Statistics: Why and What Do We Count AND Does It Matter?
We are all trying to show that the library and its resources are being used. Online usage statistics offer us a pretty direct and easy way to show how electronic resources are being used. Yet, people are using more than just the electronic resources in the library. Librarians are being asked more complex questions or are required to different jobs than they once were. Many librarians collect gate counts, circulation statistics, and tick marks at the reference desk to try to illustrate to the administration that the library is being used.
However, in a recent podcast from Thinking Out Loud, George Needham and Joan Frye Williams have an interesting discussion with Jennifer Baker, Director of St. Helena Public Library, regarding our collections of statistics. Specifically, are we actually measuring real things we do and how relevant are those numbers?
posted by The Krafty Librarian @ 6:42 PM
2 comments
2 Comments:
I was hoping I wouldn't be the first to comment, but I'll dive in - Thanks for posting this. This is a conversation I've had several times with other medical librarians. One thing I do is create a top ten list of the electronic journals and electronic books. This also works as a marketing strategy to remind people we have these resources, and also hope it gets some staff to explore what else we offer. Our staff has recently discussed going back to publishing an annual report to send to Med Exec committees, and nurse managers, and others. But that brings us back to - what do we report?
I'm hoping others will share what they are doing to demonstrate their value - isn't that why we collect the stats?
Why is the data not making a difference or not making a big enough difference? Is it really because we are tracking the wrong data? I liked what the commentators said about tracking what we are good at and capturing the more qualitative aspects of what we do. But we do that as well. Many of us, me included, keep the nice notes and presents given, etc… But showing the hospital board pictures of the dozens of thank you cards and gifts I get every year isn’t going to persuade them to increase my budget. I tried it already.
I met an ex-hospital librarian at MLA who did a great job proving the value of her library through stats and other data, but all her staff was still cut. And while she feels that her work kept her library open - it makes me ask if a library that is underfunded and understaffed should even be open. It seems unfair to the person left doing the work of several people.
When I ask for help from more seasoned librarians and administrators, the answer that comes back almost always requires me to measure and track something else. I could almost work full-time doing nothing but tracking stats and measuring impact.
I collect all kinds of stats, track usage of my website, and conduct patron satisfaction and benchmarking studies on a regular basis. My data proves that the services at my library are used heavily, that patrons want and need more, and that my library is underfunded and understaffed by 2/3. I did achieve a 20% budget increase last year but have not been able to achieve any further positive change. I realize that patience may be required but it is hard to be patient when the bloom of being a new librarian is beginning to wear off.
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