The Downton Abbey Guideto Library Assessment

Why are you measuring?

Strategic plan, grant application, or building project?

Some other goal?

What are the problems?

What do you need to justify or defend?

What needs improvement?

What standards must you meet?

What are you measuring? Customer Satisfaction

Inputs Resources Services Outputs Facility Processes Staff Organization Community

Finding Peers

Population Budget Number of outlets

Enrollment Budget Outlets

Ethnicity Poverty level Education level Average income

Benchmarking Cautions

Old data Quantitative only Out of context Misleading

USE FOR: Starting point Yellow flags

LJ Index of Public Library Service

Hennen’s American Public Library Ratings (HAPLR)

Benchmarking Public Libraries - Easy

Benchmarking Public Libraries - Harder

Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS)

Public Library Association Metrics (PLDS)

Urban Libraries Council Technology Benchmarks

Benchmarking Academics

Deceptive Data

Public Library Success Predictors

Lower poverty

Higher education

$$$$

Large collection

More outlets

Customer Feedback Phone surveys

Mailed surveys

Online surveys

Focus group

One-on-one interviews

Ongoing feedback

DIY• Focus on

important #s

• Schedule annually

• Get help and resources

• Find data partners