Doing Library DAta Differently

1. Doing Library DAta Differently Sherry Sakovich

2. First, a little background...... What kinds of data do we gather in our libraries? Why do we gather data?

3. OUTCOME

4. impact

5. Research Institute for Public Libraries What is RIPL? RIPL https://ripl.lrs.org

6. Introduction To educate change agents who will return to their libraries with the tools, competencies, and commitment to lead evidence-based practice To offer an immersive institute on public library research and evaluation in a sequestered environment for intensive, experimental learning To unite our efforts to prove library impact on multiple levels: local, state, federal, etc. What is the vision and purpose of RIPL?

7. Leadership Nicolle Steffen:  Director, Library Research Service, Colorado State Library Linda Hofschire:  Research Analyst, Library Research Service, Colorado State Library Sharon Morris:  Director, Library Development, Colorado State Library Elizabeth Kelsen Huber:  Assistant Director, Colorado Library Consortium Leadership, planning, & advisors for RIPL • Advisors • American Library Association • Office for Research & Statistics • Public Library Association • The Aspen Institute • Association for Rural & Small Libraries • Chief Officers of State Library Agencies • Colorado Library Consortium • Colorado State Library • Denver Public Library • Douglas County Libraries • Institute of Museum and Library Services • Library Research Service • OCLC • RSL Research Group • State Library of Pennsylvania • University of Denver • University of Washington • Urban Libraries Council

8. Introduction SPONSORS for RIPL

9. overview What Research Wants Creating Your Library’s Data Roadmap Assessing Community Needs How to Listen to Your Community with Interviews and Focus Groups Moving Towards Outcomes Why Are You Doing What You’re Doing? Outcomes-Based Research for Planning and Impact Recognizing the Potential of Open-Ended Questions Digital Habits of Public Library Patrons Survey Design and Administration Monster Mash-Ups with Library Data Finding a High Water Mark: Benchmarking to Set a Course for Your Library Data Use for Strategic Planning, Management, and Communications with Stakeholders Sandbox: Playing with Data for $1 Million Results Data Visualization for the Rest of Us: A Beginner’s Guide Telling the Library Story WORK Sessions at RIPL

10. Where do we start? • What do we need to know? • What are we going to do we the data we collect? • Define successes and measures • Data Trinity: inputs, outputs, and outcomes • Outcome measures: Determine the needs of the community, best public relations strategies, reconnect with the community CREATING A DATA RoadMAP

11. If we understand our communities better, we can make targeted decisions…. Gather appropriate data first, i.e. census, local information, etc. Interviews and focus groups Give a voice to community members who you might not hear from at the library Interviews with community leaders Embedding librarians at community meetings Identify issues in the community Goal is to hear from a variety of voices who can: • confirm/refute your theory of change • provide a more nuanced understanding of how your services affect change in your patrons and community • create a shared vision and solutions to community problems • while you’re there, get some good data for advocacy Fear not! Your patrons and community want to tell you what they think and will appreciate the opportunity to talk to you Assessing Community Needs

12. Survey design and administration • Pros and cons of formats (online, phone, mail, in-person) • Language accessible, i.e. not using acronyms, etc. • One idea per question • Provide options/answers for everyone • Strive to avoid bias • Recognizing the potential of open-ended questions, i.e. What didn’t we ask that you’d like to tell us? Combining library sets to better understand the community and identify potential relationships between resources, patrons outcomes, and characteristics Benchmarking • Something that serves as a standard by which othersmay be measured or judged • Having peers who are really relevant • Types of benchmarks: state standards, the Edge Initiative (http://www.libraryedge.org) The Edge toolkit provides libraries an overview of current public services and community engagement. Data visualization • Choosing the appropriate chart: don’t use a pie chart if you have numbers/data points that are too close as it’s too hard for the viewer to discern the difference, use a bar chart instead • Simplify and establish a focal point: don’t make people work to hard to find the information • Emphasize the important numbers and data with darker colors • Tell people (for example: in the title) what you want them to take away TOOLS

