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National initiatives step into the gap on the urgent need to capture outcomes

Every so often a new phrase, buzzword, or philosophy about library service comes along and throws a different light on what we do, and how we do it. There’s been a lot of talk and interest in “the purpose-based library” recently. What’s that all about?

In an effort to better support library’s assessment needs, the Public Library Association’s (PLA) Project Outcome has partnered with the Urban Libraries Council’s (ULC) Edge Initiative and the University of Washington’s Impact Survey to host a webinar, Measurement Matters: Using Edge, Project Outcome, and the Impact Survey to Assess and Improve Community Outcomes, on September 8, 2016, 1:00 – 2:00 PM Central.

Project Outcome has aggregated approximately 11,000 patron surveys within its online system. This milestone comes before the one-year anniversary of Project Outcome’s official launch on June 26, 2015. Project Outcome will continue providing even more ways for libraries to collect patron outcomes by launching its new follow-up surveys during a preconference workshop, June 24, 2016, at ALA Annual in Orlando.

See how eLearning Industry contributing author, Emily Schaber, Certification Program Director at Indiana State Library, incorporates Project Outcome into the customer component of library scrapping.

Carolyn Anthony, Director Skokie (Ill.) Public Library, reflects on the first year of Project Outcome and what's to come in 2016.

Updated statistics have been added to survey portal summary reports starting December 17, 2015

Visit Global Libraries Public Library Advocacy to learn more and see how Project Outcome works alongside other tools to help libraries use impact data for advocacy!

Since launching on June 26, the Public Library Association’s (PLA) Project Outcome has quickly met public library demand and desire for standardized performance measures by exceeding 200 library users in just six short months.

In the early stages of Project Outcome, the Direct of Skokie Public Library and Performance Measurement Task Force Leader, Carolyn Anthony, wrote an article about why outcome measurement is so important for the future of libraries. In this Public Libraries Online article, Anthony reminds readers that we must show more effectively that libraries are not only busy and efficiently run institutions, but that public libraries have multiple direct and indirect impacts on our communities.

Deputy Director of Skokie Public Library, Richard Kong, wrote a guest blog post for the Young Adult Library Services Association, in which Kong discusses the use of evidence-based outcome measurement as a means of developing meaningful programs for young people and Skokie Public Library's pilot testing of Project Outcome surveys.

The Public Library Association’s online magazine, Public Libraries Online, published a blog post written by Performance Measurement Task Force Member, Rebecca Teasdale. In this compelling article, Teasdale writes about her research involvement with the Task Force and the development process that created the Project Outcome surveys.