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Subject:Re: Finding out if anyone reads your stuff From:Ad absurdum per aspera <JTCHEW -at- LBL -dot- GOV> Date:Wed, 20 Jul 1994 20:00:53 GMT
I distributed 50 one-page reader surveys, with SASE, throughout
the 1200 or so copies of my annual report a couple months ago
and haven't gotten a response yet.
My report probably meets the same fate as similar documents from
other labs that get sent here, i.e., a 2-year progression from
coffee table to bookshelf to recycling bin. I've suspected this
for some time; ironically enough, many of the questions in the
survey were intended to shed light on the nature of the audience
and what it wants.
What the heck; coming up empty and racking your brain for a
different approach is hardly unusual at a science lab... The
most important stuff I write (not to be confused with the most
visible stuff) has an audience of 10 or fewer carefully selected
people, who read it in great detail and then act on it, hope-
fully in the way we had in mind...
