CCI Publications Survey
by Raymond Lafontaine, Director, Information Services and Marketing
Last year CCI commissioned the Corporate Review Branch, a unit
of the Department of Canadian Heritage, to survey the clients of
CCI publications. The survey assessed the following: current use of
publications; satisfaction with publications regarding content,
format, availability, costing issues, and delivery; recommendations
to improve publications and to address gaps in information; and new
areas of interest for content, products, and technology.
The questionnaire was distributed worldwide in July 1999 to
approximately 2000 clients of CCI publications, and the response
was overwhelming! We would like to take this opportunity to thank
all those who participated.
A total of 586 completed questionnaires were received by
Corporate Review before the August 31, 1999, return deadline. More
than half of the responses came from Canada (312), with the
remainder from the United States (121) or from one of 38 other
foreign countries (146).
It is very gratifying to see that the general satisfaction with
CCI publications is extremely high. The majority of respondents
reported an overwhelmingly high degree of satisfaction with the
appropriateness of the technical content, the understandability of
the articles, the relevance of the topics, and the reasonableness
of price for all the products and publications. For example,
regarding appropriateness of the technical content, the level of
satisfaction was: CCI Notes (96.3%), Technical Bulletins (96.5%),
Special Publications and Products (90.2%), and Symposia/Colloquia
Publications (91.8%). Similarly, concerning relevance of topics,
the satisfaction level was: CCI Notes (94.6%), Technical Bulletins
(92.1%), Special Publications and Products (90.8%), and
Symposia/Colloquia Publications (90%). This highly positive trend
was evident throughout the responses.
With so many new information technologies now available, we
wanted to know if clients would prefer to receive publications in
alternative formats. Most CCI publications are currently available
in paper format, and 38% of respondents supported this mode (which
suggests that they would like to continue to receive paper versions
of the publications). Overall support for publications available as
Web pages was 29%; support for downloadable files was 20%; and only
11% preferred a CD-ROM format.
Based on an analysis of these results, we intend to develop a
long-term publication plan that will address not only how existing
publications might be improved but also what new topics should be
produced.
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