13. Heading towards outcomes….. Public libraries generally still report output measures such as circulation, reference requests, program attendance, and door count, most of which are decreasing due to the impact of Google, eBooks, and the use of virtual library services. Declining use figures may cause funders to conclude that the role of public libraries is diminishing and that finding increases are no longer needed. In fact, truly significant work is being done by public libraries in support of community priorities in areas such as workforce development, early childhood literacy, health, digital inclusion, and immigrant integration. Unfortunately, the impact of these important library programs is hidden within broad activity measures which fail to convey the outcomes of such programs. Public Library Association appointed a Performance Measurement Task Force which has been working since 2013 on the development of a set of outcome measures, simple enough to be conducted by public libraries of any size, and useful to individual public libraries for internal management and advocacy. With uniform implementation, the results of such outcome measurement may also be aggregated for advocacy at a broader level. Work on the project has been supported by a $2.9 million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Project Outcome was launched in a pre-conference at the ALA Annual Conference in San Francisco in June 2015. 3 year PLA project (2015-2018) Outcome measurement puzzle pieces: What does our community need? How much did we do? What good did we do? What should we do better? Importance of Project Outcome: Measure impact, improve services, support planning, manage resources, justify funding Outcomes are qualitative. An outcome is a specific benefit that results from a library program or service designed to help patrons change their knowledge, skills, attitudes, behaviors, or condition Outcomes are generally expressed as changes individuals perceive in themselves. Project outcome

14. Heading towards outcomes….. First: Identify which strategic goals would benefit from outcome measurement Determine which programs you need to survey to best achieve those goals Identify which surveys to use 7 survey areas: Early childhood literacy, education/lifelong learning, job skills, digital inclusion, economic development, civic/community engagement, summer reading Survey example of early literacy where multiple choice questions measure: learned something new, increased confidence, anticipated change in behavior, increased awareness Where can we make a difference? Where can the library allocate to make the greatest impact? Gathering better data to create better libraries Project Outcome website: https://www.projectoutcome.org Background article: https://www.projectoutcome.org/news_posts/moving-toward-outcomes Archived webinar on the project: https://vimeo.com/134349079 Project outcome (continued)

15. A few final thoughts….. Proving library impact Where can we make a difference? Where can the library allocate to make the greatest impact? Think about what you can do for particular groups to help them live better lives Take steps to validate what you’re doing Gathering better data to create better libraries Re-investing back into the community Working together towards a common goal Our business is not information. It is stories. takeaways

16. Pew Research Center http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/09/15/libraries-at-the-crossroads/ Describes the center’s latest research into people’s library usage, book reading habits, and technology adoption. The Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping America and the world. We conduct public opinion polling, demographic research, content analysis and other data-driven social science research. They do not take policy positions. Counting Opinions http://countingopinions.com/ Subscription based service that provides organizations with innovative, comprehensive, cost-effective ways to capture, manage and measure performance data, including open-ended customer feedback, qualitative and quantitative data, trends, benchmarks, outcomes and peer comparisons. Gale Cengage’s Analytics on Demand http://solutions.cengage.com/analytics Subscription based service that incorporates anonymized address and circulation data from a library’s ILS and other electronic platforms that is blended with demographic and consumer lifestyle segmentation data. Librarians can create maps, charts, and reports that illustrate where patrons live and how demographic groups use the library, etc. Edge Initiativehttp://www.libraryedge.org/ Edge is a groundbreaking, first-of-its-kind management and leadership tool, helping libraries create a path for the continuous growth and development of their public technology services. Through an easy-to-use suite of tools, Edge supports libraries in making strategic decisions and identifying areas for improvement. The Edge Toolkit provides libraries an overview of current public services and community engagement. From operations to partnerships and programming, the toolkit generates recommendations for implementing best practices to align with future growth and community priorities. It also provides useful resources to demonstrate the library’s community service to community leaders. Impact Survey https://impactsurvey.org/ Yearly subscription based service based on the library’s budget. The Impact Survey empowers you to ask your community directly about the technology services they use and need. Specifically, the Impact Survey asks patrons about how they use library technology services like public computers, wireless networks, online resources, and digital literacy training, and helps gather information about how to improve those services to enable better patron outcomes. Project Outcome https://www.projectoutcome.org/ The goal of Project Outcome is to help public libraries understand and share the true impact of essential library services and programs. While many public libraries collect data about their services and programs, what often lacking are the data to support what good they are providing their communities, such as programs serving childhood literacy, digital and technological training, and workforce development. With Project Outcome, patron attendance and anecdotal success stories are no longer the only way libraries can demonstrate their effectiveness. Developed by library leaders, researchers, and data analysts, Project Outcome is designed to give libraries simple tools and a supportive online community of library leaders to help collect and use better data about public libraries. Additional Resources and TOOLS

17. July 28, 2015 work sessionshttp://www.lrs.org/ripl-resources-tuesday-july-28/ July 29, 2015 work sessionshttp://www.lrs.org/ripl-resources-wednesday-july-29/ July 30, 2015 work sessionshttp://www.lrs.org/ripl-resources-thursday-july-30/ additional resources from ripl

18. Questions?