Public libraries offer vital services to the community that provide opportunities for education, lifelong learning, literacy, digital skills, workforce development, and youth development. In order to gain and retain funding, libraries should have data to support their stories of success and positive impact on the lives of community members. Outcome measurement is a process which provides libraries with data that can be used for advocacy, programming decisions, and planning, so the library can communicate clearly and make improvements to programs and services. Outcome measurement can be a big undertaking, but a new toolkit has been developed to help libraries easily and effectively survey patrons to learn the true impact of their programs. This free webinar provides an overview of outcome measurement from Project Outcome, a new program from the Public Library Association, that provides simple tools so libraries can measure programs across seven common service areas.

1. Measuring Program Outcomes:
A Toolkit for Small Libraries
May 4, 2016

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6. Measuring Program Outcomes:
A Toolkit for Small Libraries
May 4, 2016

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Samantha Lopez
Project Outcome
Public Library Association
Chicago, Illinois
Presenters
Twitter: Ginny Mies, TechSoup
Chat: Susan Hope Bard, TechSoup
Emily Plagman, Project Outcome
Robyn Truslow
Calvert Library
Prince Frederick, Maryland
Crystal Schimpf
TechSoup for Libraries
San Francisco, California

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Agenda
Project Outcome
• Why Measure Outcomes?
• Project Outcome: Toolkit & Resources
• Project Outcome: Using Results
Calvert Library
• Measuring Outcomes: 4 Programs
• Overcoming Challenges
Q&A

9. Project Outcome
Samantha Lopez
Project Coordinator
slopez@ala.org
www.projectoutcome.org

10. Why Measure Outcomes?
Times have changed, so have libraries
§ Increased need for services & programs
§ Community hub
§ Traditional measures capture outputs
§ Need data that captures expanded community-facing
role

11. Why Measure Outcomes?
§ Among Americans who visited
a library in 2012, 1 in 5 library
users attended a class,
lecture or program for adults
§ 89.9% of libraries offer training
in Internet-enabled services
and resources
§ 85% of Americans say libraries
should provide free early literacy
programs to help prepare
children to attend school

12. What is an Outcome?
An outcome is a specific benefit that results from a library
program or service designed to help patrons change their
knowledge, behavior, skills, application, or awareness.
Outcomes are NOT outputs.

13. Outcomes vs. Outputs
Outcomes Outputs
Job Search Skills Circulation Stats
Create Email Account Computer Use
Support Child’s Learning Program Attendance

14. What is Project Outcome?
§ Managed by the Public Library Association
§ Developed by Performance Measurement Task Force
§ Officially launched: June 2015
§ Project Goal: Help public libraries understand and share the true
impact of essential library services and programs
o FREE, easy-to-use process & toolkit
o Don’t have to create from scratch
o Aggregate outcome data

15. Project Outcome Toolkit
§ Field-tested surveys
§ Easy-to-use survey portal
§ Ready-made reports
§ Visually interactive data dashboards
§ Resources & training

16. Project Outcome Surveys

17. § Learned something new
§ Increased confidence
§ Anticipated change in behavior
§ Increased awareness of
resources
Project Outcome Surveys

18. Open-ended questions measure:
§ General patron feedback
§ Suggestions for
improvement
Project Outcome Surveys

19. Project Outcome Website
www.projectoutcome.org

20. Survey Portal
§ Schedule & access surveys (paper/digital)
§ Customize program information
§ Enter response data
§ Track attendance & response rates
§ Review auto-generated reports & raw data

21. Survey Portal

22. Survey Portal

25. Data Dashboard
§ Aggregate results by outcome & survey topic
§ Interact with data to see strengths & weaknesses
§ Sort & filter through results
§ Auto-populated once data is entered into the survey portal
§ Compare results to national & state averages
§ Library output data

