An Assessment of Broadband Needs and Practices of Public Librarians: A Pilot Study

The School of Information Sciences at the University of Tennessee is requesting your participation in a small pilot study of employees of public libraries in Kentucky, Tennessee and West Virginia. The purpose of this study is to generate preliminary information about broadband internet usage and practices by small businesses in rural Tennessee, Kentucky and West Virginia and to determine how well public libraries in these states are supporting small business needs related to broadband or high speed internet access and service. The results of this study will be used in a grant application for the funding of programming and further study of the topic. The study is being conducted by Dr. Bharat Mehra, Dr. Kimberly Black and Dr. Vandana Singh of the School of Information Sciences at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

The study consists of a short, web-based questionnaire which should take approximately ten minutes to complete. There is no compensation provided for participation in this study. We will not collect personally identifiable information from you and no personally identifiable responses will be presented in the findings of the study.

If you are at least 18 years old or older and you work in a public library anywhere in the states of Kentucky, Tennessee or West Virginia, and you would like to participate in the survey, then please click on the following link to proceed to the statement of consent and study questionnaire: http://www.sis.utk.edu/itrl/survey-public-librarians  (cut and paste the URL in your web browser).