Fast Track Survey Form

Request for Approval under the “Collection of Qualitative Feedback on Agency Service Delivery” (OMB Control Number 3137-0081)

TITLE OF INFORMATION COLLECTION: National Museum Survey Additional Telephone and Mail Support

PURPOSE:

The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) requests approval under its Generic Clearance for Collection of Qualitative Feedback on Agency Service Delivery (OMB Control No. 3137-0081) to collect needed contact information for museums that will participate in the National Museum Survey (NMS). This generic clearance permits IMLS to collect information that is necessary to enable the Agency to ensure that its customers and stakeholders have an effective, efficient, and satisfying experience with the Agency’s programs by enhancing service delivery and facilitating ongoing, collaborative, and actionable communication between the Agency and its customers and stakeholders.

IMLS rigorously developed its population frame in order to allow the agency to administer its NMS pilot in 2023.¹ The frame contains over 21,000 records and is based on information from the online business directory Yelp that was then validated by IMLS museum and data science experts. Based on results from the pilot study, the frame’s institution contact information needs to be verified and fortified to ensure that the agency can accurately reach respondents for the full NMS data collection planned for early 2025.

Draft materials for each data collection effort are provided in Attachment A (draft language for online form), Attachment B (draft text to accompany open link to use in various communications), Attachment C (draft phone script), Attachment D (draft postcard language), and Attachment E (draft email language).

DESCRIPTION OF RESPONDENTS:

Given that the NMS questionnaire is completed by senior museum administrators from NMS-eligible institutions, the contact approach will aim to reach senior museum administrators when possible.

To be considered eligible for the NMS, institutions must meet the following criteria:

• Be a unit of federal, state, local, or tribal government, or a not-for-profit institution

• Serve the public in a physical location it owns or operates

• Provide exhibitions and programs

• Primarily function to house, display, and care for animate or inanimate objects that form the core of its exhibitions, programs, and research

• Under normal circumstances, be open to the public 90 days or more per year, either through specific hours of operation or by appointment

• Have at least one staff member, or the full-time equivalent, whether paid or unpaid

IMLS will employ multiple outreach efforts to these respondents, including: (a) developing an online form, administered through an “open link,” to collect contact and other information; (c) sending postcards to institutions directing them to complete the online contact information form; (d) emailing institutions directing them to the online contact form; and (d) completing phone calls to institutions to confirm or add contact information.

In addition to these targeted outreach methods, IMLS will use its online contact collection form in untargeted outreach like social media postings and professional conferences.

Data collection from each method will take place during the Summer and Fall of 2024. Postcards and emails will be deployed first, followed by phone calls to non-responding institutions.

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: Survey administered via web, phone, and mail.

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 noncontroversial and does not raise issues of concern to other federal agencies.

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

5. The 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: Jacob Soffronoff .

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

Personally Identifiable Information:

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

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

3. If yes, has an up-to-date System of Records Notice (SORN) been published?[ ] Yes [ ] No

ICF will collect limited personally identifiable information (PII) associating respondents with eligible institutions through its online form and telephone outreach for National Museum Survey administration purposes only. Respondents will provide their name, institutional email address, and museum name. ICF will maintain the lists and responses to the online form in a secure database. All materials will be accessible only through password-protected laptops with disk encryption, and only ICF and IMLS research team members working on the National Museum Survey will have access.

Gifts or Payments:

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

BURDEN HOURS

Mode		Number of Respondents	Participation Time	Burden
Web		5,250	5 minutes	437.5 hours
Phone		15,750	5 minutes	1,312.5 hours
	Total	21,000		1,750 hours

Note: The estimated cost burden for respondents is $100,747.5 (1,750 hrs x $57.57/hr). $57.57 represents a simple average of hourly mean wage figures for government, academic, and company/enterprise managers (https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes113012.htm).

FEDERAL COST: The estimated annual cost to the Federal Government is $179,651.15.

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.

Sampling Plan

The purpose of this data collection is to gather contact information for all possible institutions that will participate in the NMS. ICF will therefore attempt to either actively or passively² contact all entities represented in the population frame IMLS developed for its 2023 NMS pilot.

Administration of the Instrument

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

[X] Web-based or other forms of social media

[X] Telephone

[ ] In-person

[X] Mail

[ ] Other, Explain

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

Please make sure that all instruments, instructions, and scripts are submitted with the request.

• Attachment A: Online Form

• Attachment B: Text to accompany open link form to use in various communications

• Attachment C: Telephone Script

• Attachment D: Postcard

• Attachment E: Email Communications

1 Institute of Museum and Library Services. (2024, January 23). IMLS National Museum Survey Pilot Summary Findings Webinar. https://www.imls.gov/webinars/imls-national-museum-survey-pilot-summary-findings-webinar

2 Active contact consists of contact through mail, email or telephone, while passive contact would come through the open online form developed as a part of this effort.

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