Practices and Expectations of Mediatheque Users: Inquiry Methods and Techniques

Knowledge of mediatheque users is apprehended through a plural approach where the initial problem will guide methodological choices: if one seeks to understand - in the etymological sense of the term - the population, to study the practices, the behaviour, the representation, one will mix observation and interviews. If one seeks to measure the rate of frequentation, levels of satisfaction, to evaluate expectations of the greatest number, one will conduct inquiries by questionnaire. The two approaches are not mutually exclusive and are usefully complementary, the thematic analysis of interviews allows the development of a quantitative questionnaire which would suggest, after running, indicators and typologies of individuals. In practice, frequent inquiries with limited objectives give more convincing results than a «catch-all» inquiry every five or ten years.
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