Tell Your Library’s Story With

Instructor: Jeanne Goodrich

goodrich@teleport.com

Winter 2004

Today’s Agenda

• What is Bibliostat Connect?• Logging in and Navigation• Selecting Libraries to Compare to:

– Alphabetically– Peers– Benchmarking

• Tables and Graphs– Telling Your Story

What Connect Is

• Powerful web-based program

• Several databases of statistics

– California

– Federal (FSCS)

– PLA (PLDS)

• Tools for analysis and presentation

– Tables

– Graphs

What It Is Not

• Bibliostat Collect – this is the program that you use to provide statistics to the state library

Both products are sold by

You Can Use It To

• Compare your library to others

• Find out where you rank in terms of key factors

• Find others that are like you based on a

number of factors

Telling Your Story

• Budget preparation and defense

• Grant Proposals

• Local accountability and responsiveness demonstration

• Service planning and evaluation

• Marketing and public relations

• Facilities siting and resource allocation

Bibliostat Connect

Will help you Tell Your Story

Educate

Persuade

Inform

Here’s What You Can Do

Corona Public Library 1: Escondido Public Library 2: Fullerton Public Library 3:Hayw ard Public Library 4: Moreno Valley Public Library 5: Orange Public Library 6:Pasadena Public Library 7: Rancho Cucamonga Public Library 8: Salinas Public Library 9:Sunnyvale Public Library10: Torrance Public Library11:

0

200,000

400,000

600,000

800,000

1,000,000

1,200,000

1,400,000

1,600,000

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

Circ

ulat

ion/

Hol

ding

s

Circulation/Holdings ComparisonCirculation/Holdings Comparison

Libraries

Or…

Let’s Get Started• Activate Microsoft Internet Explorer

– This is the only browser that works

• Login

– Username and Password

• The Setup screen

• Libraries screen

• Data Screen

• Results Screen

Selecting Alphabetically

• You name the libraries, first selecting the state

• You may know the libraries you want to compare

to

– Known exemplars

– Others your jurisdiction compares to

– Just curious…

Results

All libraries in San Mateo county, selected by naming.

Finding Peers

• Who are my peers? Who is like me?

– Data elements

• How do I stack up against them?

• What if this doesn’t make sense?

– The Beverly Hills effect

• Slicing and Dicing

Results…Peers by population with high income removed.

• Statistical calculation based upon a precise group of libraries

• Can group by

– Average (arithmetic mean: total divided by number of values)

– Median (the value in the middle of a series of values)

– Sum (total of all the values for that grouping)

• All applied to database selected

• Shown by percentiles, deciles, quartiles (i.e., top 25%)

Results

Median For 76-100% of Attendance at Pre School Programs1:San Diego County Library2:

0

200,000

400,000

600,000

800,000

1,000,000

1,200,000

1 2

Circulation of Childrens MaterialsCirculation of Childrens Materials

Tell Your Story

• Grab the listeners attention

– Dramatic examples or comparisons

• Pick the most compelling statistics

• Choose the best presentation mode

• Respect the listener/viewer – don’t waste his time

Make “Wow!” Comparisons

Who Knew?

OCLC report: Libraries: How They Stack Up www.oclc.org/index/compare/

Tables Allow for More Data

Holdings per Capita/Children Comparison

0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

4

4.5

5

Berke

ley P

ublic

Libra

ry

Burban

k Pub

lic Li

brary

Daly City

Publi

c Libr

ary

Downey C

ity L

ibrary

Miss

ion V

iejo C

ity L

ibrary

Richm

ond P

ublic

Libra

ry

San M

ateo

Publi

c Libr

ary

Santa

Clar

a City

Libr

ary

Santa

Mar

ia Pub

lic L

ibrar

y

0

5,000

10,000

15,000

20,000

25,000

30,000

Holdings per Capita

Children 0-14

Combining Techniques

Percentiles…benchmark of high circulation libraries

Standardized…the high circulation per capita libraries are way outside the norm

Corona Public Library 1: Escondido Public Library 2: Fullerton Public Library 3:Hayw ard Public Library 4: Moreno Valley Public Library 5: Orange Public Library 6:Pasadena Public Library 7: Rancho Cucamonga Public Library 8: Salinas Public Library 9:Sunnyvale Public Library10: Torrance Public Library11:

0

200,000

400,000

600,000

800,000

1,000,000

1,200,000

1,400,000

1,600,000

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

Circ

ulat

ion/

Hol

ding

s

Circulation/Holdings ComparisonCirculation/Holdings Comparison

Libraries

Connect Graph

Libraries Total Circulation Total Holdings

Corona Public Library 638,190 144,361Escondido Public Library 909,992 256,868Fullerton Public Library 981,360 279,000Hayward Public Library 651,122 202,604Moreno Valley Public Library 329,298 99,547Orange Public Library 647,871 288,142Pasadena Public Library 1,554,586 763,217Rancho Cucamonga Public Library 748,001 146,477Salinas Public Library 657,377 226,703Sunnyvale Public Library 1,709,468 282,545Torrance Public Library 1,164,871 598,920

Exported to Excel, Auto formatted and Revised

How Will You Use Connect?

• Budgets• Service Development• Finding Best

Practices• Demonstrating

accountability• Demonstrating “value

for the dollar”• Grant Applications

The Crabby Council member