2009 Florence

How to win friends and influence decisions

The paper describes twenty-six useful indicators that can be derived from the KOSTRA data bank, which publishes standardized information on all public libraries in Norway on an annual basis.

In support of the paper I have published a full set of indicator values covering 2007 and 2008 as Google Docs spreadsheets. The data on which the values are based are also included.

• How to win friends and influence decisions. Summary of the paper on the blog Plinius.
• Slide presentation  on Google Docs
• How to win friends and influence decisions. A statistical framework for analysing public libraries. Full paper on Google Docs.
• Data sets are available through Plinius Data: Norway:
  • 2007 KOSTRA data with indicators for public libraries. Norway. Municipalities.
  • 2008 KOSTRA data with indicators for public libraries. Norway. Municipalities

 

Private lives and public libraries

The paper describes eight indicators on user behavior that can be derived from Count The Traffic (CTT) – a standardized method for gathering observational data in libraries. A data set covering twenty public libraries in 2008 and 2009 has been published.

• Private lives and public libraries. Summary of the paper on the blog Plinius.
• Slide presentation on Google Docs. 
• Private lives and public libraries. A quantitative approach to the study of user behavior. Full paper on Google Docs.
• Data sets are available through Plinius Data: Norway:
  • Patterns of activity, Public libraries. Norway. 2008-2009
• Count The Traffic. Home page.

Plinius

• Plinius on statistics. A register of blog posts in English.

Background

The people who count in library statistics – pun intended – often attend the biannual Northumbria International Conference on Performance Measurement in Libraries and Information Services series.

This year the conference will be held in Florence, from August 17 to 20. Its proper name is Libraries Plus: Adding Value in the Cultural Community. It is the 8th in the series – coded PM8. Useful for hashtags.

I’m presenting two papers. Both deal with public library indicators based on data that are

1. collected by the Norwegian government (How to win friends and influence decisions)
2. or relatively easy to gather by systematic observation (Private lives and public libraries)