LONGITUDE II
Library Networking Impact Toolkit for a User-Driven Environment
A project funded by MLA: the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council
The enormous increase in ICT-based services provided by public libraries, supported by major national policies and by significant funding streams, is undoubtedly having an impact on end-users - a video presentation by the People’s Network team in 2001 made the point well by suggesting some of the ways in which individuals’ lives might be changed by contact with the ICT-enabled public library service, and that early suggestion is now being backed up by hard evidence from users across the country. However, systematic assessment of the impact of IT-based services is by no means straightforward, and a number of studies have therefore been undertaken to try to elucidate significant impact indicators. In particular, the VITAL Project, undertaken by CERLIM, provided a toolkit of techniques to enable a ‘snapshot’ of impact to be assessed. Longitude is designed to extend this to longitudinal assessment so that changes over time can be assessed.
The Longitude II Project ran for 21 months, building on the work of VITAL(1), on Longitude I(2) (and on CERLIM’s evaluation of that Project(3)), on recent work for MLA in developing understanding of impact in the context of public libraries, on the DCMS Public Library Standards, on the available analyses of Annual Library Plans and on other related work. The contribution of CIPFA Plus was also be considered. From wider afield, Bertot’s and his colleagues’ work in the USA has been of considerable relevance.
The Project designed, developed and tested a toolkit of longitudinal survey methodologies which aims to contribute to an understanding of user needs and behaviour, with a particular focus on public libraries and the People’s Network. The emphasis is on qualitative approaches which illuminate the quantitative data which is more readily available.
The Project shows how such tools can be used to evaluate the impact of IT-based services in public libraries on individuals and groups over time. These tools were developed within the context of other relevant research in the digital library environment.
The outcomes of the project will be
- A revised Longitude toolkit, with guidance notes on its use;
- A narrative report on the process of the Project.
An announcement of the availability of these outcomes will be made shortly.
Longitude II Project Aims
The aim of the project is to develop a Longitude toolkit which can:
- be adopted by all public libraries to assess the impact over time of their end-user electronic services;
- be used by MLA and other stakeholders to demonstrate long-term impact of NOF funding for the People's Network;
- contribute to MLA's ongoing programme of impact assessment for the cultural sector (Key Objective 3 of MLA's Annual Workplan 2002/03), and to the work programme for Building on Success: an action plan for public libraries and
- inform ICT-related elements of MLA's work on learning standards and other appropriate elements of Key Objective 2 of the Workplan.
Longitude II Project objectives
Objectives supporting these aims are:
- to undertake realistic pilot-testing and revision of the toolkit so that its effectiveness and ease of use by library staff can be established;
- to provide guidance to libraries on its potential use, particularly in tandem with other assessment programmes; and
- to assess its further application for museums and archives, and to the emerging common information environment.
The Overall Approach
The overall approach to this work has been to explore existing work both in the specific context of public libraries’ IT-based, end-user services and in broader environments where longitudinal assessment has been carried out. Based on this initial review, the project team have identified a set of indicators and methodologies. These were piloted and then tested in the two partner library authorities. The results were analysed and after a period of approximately 12 months the exercise was repeated, thus creating a basic time series. The second iteration also enabled the robustness of the methodologies to be tested.
Based on the experience gained in these operational settings, the team has constructed a web-based toolkit, designed to assist all UK public library authorities to evaluate the longitudinal impact of their IT-based services to end-users.
The Project Consortium
The Longitude II project was undertaken by a team at Birmingham Libraries and Cheshire County Libraries. The Project was directed by Professor Peter Brophy, Director of CERLIM. Jenny Craven, Research Associate, CERLIM acted as Project Manager.
The Longitude Toolkit and the final report are available from the MLA site
Jenny Craven, Research Associate
CERLIM
The Manchester Metropolitan University
Department of Information and Communications
Geoffrey Manton Building
Rosamond Street West
Off Oxford Road
Manchester M15 6LL