Valuing Libraries: Demonstrating Your Librarys Impact on Your Community

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Valuing Libraries Demonstrating Your Librarys
Impact on Your Community
The New Jersey State Library the
Highlands Regional Library Cooperative
Funding and Resource Development Taskforce
present

• Morris County School Media Association
•  May 8, 2008
• Presented by
• Joanne P. Roukens, Highlands Regional Library
  Cooperative
• www.hrlc.org

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Today is about showing you how valuable your
library is and how you can communicate its impact
to your administrators, faculty and parents.
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Objectives

• After this program, you will be able to
• Define what is valuable to customers and
  funders/stakeholders
• Execute a seven-part strategic process
• Identify your librarys Value Proposition
• Quantify your librarys value
• Make your case

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Special Acknowledgement

• Special thanks are due to Donna Bachowski,
  formerly the director of the Edgewater Public
  Library (NJ) and now with the Orange County
  Library System (FL).
• Donna co-wrote and originally co-presented these
  workshops with me and none of this would have
  happened without her hard work, insight
  enthusiasm and friendship.

Joanne P. Roukens
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Acknowledgements

• HRLC Funding and Resource Development Taskforce
• New Jersey State Library
• Miriam Parkinson, Thomas Jefferson Middle School,
  Fair Lawn

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Special Acknowledgement To

• www.webjunction.org OCLC
• The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

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Overview

• All materials for this workshop are based on the
  WebJunction Demonstrating Impact
• web documents
• http//webjunction.org/do/DisplayContent?id1193

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Overview
Three steps to demonstrating impact

• Strategize
• Quantify
• Make the Case

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Value and Vision

• What is value?
• "Value and Vision" by Eleanor Jo Joey Rodger,
  American Libraries, Nov. 1, 2002
• Ideas of value have changed
• Moving target, constantly needs assessment
• Usefulness, quality, availability, image

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Value and Vision

• What it is not
• Historic, tradition, etc is not valuable
• Doesnt correspond to staff ideas of importance
• Is not about our professional values

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Value and Vision

• Not enough money to go around
• How do we create more value?
• Doing wrong things well does not create value

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Value and Vision
Publicly Valuable
Political Legal Support

• Strategic triangle
• Publicly valuable
• Politically and legally supported
• Administratively and operationally feasible
• Commit to reflection, listening and flexibility

Feasible
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Value and Vision
Enhance Value

• Evaluate each service
• Identify feasible enhancements
• Listen and understand agendas
• Recognize trends and realignment

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Valuable to Your Students Faculty
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Valuable to Administrators, Parents and Funders
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Value and Vision Summary

• Identify was is and is not value
• Examine services using the Strategic Triangle
• Need to keep an eye on trends and realign
• List what is valuable to customers,
  funders/stakeholders

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Demonstrating Impact

• Part 1 Strategizing

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7 Strategizing Steps

• Assess your resources
• Identify your target
• Become a lobbyist
• Identify what is important to funders
• Identify what you do best
• Determine how to articulate value
• Find the connection

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1. Assess your resources

• All types and all sizes can do this
• Principles stay the same
• Fit your plans to your library

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2. Identify your target

• Critical to success
• Understand your audience
• Express your value so it relates to them
• Relate value in real-world terms

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3. Become a Library Lobbyist

• Get out of the room
• Mingle in your building
• Go have lunch
• Build personal connections
• Make yourself visible

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4. What is important to funders

• What is on the school boards mind?
• What is on the town councils mind?
• What do the citizens say?
• What economic trends are in your community?
• What are the hot-button issues?

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5. Identify what you do best

• Clear mission statement
• Strategic plan

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6. Articulating Value

• Focus on what you offer, what your funders value
• Audience attention is limited, as is your time.
• Concise, easy to understand and substantiate

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7. Find the connection

• Connect the dots
• Simple and powerful
• Value Proposition

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The Value Proposition

• An offer, not a demand
• Not what you value
• Only valuable perspective is the customers
• Valuable in a competitive environment

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OR

• If you give me this
• (the money I am seeking),
• you will get that
• (specific benefits that come from library
  services).

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OR

• The promise that a library makes to its
• customers about what they can expect
• to receive in return for their time,
• their effort, their loyalty, and especially their
  dollars.

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Value Proposition
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The Value Proposition
Must fill two requirements

• Actionable by you and your organization
• Credible and compelling to target audience

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Create Your Own Value Proposition!
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Value Proposition - Example
Services the Acme Cleaners do best
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Value Proposition - Example
You, the Acme customer, needs
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Acme Cleaners Value Proposition
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Niceville School Value Proposition

• When you use the library, you can count on a
  welcoming atmosphere where you can quickly find
  information for assignments, teaching, great
  books to read and computers to use for word
  processing, databases, websites and more.
  Assistance is always readily available.

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Demonstrating Impact

• Part 2 Quantifying

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Demonstrating Impact Quantifying

• Translate intangible benefits into hard numbers
• What are our intangible benefits?

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Approaches to Quantifying

• Traditional statistics
• Outcome Based Evaluation - OBE
• Return on investment - ROI
• Anecdotal
• Data from peers

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1. Traditional Statistics

• Circulation figures, patron visits, collection
  size, reference transactions, program attendance
• Pro Demonstrate base level of service
• Con Doesnt speak powerfully to funders

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2. Outcome Based Evaluation

• Shows results as determined by previously set
  categories
• Pro Specific, powerful, becoming more prevalent
• Con Can be an involved process

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3. Return On Investment

• Common in the for-profit sector
• Shows value of services
• Pro Clear, accurate statement of fund use and
  resulting benefits
• Con Difficult to quantify benefits from
  non-priced goods and services

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4. Anecdotal

• Humanizes your services
• Pro Powerful communication tool
• Con Lacks hard evidence

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5. Data From Peers

• Comparison of your services and statistics to
  libraries with similar service profiles
• Pro Fairly easy to complete
• Con Can backfire all politics are local

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Bottom Line

• Best and most powerful arguments will come from
  information about the realities of your own
  community and your own library.

