This week, I was able to spend another day on-site with the Marin County Free Library for my internship. I was able to be there for longer than my first on-site day, but unforeseen consequences added some chaos to my site supervisor's "master plan" of my activities.
One of the goals for me this visit was to meet and do some collaboration with a member of the Technical Services department that I hadn't yet met, but who is highly involved in the management of the Drupal library and staff sites. Unfortunately, she was out because of illness, so my collaboration with her was deferred to a future date (probably via WebEx or some other teleconferencing medium). It is her input that I will need to finalize the design for the Online Book Clubs page I created. Another smaller goal was to review and finalize the controlled vocabulary that I had drafted and submitted early this week. My site supervisor and I sat down and looked over the terminology together, and the feedback I got was overall positive--there were only a few changes that needed to be made. The list has been updated to reflect those changes and the finalized list submitted for approval by the library's Leadership Team. Once their approval has been given, I will be able to create a new taxonomy on the staff intranet with the controlled vocabulary that will be used for forms, procedures, and policies. It will also mean that I will need to update the vocabulary for all those that already exist. But I'm glad to see concrete results from this part of my work so soon.
A major goal that I was able to accomplish during my on-site day was being able to sit in and participate during the Webmasters Team meeting (of which four people were out due to vacation, personal illness or a child being ill). My site supervisor is the chair of the committee, and so my attendance was easily arranged. I appreciated being able to see how a committee addresses issues and see the practical topics that this particular committee is in charge of. We discussed the library's social media; several library-wide (as opposed to branch-specific) web-related issues, including a new site vendor; and the staff survey that I had put together. I was able to provide some feedback and suggestions for the social media topic; I was actually at a social media panel at November's CLA conference, and so remembered a few ideas that were mentioned there--and I did come up with one or two ideas of my own that seemed to be received well. However, my time in the spotlight was really during the discussion of the staff survey. I explained the research process and how I created the survey, as well as the logic behind several of the questions. There were some changes that the members of the committee suggested, but overall the committee was pleased and felt that the questions will be able to tell them about how the staff uses the intranet and what staff would like added to the intranet. So all the hours I put into this project really paid off. I've already made the requested changes, and now that too will head to the Leadership Team for final approval before going live.
During my lunch break (when I was introduced to a really good restaurant that I want to go back to), I got to speak with another person (the cataloger I first met on my last on-site visit) in the Technical Services department at great length. From her, I learned a bit more about cataloging and records--the kind of stuff that was not really addressed in my cataloging class. Then again, the issues she mentioned may not be universal to all libraries but may be a specific issue with this particular library system. I was able to share with her some of my own library experiences, and she very kindly offered her advice whenever I get stuck with cataloging/classifying materials for the collection of the library where I work. She's a very sharp lady and I'm glad I was able to connect with her. Hopefully I will be able to see her and talk more "shop" on my last on-site day in May.
So all in all, a productive site visit despite not going quite the way my site supervisor planned. I also talked with my site supervisor about continuing my work as a volunteer after my internship is over. I would like to see some of the projects I am involved in through to the end, but for the sake of my sanity my hours would need to be drastically reduced (I'm thinking like 10 hours/month). We shall see if things will work out as I hope.
Friday, March 29, 2013
Friday, March 22, 2013
Self-Motivation
As part of my internship class, I also have to interact with fellow virtual interns through the program's Learning Management System (LMS) and complete some work to turn in. This is how the professor who runs the virtual internship program on the school's side can view our progress, know what we've done, and see that we're "on track." It's an accountability thing and provides evidence to show we've earned the units we signed up for. Every week, we go over another topic related to virtual working environments and/or internships. Some of our topics so far have included time management, communication, and networking. For each topic, my professor points us to a number of sources, many of which I have found interesting or enlightening. We are also asked for a response that we post on the class discussion forums for the week--which is valuable because I have the opportunity to learn from my peers and they from me.
This week's topic is self-motivation, a trait that I think I'm rather strong in. It would seem logical for those who pursue an online program of study and succeed in such a learning environment to have strong self-motivation in order to stay on task. I can imagine the struggle that not having this skill could result in. As a virtual intern, I think self-motivation is a requirement for the work environment. You need to be able to stay on task, actually get going (and keep going), and regulate your own work without someone looking over your shoulder to make sure you're doing what you should. It's a big responsibility. No one's watching you to see what you get done and when--all they have to judge your performance is your results, so you need to produce them. This is one skill that definitely carries over into telecommuting too; when you're working from home, you also need to be able to stay on task without physical supervision.
