ can Library Association, Intellectual Freedom M a n u a l fourth edition (Chicago: ALA, 1992), p. 39. 2American Library Association, ALA Policy Manual, pp. 136-159 o f ALA Handbook o f Orga­ n ization 1991/92 (Chicago: ALA, 1991), p. 153. 3Intellectual Freedom M anual, p. 66. 4 “Diversity in Collection Development,” in Intellectual Freedom M anual, pp. 49-57. ■ Share your library’s news C&RL News wants to hear about your library’s activities. Information in the News t­ from the Field, Grants & Acquisitions, and People in the News columns is gathered from press releases and notices we receive. 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