Tag Archives: data

“Ac-cent-tchu-ate the Positive” for advocacy success

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Today’s advocacy tip comes courtesy of Johnny Mercer (lyrics) and Harold Arlen (music), and presented here by Aretha Franklin:

You’ve got to accentuate the positive
Eliminate the negative
And latch on to the affirmative
Don’t mess with Mister In-Between

You’ve got to spread joy up to the maximum
Bring gloom down to the minimum
Have faith or pandemonium’s
Liable to walk upon the scene

To illustrate my last remark
Jonah in the whale, Noah in the ark
What did they do just when everything looked so dark?

Man, they said “We’d better accentuate the positive”
“Eliminate the negative” “And latch on to the affirmative”
Don’t mess with Mister In-Between (No!)
Don’t mess with Mister In-Between

This viewpoint, along with “accentuate the innovative,” was the advisory committee’s recommendation as the platform for the new ALA issues brief: U.S. Public Libraries Weather the Storm. After the deluge of the Perfect Storm, many library advocates recognized that with thousands of other entities pursuing funding in this Era of Austerity, a positive and data-driven strategy was going to help drive libraries to the front of the pack.

Need more than a song to energize your advocacy? Join us on October 18 for “Driving Advocacy with Data,” a free webinar sponsored by the ALA Committee on Library Advocacy and the Office for Research & Statistics. Webinar attendees will learn how to interpret the latest data and emerging trends from the 2012 Public Library Funding & Technology Access Study (PLFTAS); access new advocacy and marketing tools including state profiles, issue briefs, and PR templates; and use the data to make the case for your library with elected officials and community stakeholders.

Dr. John Carlo Bertot, co-director of the Information Policy & Access Center at the University of Maryland will lead the tour of the PLFTAS study results. Charlie Parker, executive director of the Tampa Bay Library Consortium, will share examples of Florida library advocacy and how they keep it positive and on target.

Libraries urged to participate in 2011-2012 PLFTAS survey

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Drum roll, please……the 2011-12 Public Library Funding & Technology Access Study (PLFTAS) survey is now live and ready for your valuable input. Last year, the survey had a record-topping 86.5% response rate, with participation from over 8,400 urban, suburban, and rural libraries in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

We thank you for your participation in the past and hope that you will continue to participate in this important survey. The high response rate provides the greatest impact for advocacy efforts at the local, state, and national levels.

The PLFTAS is the largest and longest-running (since 1994) study of public library Internet connectivity. As technology has changed since the beginning of the study, so has the survey evolved to capture the most current snapshot of the technology resources brokered by our libraries and the funding that enables free public access to these resources.  With feedback from libraries and the PLFTAS Advisory Committee, this year’s survey has been updated and streamlined, most significantly in the funding section.

Why is your participation so important?  Data from the study will help your library identify the impacts of the your library’s public computer and Internet access on the community, and support efforts to inform and educate stakeholders – policymakers, foundations, elected officials, trustees, and the media – about the value of libraries and issues related to sustaining public library technology services. To help with messaging and advocacy, we’ve developed PR templates, issue briefs and state summaries that provide succinct messages for use on behalf of libraries.

In addition to the launch of the PLFTAS survey, what other monumental events have taken place on September 6 (per Wikipedia)? In 1492, Columbus left the Canary Islands for his first crossing of the Atlantic Ocean. In 1522, the only surviving ship of Magellan’s expedition returned to Spain, becoming the first ship to circumnavigate the world. And in 1995, Cal Ripken Jr. played in his 2,131st consecutive game, breaking a record that stood for 56 years. Let’s be like Cal and break another record with a 90% response rate for the 2011-2012 survey! Libraries need all the muscle they can gather to continue to circle the bases with their advocacy messages.

2011 Study released; highlights “new normal” impacting service to millions

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With the release today of the 2010-2011 Public Library Funding & Technology Access Study (PLFTAS), libraries have a powerful new weapon for advocacy at the local, state, and national level. Built on the longest-running and largest study of Internet connectivity in public libraries, begun in 1994, this study provides data that can help library directors and library IT staff benchmark and advocate for technology resources in communities across the nation.

Data from this year’s study present libraries grappling with a pervasive “new normal” of flat or decreased funding, paired with increased demand for public library technology resources. The result is a mix of the grim austerity, reflected in decreased operating hours and closed library outlets, in contrast with the robust delivery of technology resources that support workforce development, e-government services, and skills training for the competitive global marketplace. Key findings include:

  • 70% of libraries report public use of Internet computers increased in 2010.
  • 65% of libraries report that they are the only source of free public access to computers and the Internet in their communities, with an increase to 73% in rural communities.
  • 67% of libraries offer access to e-books, with 87% access reported by urban libraries.
  • 16% of all libraries report decreased hours of operation – a jump from 4.5% just two years ago. This translates to lost hours at more than 2,600 locations.
  • A majority (60%) of libraries report flat or decreased operating budgets in FY11, up from 40% in FY2009.
  • Seventeen state library agencies (34%) report they were aware of public library closures in their states in 2010.

More key findings are outlined in the 2010-2011 PLFTAS Executive Summary, the key findings handout, and this slideshow:

We hope you’ll take the time to look through the full report, which includes state-by-state analysis on public library technology resources, and an illuminating qualitative component from interviews with library directors and library IT directors in California and Oklahoma.

Over the new few weeks we’ll highlight different sections of the report, as well as introduce you to the resources we’ve developed to help you use the PLFTAS data to advocate for your own library.

We’d like to close for today with a special thank you to Dr. Charles R. McClure, who served as a consultant on this project. Dr. McClure began these surveys in 1994, and he and Dr. John Carlo Bertot have conducted the surveys together since that time.  Also, thank you to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for the funding of the PLFTAS for the past five years.

Lastly, thank you to the staff at the 8,433 public libraries that completed this year’s survey. The time you take to provide the data in this report offers valuable information for national, state, and local policymakers, library advocates, researchers, practitioners, government and private funding organizations, and others to understand the impact, issues, and needs of libraries providing public access computing.

Toasting our dedicated State Data Coordinators

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Annually, the Institute for Museum and Library Services hosts a conference for the State Data Coordinators (SDC) from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. territories of Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The 2010 conference was held last week in Washington D.C. The very full agenda was a mix of training and Public Library Survey business activities.

Another part of the conference mix is social events, including an evening reception hosted by the American Library Association Office of Research and Statistics and the Center for Library & Information Innovation (UMCP).  This is our opportunity to pay our respects to our hard-working and dedicated colleagues that so ably support the data-harvesting for the Public Library Funding & Technology Access Study. 

Stacey Malek, Texas State Library & Archives Commission, Maria Hazapis, New York State Library, and Despina (Debbie) Wilson, Delaware Division of Libraries.

As most of our work with the SDCs is conducted electronically (with a few phone calls thrown in), it is especially satisfying to have the chance to meet the persons behind the e-mail addresses.  Now you can meet a few of them, too.

John Bertot, Director, Center for Library & Information Innovation (UMCP) and Terri Assaf, Library of Michigan.