[Libs-Or] Project Outcome tips and case studies

[Mark Richardson]

Greetings everyone,

The Public Library Division of OLA is working to illuminate some of the ways libraries are using Project Outcome surveys to strengthen their library offerings.

We will start by sending a monthly email through Libs-or and by posting a weekly tip on our new Twitter account. Follow our account at twitter.com/OlaPublic<https://twitter.com/OlaPublic>

We would also love to hear from you.  If you have a success story around Project Outcome, we want to hear about it.  It's as simple as sending me an email at markr at wccls.org<mailto:markr at wccls.org>.

And if you're not familiar with Project Outcome, they have a website full of useful information on how to measure outcomes in new ways.  The link is https://www.projectoutcome.org/.  PLD has sponsored trainings in the past.

The Case Study of Plano Public Library in Texas

Plano Public Library in Texas used Public Outcome surveys to strengthen their programs to families with young children and teens.

They used surveys about storytimes to find out what skills parents were taking home with them and utilizing in their own parenting. Some things that they discovered were:

*        Some families were overwhelmed in storytimes and their kids couldn't deal with the stimulation of such a large group of kids.

*        Many families in the diverse community loved when they read books in other languages at storytimes.

As a result, the library started new sensory storytimes for smaller groups for those kids who couldn't handle the stimulation at the large storytimes.
They also started offering Storytime Around the World where they rotated reading books in Arabic, Chinese, French and Spanish.  Word of mouth spread quickly to many local community groups and they saw an increase in attendance and many new users at their libraries.

A survey to teens at schools where they delivered some technology instruction led to the creation of new Tech Kits that they started checking out to families and teens.  They also put informational brochures in these kits when they checked out that explained other library services.  They found this was a great way to reach new patrons and inform them about library services.


Mark D. Richardson
Cedar Mill & Bethany Community Libraries




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