[Web4lib] prove that library 2.0 isn´t useless

[Karen Coyle]

If anyone wants to look at similar stats from the US, the state 
libraries gather that data. Here's the link for the stats page from 
California:
    http://www.library.ca.gov/lds/librarystats.html
Unfortunately, it isn't comparative against earlier years, but you can 
download the excel files and do that yourself. Included in these stats 
are changes in population served -- that is, gains and losses of 
population in the community itself.

What I was looking at these stats a few years ago for a project, it 
seemed to me that in many cases use of the library was going up, not 
down, and the easier it was to check out books the more books were 
checked out (we were studying RFID and self-check). Reference was going 
down, however. (I happened to think that reference at a reference desk 
in one place in the library is a dead strategy. Reference has to take 
place where the users are -- in the stacks. Ditto with catalog use -- 
who wants to walk 50 yards or meters back to a terminal station to 
consult the catalog?)

The only way to convince people that something new works in the library 
is to prove it. This means that we all should be gathering stats before 
and after so we can actually measure the effect of changes. You wouldn't 
be able to take someone else's stats and translate them directly to your 
own community, but it would give you support for pursuing changes in 
your own community.

kc

Jorge Serrano Cobos wrote:
> Sure, we can think on many indicators, but we need something -whatever- to
> be convinced and to convince colleagues about why they could/should change
> and move on.
> 
> In Spain we have a whole standardized bunch of indicators, and the data from
> the whole country is centralized here:
> http://mapabpe.mcu.es/menu_anexos.html
> 
> If you take some of the indicators, for example requests, (
> http://mapabpe.mcu.es/controlbibliotecas.cmd?idbiblioteca=1&idopcion=54&Cagrupar=Ca&comunidad=1&elano=2006&Autonomia=Ca)
> 
> 
> we can see some states with negative growth, and these are the indicators
> that politicians can use to give money -or not-.
> 
> Other indicators show similar problems, like less queries to OPACs
> http://mapabpe.mcu.es/controlbibliotecas.cmd?idbiblioteca=1&idopcion=58&Cagrupar=Ca&comunidad=1&elano=2006&Autonomia=Ca
> 
> others perform possitive (thank God) The thing is, this is were
> justification has to be made if you want librarians to change their mind, or
> worse, politicians (the ones with the money) at least in Spain.


-- 
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Karen Coyle / Digital Library Consultant
kcoyle at kcoyle.net http://www.kcoyle.net
ph.: 510-540-7596   skype: kcoylenet
fx.: 510-848-3913
mo.: 510-435-8234
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