One of the resources included with this week's unit was a self-motivation quiz. You can find it here: http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newLDR_57.htm. I have no way to determine how accurate it is, but I think that it's at least a reasonable indicator of one's aptitude. My score was a 49. The other interns that have posted their scores in the discussion note that their scores seem to follow their own self-assessment of their motivation. Feel free to try it and post your score (if you like) in the comments section.
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
Internship Update and Scholarships
Today I finally finished my controlled vocabulary project (see previous post). It definitely took a bit of time, and I know I spent well over ten hours on it over the past week and a half. But I feel that it was good experience and excellent practice of skills I haven't had much opportunity to exercise in real-world situations yet. So what's next on the task list? More work with Google Analytics (a tool I'm glad to have discovered through this internship--I may consider using it for the website of the library I work in), creating a guide on posting Assets on the staff intranet site (Assets are a custom content-type on MCFL's Drupal platform), and reviewing and updating a staff Drupal guide. The Drupal guide is pretty extensive, and even my site supervisor thinks that it may be an ongoing project that carries over to future interns because the guide is so large. These three tasks will be more than enough to keep me busy until my next on-site day next week. I'm very much looking forward to it because I will be shadowing a couple of people and attending the Webmasters Team meeting. I anticipate a day full of experiencing new things and learning from the MCFL staff--fun stuff!
I've also been applying to scholarships, some offered by the school I attend and some offered by my program's department. I know a thing or two about scholarships because I collect and distribute scholarship information in the library where I work and the campus it's located on. I haven't really applied for many scholarships until now because my employer offers a tuition reimbursement program that I've been taking advantage of in conjunction with student loans. However, I will only be taking one class (three units) during my last semester, which will not qualify me for financial aid. For those who are not aware, you must be attending school at least half-time (6 semester units for undergraduates, 4 semester units for graduates) in order to receive federal student aid. Without the student loans, I will have to pay for my last semester out-of-pocket until I get the tuition costs reimbursed after the semester is over. Financial aid is not a glamorous issue, but it sure can have big effects on one's ability to attend school. By the time all my applications are in, I will have applied for over fifteen scholarships. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I will get something.
This weekend, I will be celebrating Swedish Easter with my family. I'll do my best to remember to take pictures so I can post about all the good food!
I've also been applying to scholarships, some offered by the school I attend and some offered by my program's department. I know a thing or two about scholarships because I collect and distribute scholarship information in the library where I work and the campus it's located on. I haven't really applied for many scholarships until now because my employer offers a tuition reimbursement program that I've been taking advantage of in conjunction with student loans. However, I will only be taking one class (three units) during my last semester, which will not qualify me for financial aid. For those who are not aware, you must be attending school at least half-time (6 semester units for undergraduates, 4 semester units for graduates) in order to receive federal student aid. Without the student loans, I will have to pay for my last semester out-of-pocket until I get the tuition costs reimbursed after the semester is over. Financial aid is not a glamorous issue, but it sure can have big effects on one's ability to attend school. By the time all my applications are in, I will have applied for over fifteen scholarships. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I will get something.
This weekend, I will be celebrating Swedish Easter with my family. I'll do my best to remember to take pictures so I can post about all the good food!
Friday, March 15, 2013
Clamming Memories
Today's recipe is one that I got from my grandmother, at least I think that's where it comes from. She's the one I remember making it for me. If you're in the mood for seafood and don't want a complicated recipe, this is a good one to try: clam spaghetti.
First a little family history. When I was growing up, my grandmother lived in the small coastal town that Scooter and I now love to frequent when we want to get away on the weekend. Gramma had a house up on the hill near the school that some of the scenes from the Alfred Hitchcock movie "The Birds" was filmed. There used to be a wood and steel play structure at the school with a tire swing--absolutely the most fun to be had for an eight-year-old child (sadly it's not there anymore). Visiting Gramma was the best thing about the summer--well, that and the camping trips my parents took BD and I on. If my week with Gramma was timed right, I would be there during the lowest tides; we called them the minus tides. The water would get really low and all the sand in the harbor would be exposed except for in the deep channel that allows the boats to come in and out of the harbor even during the lowest possible tides. If the minus tides happened during my time there, it always meant that I would get to go clamming.
