Our Literature Review on evaluating the social value of libraries has arrived!

As new Prime Minster Boris Johnson recently said, libraries are part of the ‘vital social and cultural infrastructure‘ that makes our communities vibrant places to live and work.  But how can libraries learn to evaluate this important but hard-to-measure impact in all its diversity and richness?    Download our report to find out what the academic literature reveals on the means by which libraries in the UK and elsewhere are choosing to assess and evidence their ‘social value’.

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New Gender Pay Gap Reporting Regulations come into effect on the 4^th April, which means that all British organisations with over 250 employees must disclose information about pay differentials between men and women in their employment. But what does this mean for library services?  The Chief Executives of four English library mutuals met on 20^th March to discuss the implications of this initiative for their organisations and the wider library sector, and to explore how they might shape discussion within and beyond their organisations on improving pay equality in a profession with high proportions of female and part-time workers.

Three of these organisations – Libraries Unlimited, Suffolk Libraries and Inspire: Culture, Learning and Libraries –  have published their gender pay gap data this year – relating to the mean and median averages for men and women for pay and bonuses, the proportion of women and men receiving bonuses, and the proportion of men and women occupying each quartile of the service pay structure.   For these leaders, this represents not only a learning experience, but an opportunity to lead the sector by offering new insights into how libraries might actively advocate for women’s career progression and increased diversity across the library workforce.

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Check out recent progress with the Unlimited Value project in our Interim Project Report available for download below.

Download report here

Engagement with library data is at the heart of the Unlimited Value project, in helping libraries learn how to maximise social impact by making data driven, informed decisions. But how do libraries learn to use the data they possess and how can they do this openly and in collaboration with other stakeholders? ODI Devon is taking a leading role in helping the other Unlimited Value partners develop a stakeholder-led, collaborative and open approach to managing and acting on their service user data. In this post we explain more about the Open Data Institute and ODI Devon, and share how these organisations are helping to make pioneering steps in using data to make libraries more relevant, impactful and resilient than ever before.

ODI Devon are the local branch (or “Node”) of the Open Data Institute, a global organisation based in London and started in 2012 by Sir Nigel Shadbolt and Sir Tim Berners-Lee. Our mission is basically twofold: to increase the quantity and quality of open data released by organisations in Devon, and to help everyone – from individuals to organisations – to use, combine, re-use, and re-publish the data for public benefit.

If you aren’t following the movement closely, it might surprise you to know that the UK public sector has now published over 40,000 datasets (and that’s just the ones catalogued on the central open data portal for the UK, data.gov.uk). This data is used for many different purposes, for example:
– better regulation of peer-to-peer lending in the UK
– Analysing the effects of a decision to close some London fire stations
– Developing apps that help people get around the capital
– Use of LIDAR datasets for Town planning, flood risk analysis, archaeology and game world generation.

The Devon Node of the ODI has been going since 2014 and is a collaboration between the public and private sectors: it has spawned a number of different side projects such as ThingsCamp (a semi-regular gathering for people who want to learn about the Internet of Things) and The Data Place (a Plymouth-based social enterprise dedicated to building low-cost accessible data infrastructure). Mainly though, the Node is here to support different open data initiatives in the region and we regularly attend local Meetups and support initiatives like DataPlay – Plymouth City Council’s open data engagement programme.

When our hugely successful local Libraries social enterprise approached us to collaborate on maximising their social impact, we obviously jumped at the chance. In a way, Libraries are the original open data organisations: everything they do is dedicated to opening up knowledge for everyone and Devon is very lucky to be home to Libraries Unlimited – one of the most forward-thinking library services operating in the world today.

We saw an opportunity to work with an organisation that had a proper county-wide footprint and was engaging regularly with the public: these things are important if segments of the county aren’t going to be left behind.

At the same time, we are realising that the impact of public services is something that is poorly understood in many fields. As public sector budgets get ever tighter, we realise that it is increasingly important to know what is making a difference in communities so spending can be better targeted. We think (unsurprisingly) that open data holds part of the solution to this situation, because calculating impact is not helpful unless it can be done in the open.

