Statistics and Library Advocacy

1. Statistics and Library Advocacy Rob Geiszler Vermont Department of Libraries

2. "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.” – Mark Twain (paraphrasing Disraeli) • “I'm against the $85,000,000,000.00 bailout of AIG. Instead, I'm in favor of giving $85,000,000,000 to America in a ‘We Deserve It Dividend.’ To make the math simple, let's assume there are 200,000,000 bonafide U.S. Citizens 18+. Our population is about 306,000,000 +/- counting every man, woman and child. So 200,000,000 might be a fair stab at adults 18 and up.. So divide 200 million adults 18+ into $85 billon. That equals $425,000.00. The plan is to give $425,000 to every person 18+ as a ‘We Deserve It Dividend.’” • “We need to adjust our leave policy for employees. We’ve found that 40% of employee absences are occurring on either Fridays or Mondays. What can we do to crack down on these abuses?”

3. Thinking about statistics • Broad Categories of statistical information • Financial • Revenues • Expenses • Other • People & Usage • Attendance • Circulation • Collection • Item types • Circulation

4. Thinking about statistics • Constituencies • Internal • Staff • Trustees • Friends • Volunteers • External • Officials • Legislators • Town management • Voters • Granting agencies

5. Advocacy – matching the numbers to the constituency • What category of numbers are most interesting to the internal constituencies? • Staff? • Trustees? • What category of numbers do you think will interest: • Officials? • Voters? • Granting agencies?

6. Making comparisons • What are the best idicia to use for comparisons? • Population of the town? • Budget size? • Circulation? • Collection size? • Geography?

7. Sources • Library specific • DOL Annual Public Library Report: http://libraries.vermont.gov/libraries/stats • Institute of Museum and Library Services comparison tool: http://harvester.census.gov/imls/compare/FocusLibrarySearch.asp • Libraries for the Future publications: http://www.lff.org/LFF_Resources_P.html • Long Overdue • Value calculator: http://www.maine.gov/msl/services/calculator.htm • ALA Advocacy Institute: http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/advocacy/advocacyinstitute/index.cfm • General data • Vermont Indicators Online: http://maps.vcgi.org/indicators/profiles.cfm • US Census Bureau: http://www.census.gov/ • US Bureau of Labor Statistics: http://www.bls.gov/

8. Working with the Sources • Vermont Public Library Statistics – how good are your Excel skills? • IMLS Comparison Tool – how would you like to compare? • How can you use Vermont Indicators? • What might you want from Census data? • What particularly important statistic comes from the Bureau of Labor?

9. Methods of display • Table or Chart? (Pictures good. Ugg.)

10. My advocacy to you, using:Long Overdue • From Long Overdue (p.21): • The Public thinks that libraries are critical to their communities: • Public libraries are essential to maintaining a productive community: • Agree strongly: 63% • Agree somewhat: 29% • Disagree somewhat: 4% • Disagree strongly: 2%

11. My advocacy to you, using:Long Overdue • From Long Overdue (p.42): • Even people who rarely use or never use libraries support raising taxes over other money-saving measures: • Tax increases: • In favor – 59% (library users) – 47% (non-users) • Charging for services: – In favor – 26% (library users) – 35% (non-users) • Reducing services • In favor – 17% (library users) – 23% (non-users)

12. Outlets for advocacy • Print • Annual reports • Newsletters • Newspapers • Handouts • Other Media • Television • Radio • Town Fairs • Youtube?