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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: NLM Library Operations Top Tasks Survey

PURPOSE: The Library Operations (LO) division of the National Library of Medicine wishes to survey visitors to four of its key websites including MedlinePlus (https://medlineplus.gov), Digital Collections (https://collections.nlm.nih.gov), History of Medicine Division (https://nlm.nih.gov/hmd), and DailyMed (https://dailymed.nlm.nih.gov) about their perceived top tasks in visiting each website. This research supports LO’s efforts to assess and improve its customer experience (CX) consistent with the President’s Management Agenda, Executive Order 14058, OMB Circular A-11, Section 280 other Administration guidance requiring federal agencies to assess, manage, and improve customers’ experience in accessing NLM websites.

Top tasks research is a survey methodology developed by Gerry McGovern and described in the attached white paper titled “Serving the customer better by understanding their top tasks” (2018). It presents respondents with a list of tasks which may be undertaken from the website, from which they are asked to take a short period of time—in this instance, three (3) minutes--to “vote” for no more than five tasks, ranking them from one (most important) to five (least important).

Top tasks research is a widely used survey methodology to identify and prioritize the website tasks which are most important to the people using the website(s) under study. In this survey, display logic will be used to ask only one such question to each respondent based on which NLM webpage they are visiting.

DESCRIPTION OF RESPONDENTS:

Respondents will be individuals visiting each of the above NLM websites (MedlinePlus, Digital Collections, History of Medicine Division, and DailyMed). Each respondent will be asked a top task question about only one of the above websites. However, all respondents will be asked questions about their role (for example, patient, clinician, researcher, etc).

TYPE OF COLLECTION: (Check one)

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

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

[ ] Focus Group [X] Other: Top tasks survey

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: Bridget Burns, 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

4. Privacy Act Systems of Records Title: _______________________ FR Citation ____FR___

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	1,600	1	5/60	133
Totals		1,600		133

Category of Respondent	Total Burden Hours	Hourly Wage Rate*	Total Burden Cost
Individuals	133	$29.76	$3,958
Totals	133		$3,938

*The hourly wage rate in the table above is cited from https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_nat.htm#00-0000.

FEDERAL COST: The estimated annual cost to the Federal government is $1,344.16

Staff	Grade/Step	Salary*	% of Effort	Fringe (if applicable)	Total Cost to Gov’t
Federal Oversight
Technical Information Specialist	13/07	134,416	1.0%		$1,344.16
Contractor Cost
Travel
Other Cost
Total

*the Salary in table above is cited from https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/pay-leave/salaries-wages/salary-tables/pdf/2023/DCB.pdf

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

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?

The universe of respondents includes individuals visiting the LO-managed websites MedlinePlus, Digital Collections, History of Medicine Division, and DailyMed. They will be identified based on whether their Web session includes the websites mentioned above. Potential respondents will be randomly invited to take part in the survey via a pop-up window on the website. Using skip logic, each respondent will be asked a top task question about only one (1) of the four above named web sites, as well as a maximum of three (3) demographic and general interest questions. A quota will be set of 400 respondents for each website, for a total of 1,600 respondents.

The estimated completion time for this information request is five (5) minutes. This estimate is based on best practices for top tasks research. The survey questions are in two sections:

1. Top Tasks Question Section (Questions 1a-1d)

While five (5) questions appear in this block, respondents will only be presented with one (1) question based on the website which they are accessing. Each question is estimated to take no longer than three (3) minutes to complete.

2. Role and Feedback Block (Questions 2-8)

This block contains six (6) questions, a maximum of three (3) of which respondents will be asked based on display logic, regarding respondents’ self-identified role in their organization and inviting them to provide any additional feedback. This section should take no longer than two (2) minutes to complete.

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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