Library metrics for a post-COVID world
Last week, on 12 March 2021, 1.36 million people were screened getting on to air flights in the USA. The last time the screening number was that high was 15 March 2020. While there are still 1,500 COVID-related deaths in the US per day, air travel is back to where it was. Having tanked when COVID fears were at their peak, the US stock market is at all-time highs. As vaccine programs are rolled out across Australia there are hopes that we are heading toward a ‘new normal’ – whatever that may be.
Public libraries are constantly evolving anyway, so the 2021 library was never expected to look like the 2016 one, or 2011, etc. But COVID has meant that as people begin to return to their 2021 libraries, their experience and the way they use the library is in some ways quite different to 2020. As we enter this Brave New World, what are the metrics that will shine a light on the new order.
1. % of loans that are digital. Let’s start with the obvious one – the shift in library borrowing from physical to digital items. Pre-COVID the % of loans that were digital was increasing steadily, and it’s now taken a big step upward. However, we’re still going to find in 2020-21 that digital downloads are not much more than 20% of total borrowing. We’re a long way from 50-50, and the physical book is not dying any time soon.
2. Number of wifi sessions. The number of computer bookings was trending down anyway as people bring their own devices to the library and connect to the wifi. So, if BYOD(evice) is more convenient and offers less risk of infection, the number of wifi sessions and GB of downloads will take over from PCs per capita and computer bookings. In the spirit of ‘Leave No One Behind’ – the central, transformative promise of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals – there will still be PCs in libraries for those on the wrong side of the digital divide.
3. % of library floor space committed to collections. I think this one will turn quickly. The shift in format was already leading libraries down a path of less shelving for collections, and face-out displays were reducing the amount of stock on the floor. But back-of-house and offsite storage is going to become more commonplace as there is increased demand for library spaces. Libraries need space for high value add programs. People want their ‘third place’, especially as housing density increases. And for some, the COVID-driven shift to ‘working from home’ will in practice be ‘working from the library’ or some other community space that doesn’t have the distractions and limitations of home.
4. % of loans that are reservations. There will always be browsers in a library. Some people can pick from a menu, some like to see what the people on the next table are being served. But increased caution about public gatherings and social distancing (which is understandably greater in some states and territories than others) is likely to see an increase in the number of library members who choose to browse the catalogue online and pick up their items at the library (or at a locker or library depot or via home delivery). So I’m tipping an increase in this measure.
5. Average length of library visit. This one could get interesting as I suspect, even more than was the case pre-COVID, we might see some different behaviours emerge. First there will be the quick transactional visits to collect reservations (see No. 4 above). Then there will be the attendants at library programs who arrive just in time to sign in and leave as soon as it’s finished. Less so for the socially-oriented programs I hope when the before and after is just as (more?) important than the advertised times. Then there will be the long-stay ‘working from the library’ visitors (No. 3 above). Which might make simple calculation of an average length of stay redundant, to be replaced by data on the distribution of library visits by length of stay.
6. Outcome of library use. OK, I understand that we don’t have a good measure on this now, but I have to think we might start seeing something different in the value proposition of public libraries. For the past few years we’ve been asking library staff to think about the relativity of individual and community outcomes from use of their libraries (based on the 6 outcomes in the APLA/ALIA national public library standards). ‘Literacy and lifelong learning’ always comes out as No. 1, followed by ‘Digital inclusion’, with ‘Economic and workforce development’ the least significant outcome. If there is to be a mover I think it will be ‘Personal development and wellbeing’. The exemplary way that libraries responded to COVID really highlighted the contribution they make to some people’s social and emotional wellbeing.
Now I could be completely wrong in all of this (although statistically it is highly improbable that any person is ever completely wrong or completely right about everything they think or say – that’s the bell curve at work). But I’m pretty sure that as we move forward we will see people choosing to engage with libraries in different ways. And as long as those who run libraries have their eyes open to these changes, the better they will be able to respond.