We would wake up very early in the morning when the harbor and the town were still enshrouded by fog. After a quick breakfast that consisted of coffee for the grandparents and juice and granola bar for me, we would pack up buckets and shovels and galoshes and drive down to the spot that was Gramma's favorite place to dig for clams. I always got to sit in the back bed of the truck--something that would never happen now since, as many people would say, times have changed. Inevitably, after going back to the house and having a good brunch, my fascination would spur me to help with shucking the clams (okay, more watching than helping). Gramma would then take all the pieces and store them in the freezer for clam chowder, clam spaghetti, and anything else she fancied putting clams in. Something I always found funny was all the water marks on the walls and floor around the clam bucket from the clams spitting (we would leave them while we ate brunch). Here's a tip: don't store a bucket of live clams in any location you wouldn't want to get wet. You will thank me.
Now the recipe.
What you'll need:
1/2 bunch of parsley with the stems removed
1 large handful of basil leaves
8-10 cloves of garlic
1/4 medium onion, slivered
2 cans chopped clams, 2 Tbs. juice reserved
1/2 cube butter or margarine
1/4 c. olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
What you'll need to do:
1. Chop the parsley, basil, garlic, and onion together until fine. You can use a wooden chopping bowl, or a food processor (for the lazy or the overworked).
2. In a medium skillet over medium heat, add the olive oil and the butter. Once the butter has melted, add the chopped herb mixture and saute for 10-15 minutes. Onion should be a little transparent.
3. Add the chopped clams and the reserved juice. Continue to saute until the juice has been mostly absorbed, then cover and reduce heat to low. Simmer for 35-45 minutes, stirring occasionally.
4. Remove from heat and pour over cooked pasta (angel hair, linguine, and spaghetti all work well). Serve hot.
You will want the amount of herbs listed in the ingredients because they will cook way down, so you'll be left with a lot less than you started with volume-wise. Also, it is important to cover the skillet once you've added the clams because they may pop as they cook (not sure exactly why they do that)--and you don't want to find bits of food on your walls. If you really want to impress, putting this over homemade pasta (which isn't as hard to make as you might think) will definitely create a wow factor.
Enjoy!
First a little family history. When I was growing up, my grandmother lived in the small coastal town that Scooter and I now love to frequent when we want to get away on the weekend. Gramma had a house up on the hill near the school that some of the scenes from the Alfred Hitchcock movie "The Birds" was filmed. There used to be a wood and steel play structure at the school with a tire swing--absolutely the most fun to be had for an eight-year-old child (sadly it's not there anymore). Visiting Gramma was the best thing about the summer--well, that and the camping trips my parents took BD and I on. If my week with Gramma was timed right, I would be there during the lowest tides; we called them the minus tides. The water would get really low and all the sand in the harbor would be exposed except for in the deep channel that allows the boats to come in and out of the harbor even during the lowest possible tides. If the minus tides happened during my time there, it always meant that I would get to go clamming.
We would wake up very early in the morning when the harbor and the town were still enshrouded by fog. After a quick breakfast that consisted of coffee for the grandparents and juice and granola bar for me, we would pack up buckets and shovels and galoshes and drive down to the spot that was Gramma's favorite place to dig for clams. I always got to sit in the back bed of the truck--something that would never happen now since, as many people would say, times have changed. Inevitably, after going back to the house and having a good brunch, my fascination would spur me to help with shucking the clams (okay, more watching than helping). Gramma would then take all the pieces and store them in the freezer for clam chowder, clam spaghetti, and anything else she fancied putting clams in. Something I always found funny was all the water marks on the walls and floor around the clam bucket from the clams spitting (we would leave them while we ate brunch). Here's a tip: don't store a bucket of live clams in any location you wouldn't want to get wet. You will thank me.
Now the recipe.
What you'll need:
1/2 bunch of parsley with the stems removed
1 large handful of basil leaves
8-10 cloves of garlic
1/4 medium onion, slivered
2 cans chopped clams, 2 Tbs. juice reserved
1/2 cube butter or margarine
1/4 c. olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
What you'll need to do:
1. Chop the parsley, basil, garlic, and onion together until fine. You can use a wooden chopping bowl, or a food processor (for the lazy or the overworked).
