Reporting Out: How do you use Usage Data for your Digital Resources?

By Dorcas Hand, Editor TASLTalks

As Texas school librarians gear up for ESSA conversations (and normal school library advocacy), we are thinking how to explain to our stakeholders, allies and curious people what we do and why it matters. We know it does – but what metrics can we show to prove it?  Read first to understand the big questions, but be sure to answer the survey (GoogleForm) to help us understand statewide trends. Thank you already!

Traditionally, we cite our circulation statistics as a reliable measure of our impact on students. It is always important when citing any data to explain to readers how it explains the point you are making – just knowing that lots or few books were borrowed doesn’t tell any story without explanation. Does few books tell us that there is no librarian helping students find the right books, or does it tell us that there are no books?

Along that line of thought, I note that circ statistics in high schools may not tell anything about how much students are reading because students in high school are more likely to interact with library resources in digital formats, whether ebooks, digital subscription tools including TexQuest, or internet searches with librarian guidance or independently. So, if I want to tie my work as a librarian to student literacy rates or test scores or anything, I need a new data set. That exact question is how I came to this blog post: how can we talk about high school libraries in Houston ISD?

Students Need Libraries in HISD has been looking at campus circulation as a way to illustrate which campuses have librarians, how much access to book borrowing the students have, and which campuses contribute to student experience of book deserts. In grades K-8, those circ statistics offer a bare bones understanding of a campus literacy culture. But in high school, that analysis falls apart because there are not reliable metrics in place to illustrate student access to library sponsored resources, or teaching. We’ve all seen the trends that show few high school students are big readers – but more of them ARE big library users, especially if they have no internet or device at home. And especially when they have a librarian who teaches them how to find the most useful resources and ebooks to accomplish their assignments and to learn to be learners.

So, now I’m curious. How could I see student library use in data I already have? And what data might I wish to have if I want my metrics to be more useful? What do I want to know? Hmmm.

First, I want to know what resources the school campus offers students:

• ebooks? Overdrive, BrainHive, Follett, Mackin, or another vendor?
• Does the campus have access to TexQuest resources?
• Does the district subscribe directly to other digital tools for students? Does the campus have individual subscriptions, beyond district selections?
• Does the campus have a learning management system to organize and advertise the variety of available digital tools?

And now I want to know what use is made of these resources:

• Does the librarian offer use statistics for ebooks to the principal or district, or PTA, to explain how important these budget items are to literacy growth?
• Can the campus track its own students’ use of TexQuest resources? This does require that the campus register individually under the district aegis; without that campus level indivuation, only district stats are possible.
• If the district offers additional databases, do campuses have separate logins to see local use? Or are stats only counted at the district level?
• If a campus has individual digital subscriptions, it absolutely can track the stats – does it?
• All of these “is/does a campus…” questions raise the additional set of wonders:
• Is there a librarian to publicize the digital tools and their access?
• Does that librarian manage the usernames and passwords for easiest student use?
• Does that librarian TEACH how and why to use the resources for best results, including choosing the right tool for the assignment?

• If there is a campus learning management system, who controls its content?
• Does the librarian have control to post links and access info to the databases?
• Can the librarian work with other teachers to embed these links in specific assignments to remind students that these tools are provided for their learning.
• How can a librarian or principal count the effect of those postings to better understand the academic effects of strong digital support structures?

For today, I’m going to leave you with just these questions. I’d like to enlist your help in understanding how we might answer them, how to develop policies that support improved metrics for digital resource use statistics. Here is a GoogleForm SURVEY to see what folks in Texas are already doing – PLEASE contribute your answers. And please realize that no districts have robust reporting yet to answer all these questions – and there is no identification required, beyond your ESC region.

If anyone is interested in moving this forward with me, please be in touch – this has potential to be a big project!

Get Your Key Message Across Effectively

By Dorcas Hand, Editor of TASLTalks

As a member of a non-library board, I am learning a little about fundraising techniques. After participating in this organization’s board discussions, I’ve been struck by the fact that those techniques are remarkably similar to what we call “advocacy” in schools and libraries.  The biggest point of commonality? In order to get results, we have to be really clear about our message. What is the bottom line for our “ask?”

