Chris, I suspect you will find that not many people have made a lot of
progress on this, although I hope I am wrong. As a member of the CILIP
Policy Action Group on Social Inclusion I have to admit that I don't think
we've got to grips with it very thoroughly ourselves yet. I just want to
make a fundamental point here - as a pro-library non-librarian, and not
representing the PAG's views. I think it is crucial that public libraries
see social exclusion, and the process of inclusion, as a partnership issue,
and not in isolation. So the first stage is very definitely not for library
services to come up with their own PIs for inclusion, but to work with other
agencies towards common objectives relating to inclusion - relating to eg
literacy rates, health promotion, community involvement, employment etc etc.
Within those measures, the library service may develop its own indicators or
targets. You may have got to that stage in Wiltshire, it's not clear. One of
the most important points made at the PAG's latest meeting was that the
library service often makes substantial and untracked contributions to the
PI's of other agencies, and that needs to be taken into account.
No-one I think is expecting the library service to overcome exclusion
single-handedly, so it's a mistake to behave as if they are. Indeed it's
extravagant.
I for one will be interested in whatever progress you make on this.
best
kevin
Kevin Harris
Community Development Foundation
020 7226 5375
www.cdf.org.uk
-----Original Message-----
From: Chris Moore [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 19 August 2002 22:48
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Performance Indicators for Social Inclusion
Apologies in advance as this is bound to be a familiar topic. I couldn't
find anything in the recent archives, however, so here goes!
A colleague and I are trying to put together a paper for our Library
Management Team on measuring activities for social inclusion. We have our
own ideas on how we feel this is going to have to develop, but thought it
would be interesting to see whether other authorities have developed
mechanisms for doing this.
We already collect hard data, and have reports we can utilise (probably
better) from our Library Management System. Combined with that, the
community profiles we are developing for the 19 community areas in Wiltshire
should lead our SMART planning system down the right road for social
inclusion for each community. A 6 monthly report mixing both these sorts of
data would show a certain amount... but not the real picture of impact.
For particular events (e.g. children's activities, reader's groups, VIP
coffee mornings etc) it could be feasible to ask people to fill in
evaluation forms, but I can't personally say I think this is ideal as you
could have people filling in a form for virtually everything all the time
"how did it make you feel?". Not to mention the problems of the form itself
being socially exclusive (language etc).
Obviously the most important thing to measure is impact, but it strikes me
that this could take years to show in some cases (a lot of hard work on a
geographically socially excluded area) whereas the report idea suggested
above should show intent and action. Not ideal... but...
Any ideas or suggestions on how you measure impact in your authority would
be much appreciated.
Many thanks for your help.
Chris Moore
Community Librarian
Wiltshire Libraries and Information
--
"There are worse things than words, you know,
but you wouldn't believe it to hear some people talk."
('Growing Up, Growing Down' by The Blue Aeroplanes, 1991)
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