How to write a compelling case study for your library

There's a conversation most library managers know well. Funders ask for evidence of impact. Or board members request something concrete to share in their annual reports.

It's rarely a reflection of doubt or mistrust. Most funders, stakeholders and board members know libraries matter and change lives (we hope!), but knowing it and being able to show it are two different things.

If you're working on a case study for a project or programme and aren't sure where to start, this post is for you. With a good structure, it's much easier than it seems. Here are a few tips to make the process quicker than you might expect.

When we talk about case studies, we mean a structured, evidence-based account of a particular service or initiative, describing the challenge, who benefited, what was done, the outcomes achieved, and the lessons learned, supported by qualitative and/or quantitative data.

Before we get into structure, it's worth mentioning something. The biggest challenge with case studies is rarely the writing - it's that the evidence is hard to gather after the fact. 

By the time a funding deadline arrives, meaningful interactions from three months or a year ago are genuinely difficult to remember. Measuring impact and collecting the relevant evidence needs to be built into your projects from the start. 

It helps to have a low-effort way for anyone on your team to log a moment and gather the evidence while it is fresh. It doesn't need to be a full story, just enough to work from later. A few sentences about who was involved, what the situation was and what changed for them. A quote is a bonus, but even a rough note in a shared document is infinitely better than nothing.

A case study doesn't need to be long or elaborate. In fact, shorter is often better. A structure that works well for most impact case studies looks something like this:

Title: Create a brief and meaningful title for your case study.

Overview: Write a short summary of what happened, who was involved, your objectives and key outcomes. Set the scene briefly, a sentence or two is enough.

Challenge: Explain the issue you were trying to solve and why it was important. Who was affected? Be specific. Specific details are what makes a story real and more relatable.

Solution: How did you approach and solve it? Describe what you did to address the challenge and why you chose this approach.

Results: What changed? Describe the bigger difference this work made for people or the community. You can also use metrics, direct quotes from your users to demonstrate success. A single sentence in someone’s own words can do more work than a whole paragraph of your own.

You can also include a picture, if you have one. Use a picture that best illustrates the case study. Something meaningful that tells at least part of the story you are trying to tell in your case study. 

(And this is the format we’ve implemented in ImpactKit, to make it easier for users to put together their own case studies). 

Before you finalise a case study, think about who's going to read it. A funder focused on digital inclusion will respond differently than a local councillor thinking about community cohesion, even if the underlying story is the same.

You don't need to write a different case study for every audience, but a small adjustment in framing can make a big difference. Lead with whatever aspect of the story is most relevant to the person you're trying to reach. The rest can stay the same.

This is also worth keeping in mind when you're deciding what evidence to collect in the first place. A library with a range of stories, covering different services, different community members, different outcomes, has much more flexibility when it comes to reporting and funding applications.

Keeping your impact stories and case studies in a central place, formatted consistently, means they're easy to find and easy to share at short notice. This becomes especially useful when you need to pull evidence for a specific project or funding stream, being able to filter your stories by outcome or initiative, rather than scrolling through everything you've ever collected, saves a lot of time under pressure. 

But it’s not just about filing things away. It’s also about actively promoting the great work your library is doing. Making your case studies easy to access and (re)use helps ensure those stories are seen, shared, and valued by your whole team.

Case studies are just one type of impact evidence, but they are an important and recognised way to tell the story of your library’s work and share that with stakeholders. They don’t have to be complex - simple workflows and easy ways for colleagues to contribute can make capturing impact part of everyday practice, and far less stressful when the next funding deadline arrives.