You can do amazing work, but if your administration and the central district office never learn about it, your budget will still be cut. Advocating effectively for your library means collecting data about your programs and services and using it to create user-friendly and eye-catching communications that connects library services directly to district priorities -- all year long.
Our library catalogs collect data all year long. Good instructors collect feedback on their collaborations every time. That's a lot of data. Why not share some of it?
On this website, you will find three data visualization dashboards for stakeholders at the Organization, Teacher, and Learner level. I created these dashboards using a combination of Google Forms, Google Sheets, and Google Looker Studio.
Although these scorecards use sample data, in the real world I would collect the data for these scorecards by asking students and teachers to fill out customized Google Forms at the end of every unit plan and collaboration. I would use a third Google form to collect weekly library usage data throughout the school year.
You can see my sample surveys here:
The data from the forms is collected in Google Sheets. The dashboards, which I created in Google LookerStudio, sync with Google Sheets to update the charts, graphs, and other data points as new information comes in.
Image Credit (header)
De Zoysa, D. (2024, June 21). Data, science, technology. [Illustration]. Pixabay. https://pixabay.com/illustrations/data-science-technology-8841981/
Questions or comments?
Contact Shala Howell, MLIS candidate, San José State University.