26. Overview Matrix
Library InfoDetail

27. Detail
Dummy Data

28. Project Outcome Website
www.projectoutcome.org

29. Project Outcome Resources

30. Project Outcome Resources
§ Getting Started
§ How to Use the Survey Portal/Data Dashboard
§ How to Talk to Patrons about Surveys
§ Survey Collection Best Practices
§ How to Influence Library Programming
§ Case Studies

31. Project Outcome Results
§ 1,500+ registered Project Outcome users
§ 11,000+ patrons surveyed
§ Most common survey topic measured:
Education & Lifelong Learning
o Teen education programs
o Adult skills programs
o ESL classes

32. Using Outcome Results
§ To make changes to a program
§ To create additional programs
§ To eliminate a program
§ To communicate impact with library board
§ To write a grant proposal

33. Using Outcome Results
We are getting questions about why the library still matters.
Project Outcome results changed the conversation from
numbers being down to:
§ What are we accomplishing by being open?
§ What is happening in the lives of our patrons?

34. Please type your questions in the chat window. Send twitter questions to @techsoup4libs
Questions?
Samantha Lopez
Project Coordinator
slopez@ala.org

35. Project Outcome at ALA Annual
Project Outcome Enrollment Workshop: Simple Tools to
Measure Our True Impact on the People We Serve
Friday, June 24, 9AM-4PM
Orlando, Florida
• Free Registration
• Application Required
• Space is Limited
• Deadline to Apply: May 22, 2016

36. Calvert Library
Robyn Truslow
Public Relations Coordinator
rtruslow@calvertlibrary.info
http://calvert.lib.md.us/

37. My Bio
o Title: Public Relations Coordinator
o Adult programming
o Coordinate marketing & publicity
o Supervise IT & Web designer
o Grants
o Community partnerships
o Whatever my director asks me to do!
o “Jack of all trades”

38. At the end of a typical day…
Bedraggled but restored by a hug!
Always include
a puppy or a
baby in your
slide deck!

39. Calvert Library Bio
o 4 locations + Mobile Services
o Population 90,000
o 30 mile long x 8 mile wide peninsula
o Budget around $4 million
o 60 staff (54.2 FTE)

40. Calvert County Bio
o Agricultural history followed by rapid growth now maxed
out…Mix of farmers and city folk
o 62% commute out of county for work
o Our entertainment?
§ Fundraisers
§ School plays, concerts
& games
§ Farmer’s markets

41. Overview
• 4 different surveys
• Methods of implementation
• What we learned
• Overcoming obstacles
• Overall results
• Now what?

42. Summer Reading
• End of summer
• Emailed link to
2000
• 61 responded
• hmmm…

43. What we learned…
• At registration, tell people we will send a survey
• Send earlier, maybe weekly reminders?

44. What we ALSO learned…
• Repeated feedback about the software being clunky,
reading log not fun and not motivating so…. this year
we’re trying software that gamifies the program, awards
badges and is more fun to use.

45. Self-Defense Workshop
• Emailed 15 folks
that had registered
• Seven responses
• Almost 50%!!

46. Clean Up Your Record
• 46 attendees
• 32 paper surveys
returned
• Volunteer entered

47. What we learned…
• There was truly a need for this workshop
• So much positive feedback!
• Excellent presenter
• Concise information
• I understood what to do
• Highly informative
• Favorite response…“There is hope”
• Let’s do something similar for federal arrests

48. Last Minute Challenge

49. No Same-Day Surveys
So I printed a paper one!

50. What else have we learned?
Low impact on Awareness
• Cross-market
Low impact on Confidence
• Because people already felt confident?
• Or needed more hand-holding?
• Need to investigate

51. How we use the data?
No real plan about that yet…
Can’t wait to start seeing national data measuring
library impact!

52. Please type your questions in the chat window. Send twitter questions to @techsoup4libs
Questions?
Samantha Lopez
Project Coordinator
slopez@ala.org
Robyn Truslow
Public Relations Coordinator
rtruslow@calvertlibrary.info

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