Building a Culture of Measuring Impact in Libraries

In this post, we want to talk about building a culture of measuring and celebrating impact in your library. Making impact evaluation a consistent approach rather than something that only happens at the end of the occasional project is a vital part of building an evidence base to demonstrate the value of the library. 

Whether it’s in a public library, academic library, health or special library, in our experience, library workers care deeply about the difference they are making in their communities. And when an organisation encourages a culture of meaningful impact evaluation, all staff can be involved in recognising the value of their work.

But often this enthusiasm is held back by the fact that they don't have dedicated time for collecting impact, they don’t feel supported or they lack the confidence or habit to capture it.

Measuring impact or outcomes is about people. It’s less about the tool you use (though obviously we think having a dedicated, collaborative space for gathering impact evidence can make it a lot easier for staff to get involved). 

And it’s also not just about project managers or team leaders. Involving every team member in evaluation of what works and what doesn’t helps build a consistent, available body of evidence. And this is something that came up repeatedly in our conversations with library leaders about impact in their libraries.  

Engaging library staff means helping everyone, from volunteers to senior managers, understand both how to collect impact evidence and why it matters.

You can build a strong, engaged team of evidence gatherers by helping ensure all staff understand the value of their work. And when people understand the benefits, they’re better able to contribute to team goals. What matters most is that the process of collecting and measuring impact becomes consistent, systematic and embedded in how you work. And that’s where many libraries stumble. 

Some staff might be uncertain about what counts as impact evidence. They might feel that a brief conversation with a user isn’t enough to record or they worry about doing it wrong. They may also be used to a more output-based, metric focus and unfamiliar with qualitative evidence. Others might feel uncomfortable advocating for their own work, or lack the confidence to do so.

It can be new and intimidating for staff to approach users to ask about their experiences. These are skills which need to be nurtured and supported within an organisation.

Workplace training, clear guidance and shadowing are all ways that can help staff overcome this hesitance. Only by taking these barriers seriously, we can overcome potential resistance when introducing the practice of collecting impact evidence within a team. 

It's important to move from evaluation as an afterthought to collecting impact evidence as part of your daily routine.

For example, right now, lots of library staff are having conversations with people in their user communities about AI. And libraries are proactively supporting people in learning about responsible AI and gaining confidence in using these new tools. This is not linked to a particular project or funding cycle, but falls into the ever-changing day to day support that libraries provide. And without a culture of meaningful evaluation, this kind of impact can get lost in the shuffle or be otherwise difficult to demonstrate to stakeholders when the time comes. 

Repetition and consistent practice of collecting impact is often much more effective than rushed evaluation at the end of a project or event (or not at all). Think of it like learning a new language - it is often more efficient to spend 10 minutes a day than one hour a week. The daily practice builds a habit, and habits don't feel strenuous in the way that occasional bursts of effort do. The goal is for impact collection to stop feeling like a task and start feeling like a natural part of how your team works.

Whatever tool or framework you use, this effort should involve the whole team. Making it simple and straightforward for everyone to contribute is a good place to start. This means not requiring any formal evaluation background - guidance should be built into every step of the process so that no one feels under pressure or lost. A well-placed prompt or a simple question template can be enough to help someone record a meaningful user story.

Staff also need to feel empowered and confident enough to distinguish between stories that matter for evaluation and those that are simply nice anecdotes to share on social media. This can be achieved by offering informal support and knowledge-share. Lack of organisational support can make outcome evaluation feel intimidating and impractical.

It is important to ensure everyone understands that measuring outcomes or impact is not only a collection of quantitative data, such as how many people attended a certain programme, or how many books have been borrowed, but systematic collection of evidence that demonstrates the real difference your work makes.

This is achievable even in small libraries with limited resources - it requires consistency more than capacity. By making impact collection a shared habit, you build a portfolio of stories, case studies and other evidence over time. And that ready to use portfolio of impact evidence gives the foundation for advocacy and celebration.

Celebrating impact is what brings people together and makes this process more enjoyable. And it doesn't have to be elaborate. You can share impact stories in your next team meeting. Post them on social media. Display them somewhere visible to the whole team.

Creating a culture of measuring impact doesn't need to be an onerous process, but it does have to be consistent. A gradual iterative approach can help build impact evidence over time ready for when you need it most.

When the staff see their collective effort of collecting impact, they will most likely want to keep collecting it. And this is how the habit and culture forms. Not through a single push from a manager, but through small, daily actions of noticing and appreciating together what you do and the difference you make to your users.