Welcome to this week’s edition of Top Question Tuesday. Last week’s winning question asked what type of news you pay most attention to.We’ll put this question on an upcoming interactive survey and blog about the results soon.

This week’s user-submitted survey questions are below. The questions are shortened to save space on our blog post, but these are the basic ideas. Take a look though and then vote for which question you’d most like to see on the next Zogby Interactive survey. As a reminder, if you’d like to submit a question to be considered for a Zogby survey, use the “contact us” box on the right of the page. And if you’d like to join Zogby’s interactive panel to answer questions similar to these, click here.

1. How has your use of public libraries changed over the last year – has your use increased, decreased, stayed the same, or do you not use your public library?

2.  When deciding whether and where to take a vacation, what is the most important factor in your decision – cost, location, distance from  your home, attractions at vacation site, or something else?

3. Do you pay more, less, or about the same amount of attention to local political races (such as mayoral elections) compared to  national political races(such as the presidential election)?

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Katy Uncategorized elections, libraries, race, Top Question Tuesday, vacation, zogby

“As the national economic crisis has deepened and social services have become casualties of budget cuts, libraries have come to fill a void for more people, particularly job-seekers and those who have fallen on hard times.” So notes an article on the challenges facing public libraries recently published in the New York Times.  The article mentions that, in addition to traditional reference and book borrowing services, public libraries are increasingly providing assistance with their patrons’ job searches, teaching people how to use computers and become familiar with technology, and serving as a resting spot for the homeless or others with no place to stay. However, when towns and cities need to trim their budgets, libraries are frequently one of the first places to receive cuts.

We at Zogby recently surveyed people interactively on which community institutions they thought were essential to the character of their community.  When asked whether they believed a public library was essential to the character of their community, 79% of our respondents agreed that it was. Though a large majority agreed in every income group, the highest percentage agreeing was in the lowest income group (those in families making under $25,000/year); 84% of this group agreed that libraries were essential to the character of their community.

How essential do you believe that your public library is to your community? If you use your library, has the recession changed at all how you use your library?

Katy Uncategorized economy, libraries, recession, technology, zogby