Tell Your Library's Story with Bibliostat Connect (online learning course) - 2004

Instructor: Jeanne Goodrich

Tell Your Library's Story with Bibliostat Connect
(An Infopeople online learning course)

• Do people in your community understand what a good return they get on their investment in the library?
• Do the local powers-that-be realize that they have a Cadillac fire department and a Yugo library?
• Are you a leader, a lagger, or in the middle of the pack when it comes to providing services to your community?
• Are you ready to present the "big picture" about your own library-or is it too hard to pull together all the data you need?
• Do you know how to make your library story come alive, turning numbers into tables, charts and graphs that hold the attention of busy decision-makers?

If you need to "tell your story"--to the community you serve, to local decision-makers, to grant funders, or to those who hold the purse strings--and you want to do it in a way that is fast, cheap, convenient, and effective, then this online course is for you.

Course Description:

This four-week online learning course will provide you with the information you need to use Bibliostat Connect to find, analyze and present information about your library and to compare your library to others-in your system, geographic region, state or nation. You will learn what Connect has to offer (databases and analytical and presentation tools) and how to use it so that you can produce reports, tables, charts and graphs quickly and easily. You will practice creating effective reports about your own library and you'll learn how other libraries have used this versatile tool to increase their own knowledge and to persuade others to make appropriate, data-driven decisions.

The instructor will provide a written guide to Connect, screenshots illustrating the software, a glossary of terms and a bib/webliography of other resources. During the course you will be doing exercises and taking quizzes, to be sure you understand the basic concepts. You will also participate in online discussion forums as part of the online learning process.

Preliminary Course Outline: Using your web browser and your Internet connection, you will log in to the Infopeople Blackboard online learning site and complete the following learning modules.

• Module One: What Connect Does, How You Can Use It, Making It Work
• • Databases and presentation tools
  • Logging in and navigating the screens
  • An easy way to compare your library to others
• Module Two: Selecting Peers Using Data Elements
• • Identifying data elements to find comparables
  • Expanding and collapsing data "trees"; differences among databases
  • Pitfalls to avoid
• Module Three: Finding Comparables Using Benchmarking
• • oSome basic statistical analysis
  • Combining approaches to "slice and dice"
  • Yugo or Cadillac-how do you tell?
  • Presenting the data in tables or graphs
  • Printing or saving your information
• Module Four: Telling Your Story With Impact
• • Choosing data display through tables or graphs
  • Exporting to Word, Excel and PowerPoint
  • Tips on choosing comparable libraries and best data elements
  • Linking Connect data with other data - to tell the best story possible

Please note: To participate in this course you will need to obtain a login and password so that you can access Connect. These have been distributed to all California public libraries, so ask your director. If you are unable to locate your library's login and password, contact Ira Bray at the California State Library (ibray@library.ca.gov).

Online Learning Details:
This four-week course will be taught online using the web. When you register, you will receive a registration confirmation which will include the URL to get to the course, as well as a username and password. Tell Your Library's Story with Bibliostat Connect will start on January 6, 2004 and end on February 3, 2004

The workshop consists of four one-and-a-half to two-hour learning modules. You can work on each module at your own pace, at any hour of the day or night. However, you will be expected to log in to the course each week to do that week's assignment. We ask that you log in sometime during the first week of the course to begin the course work.

The materials will remain available to work on for two additional weeks following the official end date, but you will be expected to accomplish the majority of the course in synchronization with your peers during the first four weeks.

Who Should Take This Course: This course is for public library directors, deputy directors, managers, financial officers, data or budget analysts, or anyone who is responsible for organizing library data and making reports from it.

Prerequisites:This course is taught over the web. You must:

• Have an Internet connection and Internet Explorer 5 or higher (some of the quiz functions do not work properly in Netscape).
• Be able to save a file to your computer and print it out using Microsoft Word or a compatible word processing program.
• Be comfortable navigating on the web and navigating back and forward on a website that uses frames.

If you are not comfortable with any of the above, please consider taking this course with a colleague who does meet these requirements.