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Report and webinar on the 2024 edition – click here
Connect with your audience through the Sentolib audience survey.
After a successful first edition of Sentolib, the study will be offered again in 2025. From now on, the survey will be available as a permanent tool that libraries can use either ad hoc or on an ongoing basis.
The survey offers an accessible, scientifically grounded tool to gather feedback from your members and visitors on all relevant aspects of their library experience.
This independent study is organized in Canada, Ontario, with the support of the Federation of Ontario Public Libraries (FOPL). The survey is conducted simultaneously in public libraries across France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Spain, Italy, Belgium and the Netherlands, with additional countries to be included in 2025.
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Supported by
Insight into Your Visitors
The Sentolib study offers libraries an easy-to-use, thoughtful, and accessible tool to gain essential information about their members, visitors, and non-users. A carefully designed and well-balanced questionnaire provides insight into the key action areas for your library.
When?
Sentolib is available year-round. You can survey your members and visitors whenever it suits your library best. You can choose between two reporting periods: May or November.
At any time, you can access your personal interactive dashboard. There, you can view your local results, apply filters, create cross-tabulations, and generate different types of charts. This way, you can always work efficiently with your up-to-date data.
For Whom?
✔ Suitable for both small and large libraries
✔ Specific offering for library systems with multiple libraries
Target Groups?
✔ Library members and visitors
✔ Individuals who no longer (or do not yet) use your services
✔ Adults and youth
What Insights Does the Survey Provide?
Visitor Experiences
How do visitors experience your services, activities, and collections?
Library Impact (Impact Compass Model)
The Impact Compass Model makes your library’s value visible by measuring its educational, social, and cultural impact on visitors. These insights support your internal strategy and serve as a powerful tool to convince policymakers and funders of your library’s importance in the community.
Evaluation of Offerings and Infrastructure
What do visitors appreciate in your collection and facilities, and where are there areas for improvement?
Visitor Profile
Who uses your library? Are you reaching diverse audiences, and where are there further opportunities?
Visitor Motivations and Preferences
What attracts visitors to use your services, and why do some people stay away?
Communication
How effective are your information and promotional channels in reaching your audience?
Contribution to the Local Community
How does your library strengthen the social and cultural fabric of your neighborhood?
Net Promoter Score (NPS)
How likely are visitors to recommend your library to others?
Open-Ended Feedback
Direct feedback and suggestions from visitors, valuable for concrete improvements.
Why Do Some Visitors Stop Using Your Services?
Discover why some visitors drop off and how you might win them back.
Fully Customizable Survey
We start from a balanced questionnaire, which you can easily tailor by adding or removing questions and answer options to meet your specific needs. You can also include your own questions. Sentolib thus combines the strength of a shared, robust questionnaire (enabling benchmarking) with the flexibility needed to personalize it for your library.
Results
Regardless of the number of responses your library receives, the final report will provide insights not only based on your own visitors but also through benchmarks comparing similar libraries and (inter)national results. This helps you put your data in context and develop targeted strategies.
Through this study, you will receive feedback from your audience on key policy areas, including:
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Experience in your library
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Evaluation of your offerings
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Impact of the library on visitors (Impact Compass Model)
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Evaluation of infrastructure and support services
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Evaluation of communication efforts
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Profile of your members and visitors
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Net Promoter Score (NPS)
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… and more
You can also add your own custom questions.
The study offers a well-thought-out and balanced questionnaire that covers the key aspects of the library visit. The questionnaire was developed in collaboration with the study’s academic partners, national sector associations, and several field representatives.
The questionnaire is personalized to reflect the local reality of your library. If there are certain questions you do not wish to include, they can easily be removed.
You also have the option to add your own custom questions for your library, if desired.
The target audience of the survey consists of your own members and visitors. If desired, you can also include former users and non-visitors in the survey.
A simplified version for different target groups is integrated into the questionnaire.
The multilingual survey is available in English, French, Dutch, German, Spanish, and Italian.
The study and questionnaire were designed by a consortium of 7 universities and 11 academics.
The study provides the necessary communication tools to easily promote the survey to your audience.
Incentives are included to further motivate people to share their opinions. For example, for every completed survey, 1m² of endangered rainforest is protected through the World Land Trust (worldlandtrust.org).
