President Signs Museum & Library Services of Act of 2010

New Emphasis on Policy Research, Analysis, and Data Collection

Last week President Obama signed the Museum and Library Services Act of 2010. This updates the 2003 amendments to the original Museum and Library Services Act of 1996, which established the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). You can see IMLS's take on these newest changes to this law here.

In the 2010 Act the title of Section 210 changed from "Analysis of Impact of Museum and Library Services" to "Policy Research, Analysis, Data Collection, and Dissemination." Section 210 in the 2003 Act required IMLS to determine needs for, trends in, and impact and effectiveness of museum and library services and programs funded by IMLS. In the 2010 Act the section specifies that these objectives be accomplished by means of policy research, analysis, and data collection. The 2010 Act also broadens the focus of these activities to all services provided by museums and libraries "throughout the United States" whether or not these are federally funded.

Conference Paper on Truth-Telling in Library Advocacy

Call for Founding of the Flat Venus Society in Library Assessment

I presented a paper at the Library Assessment Conference held in Baltimore this week. The paper has the rather long-winded title, Truth-Telling and Survey Methods in Library Advocacy Research: A Call for the Founding of the Flat Venus Society in Library Assessment. (Click on the title to view the preprint.)

Let me explain the "Flat Venus Society" connection: In 1992 the Magellan space probe transmitted photographic images of the surface of Venus to earth. Prior to releasing the images to the public, NASA artists altered them for dramatic effect. The magnification and scaling they used made Venus appear to be a mountainous planet when, in reality, it is mostly flat. This provoked NASA scientist David Morrison to speak out. In a planetary science journal he announced the formation of The Flat Venus Society with a mission to set the record straight about the planet.

National library advocacy organizations in the US seem to take the same tack as NASA public relations specialists did, exaggerating the content of advocacy studies in hopes of convincing the public to accept these exaggerations as factual. My paper promotes fair, accurate, and reasonable portrayals of library advocacy research findings.

I welcome any comments on the paper: Email me at raylyons@gmail.com

LJ Index Ratings Round 3 Issued

Article Explores Year-to-Year Reporting Changes

The on-time release of US public library statistics by IMLS enabled Keith Curry Lance and me to publish the third edition of the Library Journal Index of Public Library Service one month earlier. The prior edition was published last November.

The ratings are issued annually to recognize libraries whose levels of service provision excel among their peers. The ratings are simply conceived, consisting of four per capita measures: visits, circulation, program attendance, and users of public Internet computers. Ratings results include these four measures along with each library's LJ Index score to allow first-hand comparisons of a library's data with that of their peers.

The LJ Index ratings compare each library's data to averages (scroll down to the 2nd table ) for their peer group. Edition-to-edition score changes will reflect both changes in reported measures and in the peer groups themselves. With each ratings edition more libraries qualify for inclusion (7,407 this round).

Take a look at the FAQ and especially item #9. No library ratings based on standard library statistics (as all library ratings are!) can measure excellence, quality, value, or effectiveness. Also check out these interactive graphs of the 2010 ratings data I created using Tableau Public Software.

New Report on Methods for Determining Library Value

Released by ACRL

The Association of College and Research Libraries just published Value of Academic Libraries: A Comprehensive Research Review and Report. ACRL describes the study, prepared by Megan Oakleaf of Syracuse University, as "a review of the quantitative and qualitative literature, methodologies and best practices currently in place for demonstrating the value of academic libraries."

The study's scope is quite comprehensive. Because the topic is value, the core focus of evaluation, a range of topics relevant to assessment and evaluation are addressed. And material pertaining to all library types—academic, research, public, special, and school libraries—is included.

The report conclusion puts the onus on libraries to first define legitimate outcomes upon which arguments for value can be based. And it recommends the use of "assessment management" software systems to facilitate that task at hand.  

New Charts Depict 2008 IMLS Data for ULC Libraries

Created from Tableau Public Data Visualization Software

I recently began learning Tableau Public, data visualization software freely available from Tableau Software. Freely, that is, as long as you don't mind storing both your chart designs and your datasets on Tableau Software's servers. And allowing anyone to download these and 'enhance' them to their heart's content. Server storage is limited to 50MB per user or organization.