2. In a medium skillet over medium heat, add the olive oil and the butter. Once the butter has melted, add the chopped herb mixture and saute for 10-15 minutes. Onion should be a little transparent.
3. Add the chopped clams and the reserved juice. Continue to saute until the juice has been mostly absorbed, then cover and reduce heat to low. Simmer for 35-45 minutes, stirring occasionally.
4. Remove from heat and pour over cooked pasta (angel hair, linguine, and spaghetti all work well). Serve hot.
You will want the amount of herbs listed in the ingredients because they will cook way down, so you'll be left with a lot less than you started with volume-wise. Also, it is important to cover the skillet once you've added the clams because they may pop as they cook (not sure exactly why they do that)--and you don't want to find bits of food on your walls. If you really want to impress, putting this over homemade pasta (which isn't as hard to make as you might think) will definitely create a wow factor.
Enjoy!
Thursday, March 14, 2013
Know Your Vocabulary
It is an interesting project that I find myself in the middle of. When I first began this internship and my site supervisor were discussing the tasks I should work on or start to think about, one of the things mentioned was to create a controlled vocabulary for the items on two of the pages on the staff intranet. For the first seven or so weeks, it was something I've kept in the back of my mind and a task my site supervisor said was low priority. Well, now that the pages have been updated and the ownership of the items is now posted, this project of creating a controlled vocabulary has moved to the top of my list. And while it's a bit tedious to record and organize the terminology currently in place, I'm finding myself really enjoying this particular project.
Controlled vocabulary is not a new concept for me. In fact, it was one I came to know and love during my second semester when I was taking a class on databases (one of the core classes for the program). Controlled vocabulary can be seen as metadata--data (information) about data--that can have a number of uses in a practical sense, particularly as an aid for creating more successful searches. The reason why it's "controlled" vocabulary is because it's a set of predefined terms that are adopted as the "correct" entries for the type of information considered. I know that may not make much sense, so here is an example. Think of a field where you are asked to enter a date. There are quite a lot of ways that you can do that: 2013-03-14; March 14, 2013; Mar 14, 2013; 3-14-13; 3-14-2013; 2013, March 14; and so on. All of them are correct, but perhaps the system reading the information can only understand one type of entry. The field may have a line of text under it, something along the lines of "Enter date as MM-DD-YYYY" so you know the required method of entry. A controlled vocabulary works in a similar way; there is a predetermined "right" way of stating a term or phrase, and you must use the controlled vocabulary when working within its perimeters.
Librarians, especially those who do cataloging, are very familiar with the Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH), a type of controlled vocabulary used to enter the subjects a library item is related to or addresses in its contents. The LCSH is quite extensive and covers every subject you can think of. If you want to see examples of these subject headings, go to your library's website and do a search of your choice. Click on one of the books in the results to look at its details, and you'll see entries for the item's "Subject." Tamora Pierce's book Mastiff shows subject entries for "Kings and rulers -- Juvenile fiction," "Police -- Fiction," and "Fantasy," among others. Each of these terms could be rewritten in different ways with different words and still get the same or similar meaning. Having a standard set of terms--a controlled vocabulary--means that the terms can also become useful for searching, since all items on the same subject have the same subject entry and can be found in one search. You don't have to worry about different people using different terminology because catalogers use the same subject heading rules.
Okay, I went off on a tangent a bit there. Back to my project. I had to approach it a bit differently than the projects I did in my database class and my cataloging class that used the idea of controlled vocabulary. On those, I was starting from scratch and coming up with controlled vocabulary terms with a blank slate (although in the cataloging class, I did have to use the LCSH rules). With this project, there are terms already entered for each item on the two pages I'm updating. Terms with no sense of organization or logic. So I first went through and recorded all the terms and the frequency of their use. Then I organized them into sub-classes based on general topic that they relate to (I'm still working on this piece of it). My next step will be to see if there are terms that can be combined into more general terms. The trick with controlled vocabulary is to get just specific enough--not too broad, and not too focused, but just right. One must be Goldilocks, except with words rather than porridge and beds. Lastly, I will designate terms/phrases for each of the old ones (or simply note them as needing to be deleted). This will be my controlled vocabulary.
I will have to post another recipe tomorrow. I made a quick and easy dinner last night and it was good--something I haven't had since my grandmother was alive. Stay tuned...