The study is designed to have minimal impact on your library’s workload.
It provides a ready-made process in 3 simple steps:
confirm participation (here);
provide some information about your library to the research team via a dedicated webpage. Based on this, your customized survey will be set up;
easily promote the survey to your audience using the provided communication materials.
You will receive your personal report with detailed results at the end of the study.
Thanks to the unique and large-scale approach of this study, and with the support of FOPL, the participation costs can be kept as low as possible.
Participation fees range from $660 to $1,725, depending on the population size of the municipality where your library is located. The participation fee is all-inclusive.
Typical market prices for comparable research are several times higher.
You can choose to split the invoice amount over two fiscal years.
You will receive a comprehensive research report with the results for your library.
This report will also allow you to (anonymously) benchmark against a cluster of comparable libraries in Canada and across Europe.
You will have access to a personal, dynamic dashboard with filtering options, cross-tabulations, and charts, which you can consult and interact with at any time.
A professional helpdesk is available to support your library wherever needed during the study and can be contacted for any questions or comments.
Respondents with questions about the survey will also be assisted by the helpdesk.
The study is designed to be used in any type of public library, regardless of its offerings, structure, location, etc.
The study is also set up to be scalable, making it suitable for both small and large libraries.
The study is independent: the research results and data from your library always remain private and are the property of your library. They are not shared with others.
The privacy of respondents is also guaranteed and fully compliant with privacy regulations.
We handle data and results with care.
All systems are secured according to current standards:
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Secure servers
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HTTPS – SSL encryption
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Continuous server backups
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Anti-bot measures
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The research team
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Prof. Dr. Annick Schramme
Master of Cultural Management, University of Antwerp
Antwerp Management School
Prof. Dr. J.A.C. (Johan) Kolsteeg
Art Studies, Organization and Communication in the Arts; Cultural Democracy
University of Groningen
Prof. Dr. Bridget Mandel
Audience Development
Cultural Audience Research
Cultural PR and Cultural Marketing
University of Hildesheim
Prof. Dr. Francesco Casarin
Professor of Marketing Strategy
Ca' Foscari University, Venice
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TBA
Prof. Dr. Juliette Passebois-Ducros
Head of Master’s Program in Marketing Strategy and Communication
University of Bordeaux
Dr. Raphaelle Bats
Librarian-Curator, Co-Coordinator of the Urfist of Bordeaux, Scientific and Technical Information Referent
University of Bordeaux
Prof. Dr. Manuel Cuadrado Garcia
Associate Professor of Marketing and Market Research
Department of Marketing and Market Research
University of Valencia
Juan De Dios Montoro Pons
Associate Professor
Field of Expertise: Quantitative Methods for Economics and Business
Department of Applied Economics
University of Valencia
Prof. (FH) Dr. Verena Teissl
Professor (FH) of Cultural Management & Cultural Studies
Festival Studies, Cultural Tourism, and the Cultural Sector Ecosystem
Genesis... Why an audience Survey?
This study is part of a large-scale audience survey initiative for public libraries across Europe. The project originated in Belgium, where it was launched as a pilot at the request of several libraries, led by the library association VVBAD, OP/TIL, cult!, the University of Antwerp (Prof. Dr. Annick Schramme, Professor of Cultural Management), and Sento (an experienced facilitator of large-scale research projects).
The study was developed in response to a clear need within the sector for a validated and evidence-based tool for audience research, enabling standardized data collection and meaningful benchmarking. The study is independent and offered to support participating public libraries in better understanding and serving their communities.
Over the years, the initiative has grown organically, expanding from Belgium to a growing number of European countries, including France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Spain, Italy, and the Netherlands. As the demand for comparable insights and sector-wide data continues to rise, new countries are regularly added.
We are proud to now offer the study in Canada, with the support of FOPL, making it available to public libraries in Ontario and paving the way for further international collaboration.
To further support the reach of respondents, the research project includes several incentives.
For every fully completed survey, 1 m² of rainforest is protected from destruction, in partnership with the recognized organization World Land Trust.
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Additional prizes are also raffled among survey participants as an extra incentive to take part.