WebJunction - Group: Does Your PAC Have Impact?

RE: We're in the field!!!

2009-04-14T01:37:45Z

So far we've completed field visits to Baltimore and Fayetteville, Arkansas, with Oakland and Marshalltown, Iowa to come in the next month. The web survey has been rolled out to 20 libraries for the first two week period (starting this week) and will be in several hundred more libraries in subsequent two week periods through June. The national telephone survey should start hitting patrons sometime in the next week. Thanks to all of you for your tremendous support for this work!!!

RE: We're in the field!!!

2009-04-10T01:23:36Z

Great news! I'm looking forward to learning about the results.

....Betha

We're in the field!!!

2009-04-09T19:39:40Z

After a long, unintended break in activities, we're in the field at last!! The site visits have started, with one in Baltimore three weeks ago and a second just being completed this week in Fayetteville, Arkansas. The national telephone survey will be starting within two weeks. Both of these are being funded jointly by the IMLS and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. A separate study, funded solely by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is underway as well, with web surveys being conducted in libraries all around the country. We are getting fantastic response rates from these-- the highest our survey administrator has ever seen-- another testimony to the value that the computers, internet connections, and services all of your libraries are providing have for your users and community. Let us know if you have any questions!! You can see more about the project on our web site at http://depts.washington.edu/imlspac

Welcome PAC Impact group

2008-09-12T20:55:19Z

I’d like to welcome your group to WebJunction and point out some of the resources available in the Member Center.

Help and Support for FAQ, helpful discussions and ways to contact us.
Getting Started for a number of short intro videos on WJ tools.
A User Guide which includes details on groups.

Welcome again and please let us know if you have questions.

Measuring PAC impact

2008-09-04T23:54:38Z

Inspired by Chrystie's blog post, I thought it would be good to start a discussion here. She asked if anyone had seen early instances of "information on national data that looks at how many public library PAC users there are over time". Thanks to CJ for his comment on the blog...

"IMLS collects statistics every year from every public library in the US. A recently introduced measure is “Users of Public Internet Computers”. I am not positive but I believe that the data was collected for the first time in 2005. In looking at the documentation for FY2005, it looks like they impute that stat, so not sure how solid it is.
Here is the definition from the IMLS site:
Users of Public Internet Computers
Definition: The total number of individuals that have used the Internet Computers in the library during the last year. If the computer was used for mulitple purposes (Internet access, word-processing, OPAC, etc.) and the Internet users could not be isolated, then all usage was included. Note: Each user that uses public Internet computers, regardless of the amount of time spent on the computer is counted. A user who uses the library’s public Internet computer three times a year counts as three customers.”

I wonder how and if people are collecting this data at a local level to use in their advocacy efforts.

Very excited to hear more about the study!