I used IMLS 2008 data for members of the Urban Library Council in order to experiment with charting formats suitable for smaller, more handleable datasets.  (Working with the giant aggregated library datasets presents its own challenges, and it is refreshing to be able to set these aside.  I did produce some charts to 'chip away' at  the IMLS public library data, visible in my recent blog entry.)

The results of my efforts are available here and also accesible via the Articles/Reports menu link above.  I used two styles of charts to depict the ULC dataset I created—horizontal bar charts and 'scatterplots'. An introduction page (the 'here' link in the opening of this paragraph) gives all the details.

IMLS Issues 2008 Public Libraries Report

The Institute of Museum and Library Services just released Public Libraries Survey: Fiscal Year 2008, the report that accompanies survey data from the Institute's annual census of U.S. public libraries. The document summarizes 2008 library statistics from 50 states, the District of Columbia, and outlying territories. As with past years, the report presents dozens of cross-tablulation tables of library expenditures, staffing, collection, and services data by state, service area population, and other variables.

Compared with the 2007 report, this edition expands the number of charts depicting multi-year trends for key library statistical measures (see the Introduction section).

Public Library Funding & Internet Access Survey Released

2009-2010 Edition

This week the American Library Association (ALA) released Libraries Connect Communities 4: Public Library Funding & Technology Access Study 2009-2010, the 4th report from a multi-year survey program funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

The reports focus on access to public libary computing resources and services, connection speeds, WIFI availabilty, training classes offered, and so on. Due to the current economic recession, this latest edition emphasizes access to e-government services and job-searching resources via libraries.

Data on funding trends are also reported including budget changes libraries anticpate for 2011. As with prior years' reports, the study concludes that, although the levels of public access technology services have increased steadily, demand outstrips supply.

2008 Public Library Data Files Released

IMLS Meets Annual Deadline

The Institute of Museum & Library Services (IMLS) has released the 2008 public library public use data files. IMLS has been successful in staying on schedule with this annual release. In April the 2008 data were made available for searching using the Compare Public Libraries feature accessible on the IMLS website.

As with prior editions of the federal data, state definitions for an operational year differ. 13 states use the calendar year, 22 states use July through June of the subsequent year, and the remaining states some other definiton.

Beginning with the 2007 data released in 2009, the data file inclused geographical information system (GIS) fields (longitude, latitude) census tract and block, and U.S. Congressional District. This year the survey added another field, locale, to indicate whether libraries are located in cities, towns, suburbs or rural areas. The town and rural designations are also categorized as 'fringe', 'distant', and 'remote'.

The IMLS public library data files are the most comprehensive collection of U.S. public library statistics available. The FY 2008 Public Library Survey is expected to be published by IMLS next month.

New Report on Benefits of Public Library Internet Access

Billed as 'First-Ever' National Study

Last month the first installment of a multi-year research project conducted by the University of Washington, Opportunity for All: How the Public Benefits from Internet Access at U.S. Libraries, was released. The research, funded by IMLS and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, describes access to the Internet as a "core service" that the American public "relies on" for both "life-changing and routine" purposes. Researchers report 45% of all library visitors use Internet access provided by libraries. At the same time, public library Internet access is portrayed as crucial for ameliorating inequities of the "digital divide." The study found that about the same amount (44%) of families living below the federal poverty line use this access.

Publicity for the 109-page report describes the research as "the first-ever" national study of public library Internet access use and users. More information is available here.

You can also read this critique I wrote about a chart appearing in Chapter 2 of the report.

New IMLS Report on State Library Agency Revenues, Expenditures & Service Trends

2004 to 2008 Revenues Flat

This month IMLS released State Library Agency Service Trends: 1999 - 2008. The 10-page IMLS Research Brief Number 2 presents several charts describing state library agency statistical trends, including total revenues, expenditures and programming in areas such as services to "hard to serve populations", reading and literacy programs, database licensing, and so on.

The brief reports that library agencies in all 50 states offer access to centralized directories, databases, and online catalogs via the Internet. State-level funding support for Internet access, however, has decreased. In 2008 58% of state library agencies reported providing funding for Internet access, compared to 82% in 1999.

The authors argue that since state library agency administrative costs have remained roughly stable for the past ten years, revenue decreases or increases directly affect levels of public library support. They also predict that state level revenue shortfalls will lead to a decrease in the quality of local library services.

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