2 Using feedback from your stakeholders

Analytics from your LMS, library footfall data, and analytics from your social media and website were all mentioned in the previous section as useful and important evidence to obtain to demonstrate the value of your library. When compiling reports though, it is important to collect both quantitative and qualitative evidence, that is to say, evidence which can be expressed in numbers and evidence which can be expressed in words. For example, the number of students who requested a certain book would be considered quantitative whereas their opinions of that book would be qualitative. Although it may be tempting to focus solely on concrete statistical data when reviewing your service, qualitative information has an important role to play. Qualitative evidence can reveal information that can’t be expressed in numbers. This can be the anecdotal evidence that Sarah mentioned in Video 1 in Section 1, which helps to convey a sense of personality in your reports, and helps to bring your library to life in a way that statistics alone cannot. Striking an appropriate balance between the two is therefore key to a successful report.

As well as gathering quantitative data from social media, footfall data, and reports from your LMS, it is also wise to obtain feedback from your library's stakeholders. This might involve using a suggestions box or gleaning anecdotal information from conversations with staff and students. It is also worth making an effort to record impromptu comments in a Word document or Excel spreadsheet. Doing so is easy and ensures compliments and criticisms are not forgotten or ignored. Online surveys also offer a quick way to gather anonymised feedback. Many of these are free and easy to use, making them popular with both staff and students. Other ways of gathering feedback include organising focus groups, circulating physical questionnaires, attending subject departmental meetings, or consulting the student council. Choosing just one or two of these methods will provide you with useful information that can give you an insight into what colleagues and students value in your library and what they would like you to develop or improve.

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NICK:

It's important to bear in mind that the data you collect can be both qualitative and quantitative, so collecting views and opinions as well as crunching the numbers. A mix of both is ideal in measuring the effect that your library is having. Quantitative data is really anything you can count, number of books issued, number of library visits, items in stock. You should be able to get lots of useful quantitative data from your library management system, or perhaps by doing something like a head count of students in the library.

There are also a number of ways you can collect qualitative data. You might have a suggestions box in the library. But you can be more proactive discussing the library with a focus group of staff or students, or talking to your library committee, or student council.

Online surveys can be a really good way to gather data. But with questionnaires, it's important to frame questions to make sure that you get the responses you expect. You might think a question is really obvious, but that's not how other people might see it. so it's always worth testing your survey on a few people first before rolling it out more widely to the whole school. Of course, as well as these structured methods, just chance conversations with staff and students can yield really useful information that you can record.

The more active part you play in the school community, the more you will increase your chance of having those useful conversations. So overall, it's worth keeping in mind the school and library development plans, your collection development policy, and the wider aims of the school when you're collecting data. That way, rather than just being something of interest, you can really focus on collecting evidence of the impact that you have and that the library is having supporting the school and the students. And knowing that you've made a difference but also being able to show that is really satisfying.

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Video 2

You should now complete Activity 2, which asks you to reflect on how the feedback you gather from stakeholders affects your approach at work. Then, in the next section, you will look at how both the quantitative and qualitative evidence you have collected can be used to compile your annual report and reflect on your performance.