You’ve been reading in the library literature about elevator speeches and such forever. But then this new approach – this key message grid – landed in my inbox from the other organization.  It looks  like this:

The minute I saw this, my board member hat fell off as the wheels began spinning: how could I make this work for school libraries. It is such a simple, step-by-step method to build your talking points. You can see this example is very basic, working to get more face time with students – but it works for more sophisticated topics as well.

This second one doesn’t yet have the last column, but I think you get the general idea. Make it work for you! Whether it is an elevator speech you need, or a project/program proposal, this method is helpful – with every audience, depending how you focus the supporting info and the Ask.

ALA offers ESSA Elevator Speech Examples planned by the same grid approach. I guess my discovery isn't so new - but maybe you didn't know it either and will find it useful. And we're all working on ESSA topics these days!

Go ahead, pick any general point you want to make. Take it from a general statement to directed content specific to your library and your community. Build in your supporting info. What do you want to happen after your audience hears this info? How can you tailor it even more to the specific person or group so that they can see exactly what they might do to support your school library. “Mr. Smith, please stop by to see the work second graders have done learning about turtles using library resources. I’d love to chat about ways to make the library even better.” “Mr. Smith, third grade has enjoyed using iPads to find the right books for their library research – they just don’t have internet or books at home. We would love more iPads – I think PTA might help us, with your support.”

I offered a template to the Key Message Grid at the District 10 Fall conference - perhaps it will make your job easier.

In some ways, this is just the same thing we’ve always done – but the grid makes it seem so much clearer and easier. At least to me. So try it. See if you can get some unexpected results because you have clarified your message and focused it to a specific person or group. I’d love to hear what results you get!  Use the “Reply” function on this blog – other readers will also appreciate your applications of the grid idea. Really -yes, you!

Advocacy Made Simple: Reaching Local Supporters and Decision Makers

By Dorcas Hand, Editor of TASLTalks blog

The TLA Legislative Committee has recently been sponsoring a series of free and openly available webinars called Doable Action series focused on advocacy. Two main threads ran across several library types (public, academic and school): Rallying Supporters and Empowering Friends and Reaching and Talking To Local Decision Makers. The series will wrap up on Dec. 7 with a final session for all librarians together, State Advocacy for Librarians to prepare us to talk to our legislators as the new legislative session begins in the spring- you can register now. Thanks to Jennifer LaBoon and Becky Sullivan, along with Gloria Meraz and Ted Wanner, for cooking this series up - it focuses on practical tips and resources to help us be ready every day to make things better for our library programs.

On September 29, Cindy Buchanan (Aldine ISD) and Nicole Cruz (Sharyland ISD) offered their array of ideas on how to get your local community behind your efforts. School Libraries Rallying Supporters and Empowering Friends is archived in the TXLA Continuing Education Corner for anyone to view later, and there is an accompanying quiz for anyone who needs CE credit. My favorite tip is that Persistence pays off - I translate that to mean that “No” is an opportunity to rework a request for greater success. You know that students don’t always get a new idea the first time it is presented in class - so the teacher reworks the presentation until the student does get it. Our stakeholders need the same care and attention.

On October 12, Susi Grissom and I offered School Libraries Reaching and Talking To Local Decision Makers, also archived in the CE Corner. In addition to the full recording, we offer you an extensive list of resources, organized by the slide they relate to. As we were building the slide show, we realized we wanted to bring you the direct voice of administrators so that you would know what they listen to best - so we did. TASL’s 2016 Administrator of the Year Chris Nester sat with his librarian, Debra Marshall in the library at Wilson Elementary in Coppell ISD to tell us how he learned how essential libraries are to his students and what to expect of a good librarian. And Superintendent Dr. Bill Chapman of Jarrell ISD with his District Librarian Vanessa Ascraft offer us a tutorial in how to talk to administrators so that you are more likely to get what you ask for. These videos are worth watching on their own, and showing to your colleagues - please take advantage of their availability. And if you see either admin or librarian, thank them for taking the time to make these 5 minute videos that are so helpful to us.

Links to the presentations are also available on the TASL Advocacy webpage. So now, in the comfort of your own home or office, take time to watch and learn. Improve your advocacy tools and then apply them for greater success. And Share with your library colleagues or with your staff.  That’s why they are archived and easy to find again and again.