The Free Library offers library, literacy and information services at more than 60 locations throughout Philadelphia, including our Parkway Central library, three regional libraries, and more than 50 neighborhood libraries and digital literacy Hot Spots. Promoting and expanding our children’s and family literacy programming, as well as deepening our reach into neighborhoods, is one of our top strategic goals; as part of this work, we have recently moved from a regional model of organization (with 4 regions) to a nimble, neighborhood-focused cluster model (with 9 clusters). We seek a spatial analysis that would describe the myriad ways the Free Library serves Philadelphians (children’s programs, school partnerships, book, DVD and other material lending, job fairs and workforce development, computer and internet access, etc.) and demonstrate how deeply and effectively we reach into our communities, and suggest ways, places and spaces where we can adjust and expand to reach more Philadelphians.
Our recently created Data Strategy & Evaluation Unit will offer data sets that include library locations, anonymized user data of many kinds (number of checkouts, type of checkout, home addresses, checkout location, user age), in addition to program records, school/preschool/daycare visits and other outreach data to show FLP’s current reach.
Reports that demonstrate and concretize Library impact, potentially including: user maps that visualize and compare children’s program and materials usage in and across clusters; maps of underserved neighborhoods in terms of particular usership categories; heat maps of children’s and family programs that show areas of greatest need and possibility, as well as the impact of our current service; reports that show our school and preschool/daycare partner impact and also demonstrate and identify unmet needs from schools we do not currently reach; reports that compare libraries and/or clusters in terms of travel times or public transit routes, and that show library usage in relation to particular public transit line usage.
These maps and reports will help us demonstrate and evaluate our impact. We will use them to advocate for more private and public resources, but most importantly, these maps and reports will become management tools the Free Library can use to understand and recommend changes in staffing, hours, program availability, materials availability, supports for school partnerships, etc. In addition, they will guide how we deploy our mobile services (including our Techmobile, a digital literacy training vehicle) and possible expansion of services through new or renovated library branches or Hot Spots. We are currently completely renovating and reenvisioning five of our neighborhood libraries. This spatial analysis project will also help us select the next four neighborhood libraries to be renovated and reenvisioned. In addition, the outcomes and products of these maps and reports may encourage the Free Library to develop its own GIS capacity for future such analyses.
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