Controlled vocabulary is not a new concept for me. In fact, it was one I came to know and love during my second semester when I was taking a class on databases (one of the core classes for the program). Controlled vocabulary can be seen as metadata--data (information) about data--that can have a number of uses in a practical sense, particularly as an aid for creating more successful searches. The reason why it's "controlled" vocabulary is because it's a set of predefined terms that are adopted as the "correct" entries for the type of information considered. I know that may not make much sense, so here is an example. Think of a field where you are asked to enter a date. There are quite a lot of ways that you can do that: 2013-03-14; March 14, 2013; Mar 14, 2013; 3-14-13; 3-14-2013; 2013, March 14; and so on. All of them are correct, but perhaps the system reading the information can only understand one type of entry. The field may have a line of text under it, something along the lines of "Enter date as MM-DD-YYYY" so you know the required method of entry. A controlled vocabulary works in a similar way; there is a predetermined "right" way of stating a term or phrase, and you must use the controlled vocabulary when working within its perimeters.
Librarians, especially those who do cataloging, are very familiar with the Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH), a type of controlled vocabulary used to enter the subjects a library item is related to or addresses in its contents. The LCSH is quite extensive and covers every subject you can think of. If you want to see examples of these subject headings, go to your library's website and do a search of your choice. Click on one of the books in the results to look at its details, and you'll see entries for the item's "Subject." Tamora Pierce's book Mastiff shows subject entries for "Kings and rulers -- Juvenile fiction," "Police -- Fiction," and "Fantasy," among others. Each of these terms could be rewritten in different ways with different words and still get the same or similar meaning. Having a standard set of terms--a controlled vocabulary--means that the terms can also become useful for searching, since all items on the same subject have the same subject entry and can be found in one search. You don't have to worry about different people using different terminology because catalogers use the same subject heading rules.
Okay, I went off on a tangent a bit there. Back to my project. I had to approach it a bit differently than the projects I did in my database class and my cataloging class that used the idea of controlled vocabulary. On those, I was starting from scratch and coming up with controlled vocabulary terms with a blank slate (although in the cataloging class, I did have to use the LCSH rules). With this project, there are terms already entered for each item on the two pages I'm updating. Terms with no sense of organization or logic. So I first went through and recorded all the terms and the frequency of their use. Then I organized them into sub-classes based on general topic that they relate to (I'm still working on this piece of it). My next step will be to see if there are terms that can be combined into more general terms. The trick with controlled vocabulary is to get just specific enough--not too broad, and not too focused, but just right. One must be Goldilocks, except with words rather than porridge and beds. Lastly, I will designate terms/phrases for each of the old ones (or simply note them as needing to be deleted). This will be my controlled vocabulary.
I will have to post another recipe tomorrow. I made a quick and easy dinner last night and it was good--something I haven't had since my grandmother was alive. Stay tuned...
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
Surveys
This week in my internship I get to delve into designing and creating a survey. Easy right? Just put together a bunch of questions and have some people answer them. Well, not exactly. Perhaps in the barest form, a survey could be described as such. But figuring out which questions to ask is not easy. My definition of a survey: a form that tries to get the wanted feedback
from the user without you knowing exactly what questions to ask. The user doesn't know what you want to hear, and you don't know how to get it. Brings new meaning to the phrase "double blind."
The goal of the survey I need to create is to determine what aspects of the staff site are favored and which aren't, and discover what features (if any) the staff would like to include on their site. Because of the problems that arise from too many open-ended questions (mainly problems understanding what respondents are trying to say), I've been given a limitation of only using multiple-choice questions with one open-ended question at the end. Certainly not an easy task, since I'm not in the staff's heads and can't divine what questions to ask to get the desired feedback (though wouldn't that be a useful talent to have?).
So my plan of attack has been to start with research--researching staff sites, commonly liked features, site best practices, etc. I do have a survey that was done to gather feedback for the public site that I can use as a template and a spring board for creating questions. To keep track of ideas that I or others think of, I've also created a spreadsheet of things to suggest adding to the site which will be posted for the rest of the webmasters team that works on the staff site to view and add to. It'll act as a record of ideas for site improvements that can be implemented over time (or tossed if the idea isn't a good fit for the site or the users).
