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Yesterday Beth Gallaway wrote about Return on Investment (ROI) and how to make sure to get a good bang for your buck. Beth’s specific focus was on how gaming provides great opportunities to demonstrate ROI.

Continuing on the theme of ROI, how do you:

• Make sure that administrators, community members, foundations, grant makers, etc. understand the value of all aspects of the job that you do?
• Demonstrate that the full scope of services for teens is an invaluable part of what the library offers?
• Guarantee that those who have the bucks will make sure that you have dollars that you need when you need them?

In order to prove that the money spent in teen services is a good investment, it’s important to have data and stories that you can present to others. How do you do that? Focus groups, circulation statistics, door counts, and surveys are traditional methods libraries use. But, in the web 2.0/social networking world, there are several other techniques to employ in order to find out what other’s have to say about your services and their value:

• Save searches in Twitter and use services like Google Alerts to keep track of any time the library (and specifically teen services) is mentioned online. These web-based tools give you the opportunity to “hear” what others are saying about what you do, without you even asking for feedback. You can find out what might be improved, and discover the good things others are saying about you. You can collect the online mentions and over time weave them into a story that you tell about the quality and responsiveness of services provided.
• Use a service like Poll Everywhere to get real-time feedback from teens attending events, programs, or meetings at the library. As the activity is going on teens can let you know via SMS what they are thinking.
• Ask for feedback via your library’s blog. After you’ve started a new service at the library, post on the blog about the service and ask teens to let you know what they think about it. In their comments give teens the chance to tell their stories about the value of the service in their own lives.
• Google Forms is a quick and easy way to create online polls that you can embed on your web site or blog. With Google Forms you could easily sponsor a weekly poll that asks teens to tell you about what they need from the library’s teen services, and let you know all the ways you are serving them successfully.

One of the useful features of Google Forms is that the information entered into a poll or survey is automatically added to a spreadsheet. The data collected is also made available via that spreadsheet in visual form. In other words, Google Forms provides you with charts and graphs instantaneously so that you have visualizations of the information provided by teens.

In order to demonstrate ROI it’s important to regularly let others know that you are doing a good job. Data visualizations (such as those provided by Google Forms) are a good way to get that information out to others. To create visualizations of the data you collect you can also use a service like Many Eyes, from IBM. With this service you can upload

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You've probably heard it already: the public library in Saugus, Mass. is closing. Close on the heels of the Jackson County public libraries closing... Media coverage includes:

• Library Journal
• Saugus Advertiser (local paper)
• LibVib (a library-focused podcast)

An April tax-override vote failed, and now apparently the city council must approve a trash fee in order to keep the library open and funded.

I wonder what the larger story is, behind the April vote. Did citizens not understand what was at stake? Or were they using the only poker chip they had--the vote--to send a clear message to city council that they did not approve of the way the city's funds were being handled?

In hearing from citizens who live in Medford and surrounding towns, the library's closing didn't seem quite *real* to people. Even as the doors were already closed, many people expressed an optimism along the lines of "some how, some way, truth, justice and rightness will prevail (and the library will re-open)."

I hope this is true in both of these communities. Situations like these are exactly what we're working on, with the Gates Foundation marketing grant.

Speaking of library marketing, have you read the Worth Their Weight report from ALC yet? I've sent away for it--still need to read it. It's all about demonstrating library ROI. Some comments from Brian about it.

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After 97 ripe years of living, Ernest Gallo has passed on. His passing is noteworthy here, because the Gallo brothers (Ernest and Julio) found their original wine recipe in the Stanislaus County Public Library. (Side note: I like their library ROI calculator there, too!)

Loyal IAG readers may remember that the Gallo family graciously agreed to help us kick off our library advocacy campaign. You'll find the PDF of the Gallo ad on the OCLC Advocacy site. The Gallo family--and in fact, all the Gallo staff we've ever worked with--have been absolutely top-notch and wonderfully supportive.

I'll toast to you, Mr. Gallo, next time I raise my glass!

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