[Libs-Or] Tracking Statistics for Virtual Programs

[Ross Fuqua]

Hi all,
I wanted to follow up on Steven Engelfried's question posted on Libs-Or and Kids-Lib this Wednesday regarding virtual programming statistics. I would also love to hear from libraries about what you're tracking, what platforms you are using, and what stats are meaningful to you locally. We are all obviously in a weird moment in time right now, but as Steven points out it's looking like virtual programming is likely here to stay.

At the risk of hijacking Steven's thread, I just wanted to mention that we will be adding a number of new questions next year to the 2021 Oregon Public Library Statistical Report to help facilitate better reporting on (and data about) virtual programs statewide, and some of these new measures will eventually be reflected in the IMLS' national Public Libraries Survey data<https://www.imls.gov/research-evaluation/data-collection/public-libraries-survey> we contribute to each year. These changes will attempt to track virtual program efforts during this current fiscal year (July 1, 2020 - June 30, 2021), so please consider tracking these efforts now if you aren't already. The good news is that most social media platforms should allow you to pull stats for any given time frame down the road.

For those currently helping report on programming stats at your library for the 2020 Oregon Public Library Statistical Report, I'll share again some basic guidance regarding what to include in the Statistical Report's general programing questions:

*        If your library has offered synchronous/live, programs, please include those in the appropriate program categories in Questions 7.03 - 7.10<https://libguides.osl.state.or.us/c.php?g=933551&p=6729377>. Please do not include stats for pre-recorded/asynchronous programs. I realize this is not capturing the full COVID-era picture of library programming, but this reflects the national consensus for public library stats this year.

Obviously, there is a lot of squishiness (yes, that's a technical term) with social media platform stats, and what we will ultimately ask your libraries to report at the state (and national) level might not totally align with what your library and community finds valuable depending on each platform - and that is totally OKAY! But as Steven has already called for, there is benefit to having these discussions to share what folks are currently finding useful.

As a means of offering some basic help getting started with tracking virtual programming statistics at your library, I've recently posted a copy of some very good guidelines, created by my colleague Yana Demireva at the Maryland State Library, to our Public Library Stats LibGuide (here under Question 7.10<https://libguides.osl.state.or.us/c.php?g=933551&p=6729377>). Just please note that we are excluding stats on pre-recorded/asynchronous programs from the 2020 Statistical Report.

Happy Friday, and please stay safe and sane!

Ross Fuqua
Data & Federal Programs Consultant
ross.fuqua at state.or.us<mailto:ross.fuqua at state.or.us>| oregon.gov/library/libraries<https://www.oregon.gov/library/libraries>
Follow us: Instagram<https://www.instagram.com/stateLibraryOR/> | Facebook<https://www.facebook.com/StateLibraryOR/> | Twitter<https://twitter.com/statelibraryor> | Pinterest<https://pinterest.com/statelibraryor/>
COVID-19 info: https://libguides.osl.state.or.us/coronavirus
[cid:image003.png at 01D67D23.59996200]<https://www.oregon.gov/library/libraries>
I live and work on Kalapuyan homelands.

From: Libs-Or [mailto:libs-or-bounces at omls.oregon.gov] On Behalf Of Engelfried, Steven
Sent: Wednesday, August 26, 2020 11:39 AM
To: libs-or at omls.oregon.gov<mailto:libs-or at omls.oregon.gov>
Subject: [Libs-Or] Tracking Statistics for Virtual Programs


To Kids-Lib & Libs-Or (apologies for cross-posting):



We're looking for a way to track statistics for the virtual programming we're now doing.   It's so hard to measure the true impact of our programming when it's online, but at this point we're feeling the need to identify some numbers we can consistently gather to establish some baselines and expectations.  It seems like we might be doing this virtual thing for a while....



Some of our programming is live, then archived.  And we put some in different places (YouTube and FaceBook mostly).  We can get numbers about "estimated reach," "engagement," etc., but we're not sure what those tell us about how we're doing at reaching people.



We're curious how other libraries are tracking statistics for virtual programming.  If you're doing this, or thinking of doing it, I'd love to hear about your approach.   Are there certain stats you track?  Do you look at numbers over time for archived events?   That sort of thing....If we get responses I will compile and share with the list.



Steven Engelfried
Library Services Manager

City of Wilsonville



503.570.1690
engelfried at wilsonvillelibrary.org<mailto:engelfried at wilsonvillelibrary.org>
www.wilsonvillelibrary.org<http://www.wilsonvillelibrary.org/>

Facebook.com/Wilsonville-Library<http://www.facebook.com/CityofWilsonville>





[Description: Description: Description: Description: Description: Description: Logo_horiz_color_small_png]

29799 SW Town Center Loop East, Wilsonville, OR 97070
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://omls.oregon.gov/pipermail/libs-or/attachments/20200828/2bfa582f/attachment.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image003.png
Type: image/png
Size: 17481 bytes
Desc: image003.png
URL: <https://omls.oregon.gov/pipermail/libs-or/attachments/20200828/2bfa582f/attachment.png>