I wanted to take this opportunity to thank everyone who's responded to the survey so far. After just one week, there were 85 responses, which is extremely encouraging. Not only that, but most people have really taken the time to provide some candid and detailed feedback, resulting in a much richer data set than I had imagined possible. It's reminded me that one of things I enjoy about working in this professional community is just how open and helpful everyone is as we try to move forward on our various projects. I also appreciate all the additional supportive comments and interest shown in the survey's findings - everyone who's given me their email address will get a copy of the report on its completion.
A few respondents have commented that it's difficult to answer some questions definitively as they require general opinions about what is a complex and diverse environment. I agree that this is the case, but I would say that the point of these questions is to get a gut reaction, an emotive response, based on personal experience - the issues here are too large to allow me to drill down into the details of each one, and each would probably require an additional thesis to do it any justice, with a more onerous questionnaire. Further, as many have observed, the critical challenges surrounding digital collections are mostly cultural, subjective, intangible problems that escape any technical solution, and this survey has been constructed in that spirit.
If you haven't yet filled out the survey and would like to, you can find it here.
