We recently asked Archive friends and supporters to give us some feedback about our work. We invited people to respond to a brief online survey; the responses to the multiple choice questions are summarized below; you can read respondents' free-form comments here.
For the past ten years the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive has been publishing Buddhist books for free worldwide distribution. There are now more than 400,000 free LYWA books in print.
Some people have questioned the need for free books; others have suggested that people don’t value free books as much as books they pay for.
So before we publish more free books we would like your opinion. Please help us by answering these few questions. Thank you so much.
| 1. Have you ever held one of our free books in your hands? | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Response Percent |
Response Count |
||
| Yes |  |
85.5% | 547 |
| No | |
14.5% | 93 |
| answered question | 640 | ||
| skipped question | 8 |
||
| 2. Have you ever read any of our free books on LamaYeshe.com? | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Response Percent |
Response Count |
||
| Yes | |
67.0% | 424 |
| No | |
33.0% | 209 |
| answered question | 633 | ||
| skipped question | 15 |
||
| 3. Please indicate your level of agreement with the following statements: | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Strongly Agree | Agree | Disagree | Strongly Disagree | Don't Know | Response Count |
|
| Publishing books for free increases the number of people that book can reach. | 67.0% (430) | 24.3% (156) | 2.6% (17) | 0.6% (4) | 5.5% (35) | 642 |
| Publishing books for sale increases the number of people that book can reach. | 8.2% (52) | 20.4% (129) | 33.9% (214) | 19.0% (120) | 18.4% (116) | 631 |
| People respect books they have paid for more than free books. | 2.4% (15) | 17.3% (110) | 44.1% (280) | 26.1% (166) | 10.1% (64) | 635 |
| Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive should continue to publish free books. | 70.5% (452) | 25.3% (162) | 1.9% (12) | 0.5% (3) | 1.9% (12) | 641 |
| Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive should focus more on publishing books for sale. | 2.1% (13) | 13.7% (86) | 44.3% (278) | 17.9% (112) | 22.0% (138) | 627 |
| answered question | 645 | |||||
| skipped question | 3 |
|||||
| 4. Have you donated money to the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive? | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Response Percent |
Response Count |
||
| Yes | |
56.5% | 361 |
| No | |
43.5% | 278 |
| answered question | 639 | ||
| skipped question | 9 |
||
| 5. Are you a Member or Benefactor? | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Response Percent |
Response Count |
||
| Member | |
18.6% | 118 |
| Benefactor | |
7.1% | 45 |
| Neither | |
52.0% | 329 |
| Don't Know | |
22.3% | 141 |
| answered question | 633 | ||
| skipped question | 15 |
||
| 6. In thinking about your support of the Archive, how important are each of these activities? | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Very Important | Somewhat Important | Not Important | Don't Know | Response Count |
|
| Collecting and preserving the recordings of Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche. | 93.7% (597) | 4.9% (31) | 0.0% (0) | 1.4% (9) | 637 |
| Developing LamaYeshe.com as the gateway to the lamas' teachings, recordings and images. | 81.5% (521) | 15.6% (100) | 0.5% (3) | 2.3% (15) | 639 |
| Transcribing and editing the lamas' teachings. | 90.9% (580) | 7.7% (49) | 0.3% (2) | 1.1% (7) | 638 |
| Publishing Dharma books for free distribution. | 78.7% (502) | 17.9% (114) | 1.6% (10) | 1.9% (12) | 638 |
| Publishing Dharma books for sale. | 39.6% (249) | 43.4% (273) | 11.8% (74) | 5.2% (33) | 629 |
| Publishing DVDs of the lamas' teachings. | 65.9% (417) | 29.4% (186) | 2.5% (16) | 2.2% (14) | 633 |
| answered question | 642 | ||||
| skipped question | 6 |
||||
| 7. What do you think of the level of LYWA's fund raising activity? | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Response Percent |
Response Count |
||
| Too much | |
1.6% | 10 |
| Not Enough | |
15.4% | 98 |
| Just Right | |
32.2% | 205 |
| Don't Know | |
50.9% | 324 |
| answered question | 637 | ||
| skipped question | 11 |
||
| 8. Please let us know in your own words what you think about our free books. Thank you so much. | ||
|---|---|---|
| Response Count |
||
| answered question | 539 | |
| skipped question | 109 |
|