Why the census matters to libraries
Tuesday was census night. It happens every five years on the second Tuesday of August, and it gives every Australian statistician a warm inner glow.
But from the social media posts I’ve seen this week it seems that there are some people who don’t share my passion for statistics. “Why do I have to do this?” “Nobody uses this data?” “I shouldn’t have to tell the government these things.” “They already have all of that data at Births, Deaths and Marriages / Immigration / the ATO / VicRoads / etc.”. Arguments which strike me as a bit odd, naïve and selfish.
Lots of people use this data – in many different ways. It’s how policymakers know where to put hospitals and schools and roads. It’s how the retailers know where to put supermarkets. It’s how we get state and federal electorates of equivalent population.
It’s not as if you’re being asked to tell us your life story. Ten minutes every 5 years isn’t that much of an imposition. And it’s not as if people don’t share way more information on their Facebook or Instagram accounts. You do realise that use of your mobile phone number is way more powerful and invasive than the Australia Card, which was seen as demonic back in 1988.
You’re right, there are other agencies that capture this data. But they often do this one off and are not updated, they’re not integrated, it would be a nightmare for analysts to chase down this data from a myriad of sources with incompatible systems and data definitions, and … IT’S NOT LOCATIONAL. The census is great because it tells us all of these important things about people, but most importantly it tells us where people live and work.
Why does that matter, you ask. More specifically, why does it matter to libraries?
Well, one of the first things we do when we’re asked to do a review of a library or develop a strategic library plan is to produce a community profile. We go to the census data (thank you ABS and profile.id who both publish lots of useful data at small area level) and try to understand the demographics of the people who live in that Local Government Area. Different people use libraries in different ways, so it helps to know what you’re dealing with.
Total population: Obvious starting point. We look at total catchment size and spread. It tells what efficiencies you might realise. There’s a reason the national library standards are now differentiated by catchment size. There are some things you can do serving 80,000 people that you can’t do serving 8,000. And we look at forecast population growth as it points to future demand.
Age profile: Again obvious. The 10 age service groups from Babies and pre-schoolers (0-4) to Young workforce (25-34), Empty nesters and retirees (60-69) and Elderly aged (85+) are really useful categories to track over time. Library usage changes through the lifecycle, so it helps to know what this looks like.
Single person households: There are two main population groups that live in single person households – young independent people and the elderly. The first group typically aren’t high library users, but to the elderly aged the social interactions at the library are just as (more?) important than the reading material in their trolley.
Language spoken at home: Country of Birth tells us about ancestry, but from a library collection viewpoint it’s language that you want to know about.
Household internet access – This was dropped from the 2021 census because it’s assumed that most people have access to the internet through their mobile phone. Fine if you’re on the right side of the digital divide, but the lack of data on people who don’t have home internet access is going to further disadvantage the (mostly) poor and elderly who are disconnected from mainstream service channels. The line that 1 in 7 Australian households in 2016 did not have internet access has been a powerful weapon in my pleas to the ‘haves’ to think about the ‘have nots’.
Cars in household – It might seem an odd thing to ask, but this tells us a lot about mobility and how people get to the library. Which LGAs have the highest number of cars per household? It’s not the wealthy suburbs. It’s households in rural and regional areas (no cycle paths in outer Victoria) and places like Manningham (no train network) and Wyndham and Casey (public transport infrastructure has not kept up with population growth).
SEIFA – The Socio-Economic Index for Advantage (or relative disadvantage) ties together indicators of education, employment and income. It distinguishes between the well-off areas and those where free access to books, DVDs, computers and wifi is a blessing. Yes, a couple of hours driving around the neighbourhoods will tell us the same thing, but it’s quicker and easier to look up a census table for every Australian suburb and town.
And so on. These are the things the census tells us about a community before we even step through the library doors. The data tells a story that we then see played out in the library usage statistics and the study corrals and comfy chairs situated around the library.
The census tells us who lives where. It’s consistent geographically and it’s consistent over time, which means we can look at trends as the population profile shifts (and it does!) and we can compare areas to one another (are they after books, programs or spaces?).
But, and this is the big finale, the census tells you what you don’t know about your library. I keep getting told that one of the biggest challenges modern libraries face is remaining relevant to their communities. Libraries are great at playing to the people who use the library. But what about the people who are not yet library users? The people that don’t know what the library has to offer? The people who may be in greatest need of the services of a modern library? This is what the census can do.
It tells you who in your community is NOT using the library. It tells you if they’re young or old, or living alone, or speaking another language or in need of access to technology. And it’s the proactive response to that information that makes a good library a GREAT LIBRARY!