If you've even vaguely been paying attention, you know the simple answer to the question in this post's title. People think about books. This shouldn't be a surprise. I've mentioned it before, but it's important to remember that "the library brand is still books" according to OCLC's Perceptions of Libraries, 2010: Context and Community. But just because books are the brand, and what comes to mind first for most people, it doesn't mean that books are the only thing people associate with libraries. It's worth talking to your patrons about this, about what they think about the library, because you can learn a lot.
Take my community, for instance. Last year we participated in Snapshot Day 2011: A Day in the Life of Ohio Libraries. In addition to the typical data collection (gate counts, circulation statistics, etc.), I also took it as an opportunity to do some more in depth research. We asked people to tell us about their favorite books, to write a short passage about why the library is important to them, and to take pictures of their favorite thing in the library. Although I gleaned lots of interesting data from those exercises, the best information I got came when I was stationed in the dining hall (other side of campus) and asked people to "draw the library." I got the idea from the ERIAL project, and the results were worth it.
Most of what we got were amalgam type drawings. Many people combined different parts of the library and some even combined different libraries. For instance, the picture above shows features and items that all exist in my library - a wing back chair, a spiral staircase, tables, books, chairs - but that are spread out through three different areas in the real building.
To be honest, there wasn't much that came up in the pictures that I didn't expect. Books, study spaces, computers, comfortable chairs, and building features were drawn again and again. An idea that kept surfacing, that I did not expect, was smiling people.
Perhaps it's wishful data interpretation, but I saw this as a clear sign that people in our community like the library. It's one thing to have an idea that the community is happy with our efforts, it's quite another to have such clear evidence.
And that's why I'm sharing this data with you. Want to know how your library is doing? Ask the community. Even if you just ask a few people something simple like, "What's your favorite thing about the library?" and just jot it down as anecdotal evidence, it will give you insight. I learned a lot more from our Snapshot Day than that the community likes us, but I never would have had such clear evidence of their regard if I hadn't asked.
How about you? How do you measure your library's success? If you've done a Snapshot Day (or similar), please share something you learned.
(If you're interested, the rest of the drawings and a description of the methodology can be found here.)
Take my community, for instance. Last year we participated in Snapshot Day 2011: A Day in the Life of Ohio Libraries. In addition to the typical data collection (gate counts, circulation statistics, etc.), I also took it as an opportunity to do some more in depth research. We asked people to tell us about their favorite books, to write a short passage about why the library is important to them, and to take pictures of their favorite thing in the library. Although I gleaned lots of interesting data from those exercises, the best information I got came when I was stationed in the dining hall (other side of campus) and asked people to "draw the library." I got the idea from the ERIAL project, and the results were worth it.
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Most of what we got were amalgam type drawings. Many people combined different parts of the library and some even combined different libraries. For instance, the picture above shows features and items that all exist in my library - a wing back chair, a spiral staircase, tables, books, chairs - but that are spread out through three different areas in the real building.
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And that's why I'm sharing this data with you. Want to know how your library is doing? Ask the community. Even if you just ask a few people something simple like, "What's your favorite thing about the library?" and just jot it down as anecdotal evidence, it will give you insight. I learned a lot more from our Snapshot Day than that the community likes us, but I never would have had such clear evidence of their regard if I hadn't asked.
How about you? How do you measure your library's success? If you've done a Snapshot Day (or similar), please share something you learned.
(If you're interested, the rest of the drawings and a description of the methodology can be found here.)
This is really cool! It's nice to see people paying attention and being able to articulate things they love about the library. I might poll a few of our regular patrons...I'd be interested to hear what patrons of a small corporate library have to say about our space.
ReplyDeleteWe got every kind of response you could imagine about what they love about the library - from architectural details to the quiet study space to our large format printer.
DeleteYou know I love these drawings. It's good to have a reminder to ask patrons what they think about the library.
ReplyDeleteIt was fascinating going through them and noticing the common themes. Like I said above, I really enjoyed figuring out that there were lots of smiling faces.
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