Project Outcome case study

Project Outcome is “a free online toolkit designed to help public libraries understand and share the impact of essential library programs and services by providing simple surveys and an easy-to-use process for measuring and analyzing outcomes” (Project Outcome, n.d.-a). It was developed by the Public Library Association, for use by “U.S. and Canadian public, regional and state libraries” (ibid).

From my reading this week for LIS 5804, I learned that Project Outcome consists of a “four-step outcome measurement process” (McCook and Bossaller, 2018, p. 82) that has seven areas of focus: Civic and Community Engagement, Digital Inclusion, Early Childhood Literacy, Economic Development, Education/Lifelong Learning, Job Skills, and Summer Reading.

Among its case studies, I was interested in a report by Salt Lake County Library Services, representing the first time it had attempted to measure the impact of its popular summer reading programs (Project Outcome, n.d.-b).

Our textbook states that Summer Reading surveys are among the most popular ready-to-use surveys among Project Outcome’s offerings (McCook & Bossaller, 2018). This is based on year-in-review reports compiled by Project Outcome.

Salt Lake County Library Services had “always known” that its summer reading programs had high participation rates (Project Outcome, n.d.-b); however, “A recent county-level push toward outcome measurement [had] started requiring outcome reports from human services departments, including the libraries” (ibid).

Among specific outcomes measured by the report were that Summer Reading participants and/or their parents:
Learned something helpful or useful - 87 percent; Increased their overall confidence - 80 percent; Will increase their use of newly learned skills - 85 percent; and Are more aware of applicable library resources and services - 83 percent.
Salt Lake County Library Services collected 705 responses from program participants using online and paper surveys (ibid). The surveys included both open-ended questions, and Likert-scale responses (selecting from options that you “Strongly Disagree,” “Disagree,” “Neither agree nor disagree,” “Agree,” or “Strongly Agree”).

The library discovered that the open-ended questions provided more useful feedback (ibid).

One of the library’s take-away conclusions was that it needed to be clearer with survey instructions: “A dozen users misread the survey and marked ‘strongly disagree’ throughout Likert responses but their feedback comments were all positive, which meant the library had to decide whether to enter ‘as is’ or discard the misrepresented responses.”

References:
McCook, K. & Bossaller, J.S. (2018). Introduction to public librarianship (3rd ed.) Neal-Schuman.

Project Outcome. (n.d.-a). About Project Outcome for public libraries. Public Library Association. https://www.projectoutcome.org/about

Project Outcome. (n.d.-b). Summer reading outcomes for beginners: Case study: Salt Lake County Library Services, Utah. Public Library Association. https://www.projectoutcome.org/modyules/48