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Request for Approval under the “Generic Clearance for the Collection of Routine Customer Feedback” (OMB#: 0925-0648, Exp. date: 06/2024)

TITLE OF INFORMATION COLLECTION:

BLAST 2023 Survey

PURPOSE:

This survey for BLAST* web service users is intended to provide the BLAST team with information about user needs, expectations, and desires relating to BLAST services. The BLAST survey includes sections where users can provide constructive criticism and request new features or functionalities. In the past, this feedback has been invaluable, inspiring the creation of new BLAST products. Furthermore, the survey contains a question where we calculate a net promoter score for the BLAST web pages. This score is an indicator of how well we are performing, and we use it annually to monitor and maintain the quality of our services.

*The Basic Local Alignment Search Tool (BLAST) finds regions of local similarity between genetic sequences. The program compares nucleotide or protein sequences to sequence databases and calculates the statistical significance of matches. BLAST can be used to infer functional and evolutionary relationships between sequences as well as help identify members of gene families.

DESCRIPTION OF RESPONDENTS:

The survey will be provided to anyone who visits the BLAST webpages, members of the BLAST testing community, people who attend the Comparative Genome Resource listening sessions, and members of the BLAST announce distribution list.

TYPE OF COLLECTION: (Check one)

[ ] Customer Comment Card/Complaint Form [X] Customer Satisfaction Survey

[ ] Usability Testing (e.g., Website or Software [ ] Small Discussion Group

[ ] Focus Group [ ] Other: ______________________

FREQUENCY OF REPORTING: (Check one)

[X] Once [ ] Quarterly

[ ] Monthly [ ] On Occasion

[ ] Annually [ ] Other ___________________

CERTIFICATION:

I certify the following to be true:

1. The collection is voluntary.

2. The collection is low-burden for respondents and low-cost for the Federal Government.

3. The collection is non-controversial and does not raise issues of concern to other federal agencies.

4. The results are not intended to be disseminated to the public.

5. Information gathered will not be used for the purpose of substantially informing influential policy decisions.

6. The collection is targeted to the solicitation of opinions from respondents who have experience with the program or may have experience with the program in the future.

Name: Bart Trawick, NLM

To assist review, please provide answers to the following question:

Personally Identifiable Information:

1. Is personally identifiable information (PII) collected? [ ] Yes [X] No

2. If Yes, is the information that will be collected included in records that are subject to the Privacy Act of 1974? [ ] Yes [ ] No

3. If Applicable, has a System or Records Notice been published? [ ] Yes [ ] No

Gifts or Payments:

Is an incentive (e.g., money or reimbursement of expenses, token of appreciation) provided to participants? [ ] Yes [X] No

ESTIMATED BURDEN HOURS and COSTS

Category of Respondent	No. of Respondents	No. of Responses per Respondent	Time per Response (in hours)	Total Burden Hours
Individuals or Households	1000	1	8/60	133
Totals		1000		133

Category of Respondent	Total Burden Hours	Hourly Wage Rate*	Total Burden Cost
Individuals or Households	133	$29.76	$3,958.08
Totals	133		$3,958.08

* The General Public wage rate (mean wage for “All Occupations”) was obtained from https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_nat.htm

FEDERAL COST: The estimated annual cost to the Federal government is: $1,456.17

Staff	Grade/Step	Salary*	% of Effort	Fringe (if applicable)	Total Cost to Gov’t
Federal Oversight
Staff Scientist	13/10	$145,617	1%		$1,456.17
Contractor Cost
Travel
Other Cost
Total					$1,456.17

*The Salary in table above is cited from:

https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/pay-leave/salaries-wages/salary-tables/23Tables/html/DCB.aspx

If you are conducting a focus group, survey, or plan to employ statistical methods, please provide answers to the following questions:

The selection of your targeted respondents

1. Do you have a customer list or something similar that defines the universe of potential respondents and do you have a sampling plan for selecting from this universe? [X] Yes [] No

If the answer is yes, please provide a description of both below (or attach the sampling plan)? If the answer is no, please provide a description of how you plan to identify your potential group of respondents and how you will select them?

A link to the survey will be provided on BLAST webpages, to members of the BLAST testing community, people who attend the Comparative Genome Resource listening sessions, and members of the BLAST announce email distribution list. Because the application has a wide variety of user types, a relatively large sample to get representative responses from their different types of users was needed. In the past, 1000 responses have given good coverage across the userbase when distributed across different communication channels.

Administration of the Instrument

1. How will you collect the information? (Check all that apply)

[X] Web-based or other forms of Social Media

[ ] Telephone

[ ] In-person

[ ] Mail

[ ] Other, Explain

2. Will interviewers or facilitators be used? [ ] Yes [X] No

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