Hello! Who’s there?

Towards the end of last year we ran a survey on the Library website. The aim was to find out more about who is reading our blog, what kind of content you enjoy reading, and how we can give you more of what you like.

I thought I’d share the three most useful things we learnt from the survey.

We got 153 survey respondents, which was great. Thank you! Having said that, out of the library blog visitors during the time period that’s a sample size of just 3.8%, so it doesn’t speak for all of you; please leave a comment below if you agree, disagree, or if you’d like to give us any tips other on what you like to see on the blog.

1. You like to learn about the collections and hear from people who know their stuff.

Unsurprisingly, the  category that got the top spot with the most interest was ‘about the collections’, which is good because we have a lot more where those came from. We also know loads of experts, bursting with interesting information and vying to share their knowledge, so it’s great that you’ve also told us that you are really interested in their posts. I’ve let them know, so they can continue the good work with renewed vigour.

‘Website and search tool developments’ trailed in as the least popular category. We completely acknowledge that it may take a particularly  nerdy type of person to find functionality developments interesting, but we can infer from the results that there is an audience (albeit a small one) interested in our ground-breaking digital developments.

2. You are a researcher somewhere in arts and humanities

‘Arts and humanities researcher’ reached the top spot for ‘what is your background?’, which correlates (in a very unscientific and round-about way) with the categories that respondents said they were interested in, indicating a quest for knowledge!

3. You are reading this for work (or under the pretence of work)

Our arts and humanities researchers are using the blog for work. We can infer that this is why they like posts about the collections and posts by subject experts, because we’re a reliable and bountiful source of good subject related information. ‘Personal research’ came second, although this is harder to interpret, whether it’s family history or writing a novel, or ‘research’ as in “I’m just giving my eyes a rest from this other essay and reading about toilets”. Either way, we’ll continue to produce content that suits all of those interests.

Overall, although a small sample, the survey results were really interesting to read and analyse. We’re constantly working to keep the blog full of all sorts of types of post, from toilets to disease, cocktails and witchcraft, to demonstrate the breadth of the collections and the work we put into getting them seen.

Author: Chloe Roberts is Web Producer at the Wellcome Library.