Publications

This page is intended as an informal list of publications – on the web or on paper -  related to statistics for advocacy.

Proposals are very welcome.  Please send a comment to this page or an email to a member of the working group (Toni Feliu Coller, Colleen Cook, Tord Høivik – see Contact).

The publication list will be edited by the group, who will seek a balance between regions, countries, languages and specific topics. Annotations may be added.

***

2010

• GapMinder. Socially committed and technically sophisticated web site on the use of statistics for development. Created by Hans Rosling.
• Articles and Studies Related to Library Value (Return on Investment). ALA bibliography

2009

OCLC

• From Awareness to Funding: A study of library support in America. This new – and highly professional report – about the US is not specifically about statistics, but is still very useful for its methods and concepts.
  • OCLC was awarded a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to explore attitudes and perceptions about library funding and to evaluate the potential of a large-scale marketing and advocacy campaign to increase public library funding in the U.S. … Though this study was based on data from the United States, there are findings in the report that could be applicable to any library seeking to understand the connections between public perceptions and library support

IFLA

• Library Statistics for the 21st Century World. Ed. by Michael Heaney. Munich: K.G. Saur, 2009 (IFLA Publications Nr 138). ISBN 978-3-598-22043-2. More info
• Simon Ellis, Michael Heaney, Pierre Meunier and Roswitha Poll. Global Library Statistics. IFLA Journal, Vol. 35, No. 2, 123-130 (2009). DOI: 10.1177/0340035209105668
  • Summary: When IFLA needed reliable data about libraries and their services worldwide, it became apparent that there are no such data. Therefore, the IFLA Section on Statistics and Evaluation, the UNESCO Institute for Statistics and the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) committee TC 46 SC 8 `Quality — statistics and performance evaluation’ have joined forces in order to develop and test a new set of statistics that might be used by libraries worldwide. The final goal is that these statistics should be collected regularly on a national basis, so that there will be reliable and internationally comparable data of library services and library use.
  • Source - Full text
• Simon Ellis. Initial results from UIS pilot survey on library statistics

• Janet Sawaya (Global Libraries initiative, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, USA); Monica Grecu (International Research and Exchanges Board Romania); Kristine Paberza (Impact Specialist, Father’s Third Son, Latvia); Pilar Pacheco (BiblioRedes Program, Chile); Greta Southard (Public Library Association, USA).  Building library staff capacity to advocate successfully leads to sustainable libraries. Milan paper.
• Sandra Fried (Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation), Maciej Kochanowicz (The Library Program, Poland) and Marcel Chiranov (Global Libraries, Romania). Planning for impact, assessing for sustainability. Milan paper.
• Fiona Bradley. IFLA, sustainability and impact assessment.
  • A version of this paper was presented at “The International Conference on Qualitative and Quantitative Methods in Libraries (QQML) 2009, Chania, Crete, 26-29 May 200

• Charles R. McClure and John Carlo Bertot. Public Library Public Access Computing in the USA: Potential Impact on Local Communities. A paper for Libraries Plus: Adding Value in the Cultural Community.8th Northumbria International Conference on Performance Measurement in Libraries and Information Services (PM8), Florence, August 17-20
• Tord Høivik (Oslo University College).  Private lives and public libraries. A quantitative approach to the study of user behavior. A paper for Libraries Plus
• Tord Høivik (Oslo University College). How to win friends and influence decisions. A statistical framework for analysing public libraries. A (second) paper for Libraries Plus.

QQML2009. International Conference on Qualitative and Quantitative Methods in Libraries

• Paper 1: Stuart Hamilton/Fiona Bradley: IFLA, sustainability and impact assessment
• Paper 2: David Streatfield: What is impact assessment and why is it important
• Paper 3: Kristine Paberza: Public Libraries Pulling Rank – Statistics on the Policy Makers’ Agenda [also at Northumbria 8].
• Paper 4:  Marcel Chiranov: Real life impact of Public Access Computers’ Centres in Global Libraries Romania
• Paper 5: Kristine Paberza and Ugne Rutkausiene: Outcomes based measurement of public access computing in public libraries: comparative analysis of studies in Latvia and Lithuania
• PPT-presentation: Kristine Paberza. http://www.slideshare.net/bibliotekare/towards-an-assessment-of-public-library-value-statistics-on-the-policy-makers-agenda

Other

• “Libraries Prosper: A Guide to Using the PLA Advocacy Toolkit” (ISBN 13: 978-0-8389-9713-0) costs $45, with discounts available for ALA and PLA members is available via the online ALA store. More
• Library advocacy now! A training program for public library staff and trustees. Canadian Library Association.