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What Data Do You Need?

• Based on your strategy and your locality
• Need enough to establish the library value to
  your funders

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Data Collection

• Easiest repackaging existing data
• More difficult compiling, analyzing raw data
• Most difficult collecting fresh data

We are going to do it the easy way!
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What You Are Going to Do!

• Gather your statistics
• Population
• Total of last fiscal year budget
• Last years circ/usage stats
• Use price list from website and select
• Open worksheet and fill in numbers

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What You Are Going to Do!

• Divide total value figure by budget figure
• Multiply by 100 to get ROI percentage

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How Easy!

• Niceville School Library
• Budget of 124,930
• Student population of 793

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(No Transcript)
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Samples of Real ROI Results

• Glen Rock Public Library 580
• T. Jefferson School, Fair Lawn 199
• South River Public Library 275
• Burlington County Library 490
• William Paterson University Library 333

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Demonstrating Impact

• Part 3 Make Your Case

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Demonstrate Your Impact

• Make your case
• Pitch your story
• Sell your value

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Strategizing Steps

• Assess your resources
• Identify your target
• Become a lobbyist
• Identify what is important to funders
• Identify what you do best
• Determine how to articulate value
• Find the connection

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Construct Your Argument

• Value of Services document
• Mission, vision statements, Strategic plan(s)
• Budget
• Other ?

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Things We Can Boast About
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Telling Your Story Toolkit

• Telling Your Story Tool Kit Joint Project of
  the Iowa Library Service Areas and the State
  Library of Iowa. http//www.silo.lib.ia.us/for-ia-
  libraries/tell-library-story/

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Seven Steps to Constructing Your Story

• Plot what?
• Characters who?
• Setting where?
• Audience to whom and why?
• Script what words?
• Technique how?
• Props what makes it believable?

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Talking to Power

• Talking to Power by Kathy St. John
• http//webjunction.org/do/DisplayContent?id8581

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Talking to Power

• Know your audience
• Know your organization community
• Join clubs, committees, boards
• Use your contacts
• Be knowledgeable
• Be prepared

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Talking to Power

• Learn to sell
• Be nice firm, not demanding
• Be confident
• Be relentless ubiquitous
• Be punctual
• Keep in touch
• Be brief

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Elevator Speech

• Important first impression
• Compelling and descriptive
• Highlights specific accomplishments
• Contains a benefit for the listener
• Its a pitch disguised as conversation

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B.A.S.E.

• Brief
• Articulate
• Sincere
• Enthusiastic

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The Elevator Speech Answers

• What do we do?
• Whom do we serve?
• What makes the library unique?
• How does the library bring value?

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Impact Letter

• Not a request for money
• Provides additional information
• Puts the case in practical terms
• Brief format with punch
• Pertinent statistics
• Value of services
• Invitation to be in touch

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Impact Letter

• Bob Watson of Lake Villa (IL) District Library
  sent this letter to his mayor and board members,
  translating the value of his library into dollars
  and cents.
• http//webjunction.org/do/DisplayContent?id8496

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(No Transcript)
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Presenting to Groups

• Enthusiastic
• Organized
• Audience focused
• Flexible
• Humorous
• Purposeful

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Exercise
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A consistent program of branding and marketing
attracts support and increases use
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Think Branding Marketing!

• Supplement your direct message
• Complementary messages to wider audience
• Specific goal of communicating your value
• Create advocates

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Who Are Our Advocates?

• Parents
• Students
• Faculty
• School administrators
• School board
• Community at large

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Marketing Four Steps

• Find out what people need
• Give it to them
• Get feedback on the changes
• Revamp, if necessary

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Marketing Asks

• Who are we targeting?
• What are we offering customers?
• What drives their decisions?
• What is their library experience?
• What could we do better?
• What should we stop trying to do?
• How can we communicate better?

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Marketing Resources at WebJunction

• http//webjunction.org/do/Navigation?
• category393

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What Services Can We Market?
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Public Relations

• Think well of us and think of us often!

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Ways to Deliver Your Message

• PTO meetings and newsletters
• Flyers, brochures, posters, bookmarks
• Press releases, library newsletters, email
• School website be there!

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Review

• Value what is it, how do we enhance it
• 7 steps to strategizing
• Value Proposition
• Quantify benefits
• Make your case, deliver it
• Create advocates and champions!

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ACTION!

• Gather your statistics
• Create your Value of Services document
• Create your Strategy for Communication plan
• Go advocate for your library!

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Valuing Libraries Toolkit
All the materials for the Valuing Libraries
Toolkit are available at

• www.hrlc.org/funding/valuinglibs.htm

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QUESTIONS?
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Conclusion

• Strategy
• quantify
• Impact

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Valuing Libraries Contact Info

• Joanne P. Roukens, Executive Director
• Highlands Regional Library Cooperative
• 973-664-1776
• jroukens_at_hrlc.org

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The Highlands Regional Library Cooperative (HRLC)
is a proud member of the New Jersey Library
Network. The Cooperative and its services are
made possible in whole or part by funding to the
New Jersey Library Network from the NJ State
Legislature and the New Jersey State Library, an
Affiliate of Thomas Edison State College. This
workshop was made possible by a funding
partnership between the New Jersey State Library
and HRLC. Norma Blake, New Jersey State
Librarian Joanne P. Roukens, Executive Director,
HRLC