Survey design for declining textbook sales at Northwestern University bookstore

Constructing Survey

You have been asked to construct five items for a survey for the university bookstore. They are concerned about consistent declines in textbook sales. They would like to figure out why they are selling fewer and fewer books every semester. They have decided to survey Northwestern University students for this project and will be mailing this survey to all students in the university database

(1) student buying habits

Please answer the following questions in as concise and thorough a manner as possible

Approximately how often do you buy books from stores?

Which kind of books do you chose?

What are your recommendations for Northwestern improving its bookstore / services?

What are you pleased with about the bookstore / services?

Where do you feel that change should be implemented? (please specify)

Before starting a new term, how do you purchase your books?

(2) find out what is important to students when they buy the books

Rate according to agree; neither agree nor disagree; strongly disagree.

The book jacket design / and/or aesthetics of the book is very important to me.

The book should be current, i.e. produced within the last 10 years

The book should be one that is required by my class lecture / course

The book should not be more expensive than the average price with which I can procure it elsewhere.

(3) find out where they usually buy their books

I usually buy my books from the following places (please tick one box for appropriate selection)

Univeristy bookstore

Online (if so from which online source)

Conventional offline bookstore (if so from which source)

Other (if so state)

(4) any other information you think will be important to the bookstore in finding out why they are selling fewer books.

Using the scale below, please tell us how much you agree or disagree with the following statements by placing a number following the bulleted statement.

1= Strongly Agree; 2= Agree; 3= neither agree / disagree, 4= disagree; 5= strongly disagree.

It is important that the bookstore representatives / sellers are friendly and helpful and that I can turn to them for guidance if necessary

It is important to me that the bookstore representatives are informed about the material in their store

The age of the bookstore representatives matter to me. I am more attracted to buy when they are college students too

I prefer to buy in a casual, aesthetic environment where the books are orderly laid out and displayed

I prefer to buy in a bookstore that offers a wide selection of books with plenty of browsing opportunities and chairs to sit down and study rather than in a small bookstore

I prefer to buy in a place that is quiet and uncrowded.