2008

United States

KeithCurry Lance and Ray Lyons. A new public library ranking, coming this fall, will enable constructive comparison and advocacy efforts for all. Library Journal, June 15, 2008.

Lithuania

Case study by Ugne Rutkauskiene:  Libraries for Innovation – Public access computing in libraries

• Lesson 1 – The most important factor defining the success of the project is positive approach and support of local governments and libraries. The first lesson learned – successful and constant communication between the project group and local government requires a considerable amount of resources and should not be underestimated.
• Lesson 2 – 2000 librarians, participating in the project, react to innovations and changes very differently. The second lesson learned – such differences in views must be foreseen and different methods of spreading new knowledge and skills must be planned and used.
• Lesson 3 – One of the project activities is an impact assessment of the project. We found out, that some librarians consider this activity and results of impact assessment as a threat to their status quo, which also complicates other activities of the project. The third lesson learned – additional activities for awareness raising and motivation to participate in the project is needed.

Spain

Case by Gabriel Rissola:  Public Internet Centres and Education of Adults

• Lesson 1- Learning is easier when related to users’ interests, and adaptation to personal interests demonstrated to be essential for a PIC’s training success. A stronger linkage between Digital Literacy and other Adult education types of offer (languages, vocational training /labour market insertion, entrepreneurship/self employment, socio-cultural promotion or integration, etc.) would help attract the interest of people who are still e-illiterate.
• Lesson 2 – There is an important lack of PIC personnel’s preparation to deal with the social, cultural, ethnic or religious characteristics of the audiences coming to the centres (while the same does not apply as regards to technical aspects) as well as a lack of training material adapted to specific needs.
• Lesson 3 – Remarkable conclusions from the Prague workshop:
  - what really makes an impact on the quality of the offered service is the level of adequate preparation this staff member achieves.
  - the Spanish “Dinamizador” role could be exported and adapted to other regional contexts in Europe. It was judged to be a very complete and balanced role that can deal with the diversity of PICs’ mandates and activities, and most importantly, its focus on promoting users’ participation and involvement as well as providing the link with the local context, were evaluated as valuable approaches to be adopted at a broader scale.
  - A lot of centres do not take advantage of the possibilities that e-learning provides to favour and accelerate the learning process
• By joining previous results, we can imagine that PIC staff in the future will be specialised in socio-cultural animation, capable of attracting users and keeping them interested in the whole learning process (not only in ICT), and they would also be specialised in blended learning processes to provide users with pedagogical assistance or guidance that could help users learn to learn.

Brazil

• Ribeiro, Alexsander Borges. Bibliotecas públicas do Brasil: passado, presente e futuro

2007

IFLA

• IFLA/ISO/UNESCO Institute for Statistics. The 2007 International Library Survey in Latin America and the Carribean [sic!]

Northumbria 7

• Tord Høivik (Oslo University College). Numbers that count: Selecting and using service indicators for public library development.
  • Materials for a workshop at the 7th Northumbria International Conference  on Performance Measurement in Libraries and Information Services,  Spier Wine Estate, Stellenbosch, South Africa, August 13-16, 2007

2006

• Markless, Sharon and Streatfield, David.  Evaluating the impact of your library.  London: Facet, 2006.
  • xviii, 170 p. ISBN 01-85604-488-2. £39.95. Review in Information research.

2005

• Impact Evaluation of the “Biblioredes Abre tu Mundo” Project. September 2005.
  • Important study on the impact of a computers & training program in Chile.
• IFAD – A guide for projects monitoring and evaluation.
  • Very useful in the South

IFLA satellite, Bergen

• Tord Høivik (Oslo University College):  Comparing libraries. From official statistics to effective strategies.

