Americans have made large investments in their public libraries during the past two centuries.  Those investments are continuing today and typically result in substantial regular improvements in in facilities, services, staff and technological capacity. Until recently, these expenditures reflected a general understanding that public libraries enriched the fabric of personal and community experience.  In this context, without a sense of urgency, library advocacy could be relatively quiet and focused on personal anecdote rather than impact data.

A New Urgency

Advocates today must be able to cite real indications of libraries' value and communicate them from many perspectives, including economic impact.

The intensifying competition for public funding has begun moving legislators and others to ask how much return Americans are getting from these substantial investments.  Their growing interest in data-based arguments are pressuing institutions of all types, including libraries, to justify support through quantification of their impacts and benefits. 

The library can choose from a variety of formats
to do this, from formal presentations, articles in the local newspaper, website communications, meet-ups in local homes, regular briefings, and introductions to planning workshops and focus groups. The process also begins a discussion with the community about the support required to achieve new levels of service.

A Need for Stories and Data

Advocates need to consider ways to quantify their library’s impact.

Advocates today must not only be able to tell riveting stories about how libraries change lives, they must also be able to cite real indications of value and communicate them from many perspectives, including economic impact.  The fact that the research community is now looking to provide the facts and figures that link the library to the community’s economic and social fabric is an important opportunity for advocacy. 

A Growing Field

The field of public library economic valuation is about ten years old and is attempting to give substance and precision to arguments regarding the library’s worth.  The new generation of valuation studies examines economic impacts of libraries in local, county or state settings. In the past decade alone, more than a dozen economic valuation studies of one type or another have appeared at the national, state and local levels.  The new studies are not yet consistent in their methodology or use, however, nor is there clear evidence yet regarding their effectiveness. Nevertheless, advocates need to inform themselves about the new trends in valuation and consider ways to quantify their library’s impact.

Please see Research for examples of recent valuation studies.

< Back to Top Ten Strategies

Next Strategy >