Communicating library value through 'Grants to States' planning and evaluation

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe major findings surfacing from the evaluation and planning activities of State Library Administrative Agencies (SLAAs) through the ‘Grants to States’ program administered... [ view full abstract ]

Purpose:

The purpose of this paper is to describe major findings surfacing from the evaluation and planning activities of State Library Administrative Agencies (SLAAs) through the ‘Grants to States’ program administered in the USA. The Library Services and Construction Act (LSTA) is one of the major funding programs managed by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and the Grants to States Program is one of its largest programs. The LSTA (US Code 20) requires that every five years an independent evaluator reviews the strategic plans and objectives achieved over the last five year period and provides an assessment of the impact federal funds have on state supported library activities.  Through the evaluation work done across more than 20 states in 2016-2017, we will highlight some of the major threats and opportunities libraries face when communicating their value and developing future plans.

Design, methodology or approach:

The evaluation studies that took place assessing 2013-2017 strategic planning activities for SLAAs deployed a mixed methods design, balancing qualitative and quantitative methods, observation, in person and virtual approaches. The evaluators brought in depth library assessment experience in the evaluation process.

Findings:

We found that a number of critical focal areas are posing major opportunities for libraries in the future and are accompanied by threats as well. Areas of important focus for library development include: Lifelong learning, literacy, information access, capacity building, and civic engagement.  Noteworthy examples of exemplary projects in these areas will be highlighted as well as what the evaluators see as some major threats that need to be considered carefully by library leadership in future years.

Research or practical limitations or implications:

Evaluation studies have inherent limitations in them as they balanced practical considerations with aspirational methodological demands.  This study is limited in generalizability across 20 different SLAAs in the USA. The concepts explored, the opportunities and the threats library leadership needs to examine have global and generalizable dimensions across different countries and cultural contexts.

Conclusions:

Lifelong learning, literacy, information access, library capacity building, and civic engagement are fundamental directions for libraries to consider and grow in future years.  Identifying and sharing best practices is more critical across library and other cultural organization sectors than ever before.

Originality and value:

Despite the rich evaluative research studies taking place at each state in the USA, there has been little effort to synthesize these studies across different state boundaries in the past.  This proposal is unique in that we rarely have opportunities to scale evaluation research across geographic boundaries and identify opportunities and threats, best practices and thematic focal areas for charting future directions.  The Grants to States planning and evaluation cycle is taking place once every five years and most library evaluators are not aware of the opportunity far less of the possibility of scaling the approach across collaborators, researchers, and library leaders.