2004

IFLA, Buenos Aires

• Pierre Meunier (Montreal Public Library, Montreal, Canada).  Development of Québec public libraries: Profile of the standardization process at Montreal Public libraries System.
• Toni Feliu and Jordi Permanyer (Servei de Biblioteca, Diputació de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain). How statistics and indicators can help improve the libraries: the case of the libraries network of the province of Barcelona
• Christina Jonsson Adrial (Royal Library of Sweden, Stockholm, Sweden) and Johan Edgreb (Public library of Hisingen, Gothenburg, Sweden). Together we shape better libraries. The Swedish Quality Handbook Project.
• Analía Canibano and Patricia Bargero (Public Library ‘Domingo F. Sarmiento’, General Villegas, Buenos Aires, Argentina). The Never People: reaching out to non-users in our communities
• David Fuegi (MDR Partners, Colchester, UK). Recent developments in the application of statistics, standards and performance indicators in public libraries in England.

2003

• Theresa Hackett. Global library statistics 1990-2000
  • This is a first attempt to provide a snapshot of the world’s libraries. The compilation of accurate, up-to-date and reliable statistics on a global level involves combining data from two sources, UNESCO and Libecon.
  • The availability of global data lags behind that of nationally available statistics. Although international standards on library statistics (ISO 2789) and performance indicators (ISO 11620) are used internationally, not all countries collect the same data or include the same sectors. This inevitably leads to gaps in country data and sometimes whole sectors e.g. registered users for school libraries.
  • New media and electronic services are largely underrepresented, as the data is often not available. As data collection criteria evolve to take ICTs into account and as international standards are updated, it should be possible in future to obtain global statistical information on the role of libraries in the information society. For now, we can provide some regional data.
  • The value of statistics is as an advocacy and lobby tool to illustrate to policy-makers, politicians and partners how libraries provide access to our cultural and scientific heritage; contribute to the development of the knowledge economy; support the democratic process; help bridge the digital divide; support lifelong literacy; represent good value for money. Data in the tables has been converted into a selection of Fast Facts for re-use and comparison.

2002

• Iddo Gal (University of Haifa, Israel). Adults’ Statistical Literacy: Meanings, Components, Responsibilities.
  • Excellent paper on statistical literacy (2002) http://www.stat.auckland.ac.nz/~iase/publications/isr/02.Gal.pdf

2001

• Beatrice Catinella – Marina Corbolante – Maria Antonia Romeo. Indicatori di performance per biblioteche di ateneo: un esperimento di descrizione statistica e un approccio alla valutazione presso l’Università di Padova.
  • In appendice un saggio di Marina Duzzin. Roma: AIB, 2001.109 p. ISBN 88-7812-072-3. L. 25.000, EURO 12,91.
  • The University Centre for Libraries of Padua University, in a constant attempt to maintain a high quality of library services, has been collecting systematic records on the university libraries for over a decade. A massive project of statistic validation of records has recebtly been carried out. This has led to the revision of the monitoring methods and to a first attempt at applying performance indicators. In particular, the following areas have been examined: physical accessibility to the libraries, availability of services, vitality of the bibliographic collections and the efficiency of investiments. The report explains the methodological spects of the work undertaken, gives a brief statistical description of the general data of the University, reports the indicators used with their relative scores and the overall quality index, and finally attempts an evaluation.

2000

• Alan Bundy. Best value: Libraries. ALIA 2000. Proceedings.
  • This overview has four parts. The first reviews the only national think tank on library statistics¹, held in September 1990 – just ten years ago. The second examines the overall state of library statistics in Australia. The third considers how well library statistics have been used for demonstration of libraries as best value investments by society, educational institutions, governments and businesses. Finally, areas requiring attention if libraries are to reinforce their claims on better funding and support in the 21st century are specified.

1996

• Yan Quan Liu. A Comparative Study of National Public Library Statistical Systems and Management in The United States and People’s Republic of China.
  • 62nd IFLA General Conference – Conference Proceedings – August 25-31, 1996