About the research--there is an overwhelmingly large amount of information out there on intranets, intranet design, intranet features, and intranet best practices. I've spent about fours hours of my time this week just reading and learning about intranets, and I've barely conquered the tip of the iceberg. There are a lot of blogs out there, written by professionals and non-professional alike, about how to create a good intranet. One in particular, The Treehouse, had a series of four posts titled The Essential Intranet. Even though the MCFL's intranet already exists, there was still a lot of valuable information from Parts 1-3 that I was able to take away and use as I thought about this survey. I was also able to find pieces of wheat among the chaff in places like forums and company websites that were trying to sell a product (but happened to also include articles about various aspects of intranets). As I was looking for information on intranet features (to see if some could be included in the survey to gauge interest), I found a free short e-book titled 101 Intranet Ideas. Not only that, but I was also able to get some information about a study called the Social Intranet Study done in 2011 that looked at many aspect of intranets and the companies that have and use them. And all this wasn't even a fifth of what I read through (which isn't even a thousandth of what's out there). Needless to say, you can definitely find a lot of literature on the subject.
So there was a lot to absorb and mull over. And since I had never created a survey before, I also looked at some sources that provided survey creation help, and found a couple that were specifically for intranet surveys. I even found an unlikely source in HowTo.gov on their page titled Basics of Survey and Question Design. It provided a lot of survey "basics," and I definitely used the information there while I was trying to create survey questions on Survey Monkey (the survey creator used by the MCFL). I'm fairly happy with what I've created so far--and I'm trying hard to stay away from any double-barreled questions, leading questions, questions with built-in assumptions, and questions that leave out a response choice (basically, all the pitfalls noted on the HowTo.gov page).
Hopefully, I'll get some feedback soon--with a survey like this, there's lots to learn!
The goal of the survey I need to create is to determine what aspects of the staff site are favored and which aren't, and discover what features (if any) the staff would like to include on their site. Because of the problems that arise from too many open-ended questions (mainly problems understanding what respondents are trying to say), I've been given a limitation of only using multiple-choice questions with one open-ended question at the end. Certainly not an easy task, since I'm not in the staff's heads and can't divine what questions to ask to get the desired feedback (though wouldn't that be a useful talent to have?).
So my plan of attack has been to start with research--researching staff sites, commonly liked features, site best practices, etc. I do have a survey that was done to gather feedback for the public site that I can use as a template and a spring board for creating questions. To keep track of ideas that I or others think of, I've also created a spreadsheet of things to suggest adding to the site which will be posted for the rest of the webmasters team that works on the staff site to view and add to. It'll act as a record of ideas for site improvements that can be implemented over time (or tossed if the idea isn't a good fit for the site or the users).
About the research--there is an overwhelmingly large amount of information out there on intranets, intranet design, intranet features, and intranet best practices. I've spent about fours hours of my time this week just reading and learning about intranets, and I've barely conquered the tip of the iceberg. There are a lot of blogs out there, written by professionals and non-professional alike, about how to create a good intranet. One in particular, The Treehouse, had a series of four posts titled The Essential Intranet. Even though the MCFL's intranet already exists, there was still a lot of valuable information from Parts 1-3 that I was able to take away and use as I thought about this survey. I was also able to find pieces of wheat among the chaff in places like forums and company websites that were trying to sell a product (but happened to also include articles about various aspects of intranets). As I was looking for information on intranet features (to see if some could be included in the survey to gauge interest), I found a free short e-book titled 101 Intranet Ideas. Not only that, but I was also able to get some information about a study called the Social Intranet Study done in 2011 that looked at many aspect of intranets and the companies that have and use them. And all this wasn't even a fifth of what I read through (which isn't even a thousandth of what's out there). Needless to say, you can definitely find a lot of literature on the subject.
So there was a lot to absorb and mull over. And since I had never created a survey before, I also looked at some sources that provided survey creation help, and found a couple that were specifically for intranet surveys. I even found an unlikely source in HowTo.gov on their page titled Basics of Survey and Question Design. It provided a lot of survey "basics," and I definitely used the information there while I was trying to create survey questions on Survey Monkey (the survey creator used by the MCFL). I'm fairly happy with what I've created so far--and I'm trying hard to stay away from any double-barreled questions, leading questions, questions with built-in assumptions, and questions that leave out a response choice (basically, all the pitfalls noted on the HowTo.gov page).
Hopefully, I'll get some feedback soon--with a survey like this, there's lots to learn!
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