In early spring 2009, the HSLS Molecular Biology Information Service (MBIS) conducted an online survey as part of a larger project assessing the overall services of MBIS. The intent was to gather feedback in order to create new workshops, identify new bioinformatics tools to license, update our Web site, promote our services, and strengthen the relationship with our users.
Results from the survey were presented at the Medical Library Association annual meeting in May 2009. Preliminary findings from the survey indicate:
- 63% of respondents preferred to use PCs, while 37% favored Macs.
- The most-used features on the Molecular Biology home page were Licensed Tools, Class Calendar, and Workshops & Tutorials.
- 53% of survey respondents requested written tutorials and 66% requested video tutorials.
- New tutorials suggested by respondents include: SNPs, miRNA, protein structure modeling, primer design, HapMap, sequence alignment, and immunoinformatics.
- The most popular workshops reported by the survey were Pathway Analysis Tools, Genetic Variations Resources, and Vector NTI.
- New workshops suggested by respondents included advanced classes, neuroinformatics, and analysis (microarray, pathway, SNP, etc.).
- Respondents recommended the purchase of Partek Genomics Suite and Lasergene.
Many user comments indicate that MBIS needs to advertise our services better, provide more tutorials and workshops online, offer advanced training classes, and license more Mac-friendly tools. Many comments praised the good work of the MBIS staff!
The survey was created and administered by Carrie Iwema, information specialist, MBIS, with consultation from Ansuman Chattopadhyay, head, MBIS.
~ Carrie Iwema