2014-13597. Agency Information Collection Activities: Proposed Collection; Comment Request; Generic Clearance for the Collection of Qualitative Feedback on Agency Service Delivery

AGENCY:

National Archives and Records Administration.

ACTION:

Notice and request for comments; Information collection request for feedback on agency service delivery.

SUMMARY:

As part of a Federal Government-wide effort to streamline the process to seek feedback from the public on service delivery, we are seeking comment on the development of the following proposed Generic Information Collection Request (Generic ICR): “Generic Clearance for the Collection of Qualitative Feedback on Agency Service Delivery ” for approval under the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) (44 U.S.C. 3501 et. seq.). This notice announces our intent to submit this collection to OMB for approval and solicits comments on specific aspects for the proposed information collection.

DATES:

NARA will consider all comments it receives by August 11, 2014.

ADDRESSES:

You may submit comments by one of the following methods:

• Federal eRulemaking Portal:http://www.regulations.gov . Follow the instructions for submitting comments. Include NARA-2014-036 in the title of your response.
• Email: [e-mail]. Include NARA-2014-036 in the subject line.
• Fax: [phone]. Include NARA-2014-036 in the subject line.

Comments submitted in response to this notice may be made available to the public through the internet. For this reason, please do not include in your comments information of a confidential nature, such as sensitive personal information or proprietary information. If you send an email comment, your email address will be automatically captured and included as part of the comment that is placed in the public docket and made available on the internet. Please note that responses to this public comment request containing any routine notice about the confidentiality of the communication will be treated as public comments that may be made available to the public notwithstanding the inclusion of the routine notice.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Requests for additional information or copies of the proposed information collection and supporting statement should be directed to Tamee Fechhelm at telephone number 301-713-1694, or fax number 301-713-7409.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

 

Title: Generic Clearance for the Collection of Qualitative Feedback on Agency Service Delivery.

Abstract: This information collection activity provides a means to gather qualitative customer and stakeholder feedback in an efficient, timely manner, in accordance with NARA's commitment to improving service delivery. By qualitative feedback, we mean information that provides useful insights into customers' or stakeholders' perceptions and opinions, but not statistical surveys that yield quantitative results that can be generalized to the population of study. Qualitative feedback provides insights into perceptions, experiences, and expectations, provides an early warning of issues with service, or focuses attention on areas where communication, training or changes in operations might improve delivery of products or services. Collecting this information allows for ongoing, collaborative, and actionable communications between NARA and its customers and stakeholders. It also allows us to contribute feedback directly to improving program management.

NARA collects feedback in areas of service delivery such as timeliness, appropriateness, accuracy of information, plain language, courtesy, efficiency, and resolution of issues with service delivery. We use customer feedback to plan efforts to improve or maintain the quality of service offered to the public. If this information is not collected, vital feedback from customers and stakeholders on NARA's services will be unavailable.

NARA will only submit a collection for approval under this generic clearance if it meets the following conditions:

• The collection is voluntary;
• The collection is low-burden for respondents (based on considerations of total burden hours, total number of respondents, or burden-hours per respondent) and is low-cost for both the respondents and the Federal Government;
• The collection is non-controversial and does not raise issues of concern to other Federal agencies;
• It is targeted to solicit opinions from respondents who have experience with the program or may have experience with the program in the near future;
• Personally identifiable information (PII) is collected only to the extent necessary and is not retained;
• Information gathered will be used only internally for general service improvement and program management purposes and is not intended for release outside of the agency;
• Information gathered will not be used for the purpose of substantially informing influential policy decisions; and
• Information gathered will yield qualitative information; the collections will not be designed or expected to yield statistically reliable results or used as though the results are generalizable to the population of study.

Feedback collected under this generic clearance provides useful information, but it does not yield data that can be generalized to the overall population. This type of generic clearance for qualitative information will not be used for quantitative information collections that are designed to yield reliably actionable results, such as monitoring trends over time or documenting program performance. Such data uses require more rigorous designs that address: The target population to which generalizations will be made, the sampling frame, the sample design (including stratification and clustering), the precision requirements or power calculations that justify the proposed sample size, the expected response rate, methods for assessing potential non-response bias, the protocols for data collection, and any testing procedures that were or will be undertaken prior to fielding the study. Depending on the degree of influence the results are likely to have, such collections may still be eligible for submission for other generic mechanisms that are designed to yield quantitative results, but do not fall under the current generic collection.

As a general matter, information collections under this generic collection request will not result in any new system of records containing privacy information and will not ask questions of a sensitive nature, such as sexual behavior and attitudes, religious beliefs, and other matters that are commonly considered private.

Current Actions: OGIS Customer Service Assessment, NPRC Survey of Customer Satisfaction, and Training and Event Evaluations.

Type of Review: Regular.

Affected Public: Individuals and households, businesses and organizations, State, Local or Tribal Government.

Estimated Number of Respondents: 25,000.

Below we provide projected average estimates for the next three years:

Average expected annual number of activities: 20.

Average number of respondents per activity: 1,250.

Annual responses: 1.

Frequency of response: Once per request.

Average minutes per response: 30.

Burden hours: 12,500.

Request for Comments: NARA will summarize or include in our request for OMB approval any comments you submit in response to this notice. We invite comments on: (a) Whether the collection of information is necessary for the proper performance of the functions of the agency, including whether the information will have practical utility; (b) the accuracy of the agency's estimate of the burden of the collection of information; (c) ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information to be collected; (d) ways to minimize the burden of the collection of information on respondents, including through the use of automated collection techniques or other forms of information technology; and (e) estimates of capital or start-up costs and costs of operation, maintenance, and purchase of services to provide information. Burden means the total time, effort, or financial resources expended by people to generate, maintain, retain, disclose or provide information to or for a Federal agency. This includes the time needed to review instructions; to develop, acquire, install and use technology and systems for the purpose of collecting, validating, and verifying information, processing and maintaining information, and disclosing and providing information; to train personnel and to be able to respond to a collection of information, to search data sources, to complete and review the collection of information; and to transmit or otherwise disclose the information.

All written comments will be available for public inspection at regulations.gov.

An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a collection of information unless it displays a currently valid Office of Management and Budget control number.

Dated: June 5, 2014.

Swarnali Haldar,

Acting Executive for Information Services/CIO.