Strategic Metrics: Integrating Data Collection & Measurement into Day-to-Day Decision Making

Hello, Everyone
I'm in Washington at the Computers in Libraries conference and today I attended two sessions. The first was 

Strategic Metrics: Integrating Data Collection & Measurement into Day-to-Day Decision Making

If you hang around me much, you hear me talk about data driven decisions. What that means, of course, is that collecting statistics and patron feedback can tell us things we might not recognize through observation. This workshop was taught by 2 librarians who make it their work to conduct impact studies and return on investment analyses for libraries like Toronto, the 4th largest library system in North America. Naturally they had a lot of advice to give about collecting more data than circulation numbers and attendance. The session really morphed into what all the participants were really concerned about- how to evaluate whether what we do really makes an impact on our community. 

Basically, it's all tied back to the strategic plan. Luckily, we have a very good one that's tied to what our community wants the library to do to develop and sustain community. We've created a work plan of activities that are designed in hopes that they will satisfy the goals identified by the community. What we should have done at that point was create a program statement for all the activities that identifies why the activity was chosen and what the expected impact will be. That makes it clear how we will evaluate success right from the beginning, whether that's by collecting data such as improved reading proficiency levels or getting the job the patron wanted. And so we know what we need to track while we do the activities.

So, that's one of the tips and tricks I picked up today, along with some sources of research that will help us understand how to better design programs and consider how to measure impact.

Here's a really cool research discovery that will make you feel good and is a great example of measuring outcomes, or stories about how lives are changed by the work we do:

Reading fiction makes children more empathetic human beings because they practice relating to characters who go through some sort of trial in the book that they might not experience in their own lives.

That's a nice fact to keep in your pocket if a patron ever suggests that children should learn math and science and facts and figures and forget about stories!