We are engaging with this project in two phases: discovery and design. Earlier this year we ran a discovery workshop at Exeter library where people involved or interested in the library service carried out a giant “brain dump” of all the data that the service creates or impacts on. You can see some of the results of that exercise here.

We’re now collecting some of that data together in preparation for a prototyping event in early 2018, where people will get the chance to imagine some of the things we might do with that data and make prototypes in a variety of ways.

Alongside all of this we are working with the libraries service to create a data portal that shows all the data relevant to the social and economic impact of the libraries in Devon: a full release of this will coincide with the completion of the rollout of a new stock management system by the Libraries Unlimited service.

Experts discuss public libraries at summit

Leaders from a diverse range of sectors came together at “Leading practice in unlimited value creation”, an Action Research Summit at the University of Exeter last week, to discuss how library services and other social enterprises and charities can better understand their social impact, and use it to ensure financial sustainability.

The summit was hosted by the University of Exeter Business School as part of the two-year “Unlimited Value” research project led by the University of Exeter in partnership with Libraries Unlimited, Open Data Institute (ODI) Devon and the Real Ideas Organisation (RIO), and funded by Arts Council England.

This was the first in a series of events that aim to better measure and understand the impact of libraries on their local communities. In doing so, it is hoped that Libraries Unlimited will be able to identify new partnerships and opportunities that will help to ensure its sustainability.

The summit brought together academics, policy makers and senior practitioners from a diverse range of backgrounds, with speakers including Deputy Vice Chancellor Professor Tim Quine, Professor William Harvey, Co-Director of the Exeter Centre for Leadership, Jennifer Wallace, Head of Policy at Carnegie UK Trust, Dr Beverley Hawkins, Senior Lecturer in Leadership/Organisation Studies and Director of Education at the University of Exeter, Matt Little, Co-founder and Head of Impact and Research at RIO and John Knell, Director of Culture Counts.

Guests also heard from Libraries Unlimited Chief Executive Ciara Eastell and a number of Libraries Unlimited employees who have been involved in Action Learning Sets as part of the research project.

The Action Learning Sets are designed to encourage staff to explore and learn from their own work challenges, develop leadership skills and use their ideas and experiences to help shape the future of the organisation.

During the day, delegates discussed the challenges and opportunities faced by charities, social enterprises and cultural organisations to diversify and innovate their services to meet the needs of communities, whilst remaining financially sustainable.

Round table discussions saw colleagues from the Citizens Advice Bureau, Libraries Taskforce, Mutual Ventures, Gloucestershire County Council, Exeter CVS, the Wellcome Trust, the British Library and the Royal Society of Arts openly discuss the challenges faced by those going through organisational changes and how they can understand, grow and showcase the value they create within their communities.

Ciara Eastell, Chief Executive of Libraries Unlimited, the charity responsible for running Devon’s public library service, said: “Our first Unlimited Value Action Research Summit was a really stimulating day.

“By bringing together such a diverse range of people it opened up a new kind of conversation and provoked valuable debate.

“It was fascinating to hear from colleagues from a range of different sectors who were open and honest about their own challenges, many of which were not dissimilar to our own.”

She continued: “Over the past few years, the library sector has had to adapt significantly, not least because of the changing needs of the communities we serve, but also because of the changing political and economic landscape.

“These factors affect a range of organisations, and this research will consider the ways that we and other organisations can continue to deliver valuable work, whilst ensuring we have reliable sources of funding.

“I firmly believe that libraries have an important role to play within communities, and am excited to be part of a project that will help shape the future of our service. Research by Carnegie UK Trust shows that half of all people in each jurisdiction use their library and three quarters of people think that libraries are important community assets.

“Alongside that, we know that community needs are changing, which is why this research project is a crucial first step in understanding how we need to continue to evolve to make sure we are supporting people at all stages of their lives.”

Dr Beverley Hawkins, Lead Researcher for Value Unlimited, explained: “The research summit is a great example of how business schools can work in partnership with organisations to develop innovative practices and shape conversations.

“Our summit has helped create a network of engaged thought leaders keen to shape policy and practice on how organisations might capture and evaluate their social impacts.

“This activity is becoming significant not just for libraries, but for all organisations with social missions – we are excited to be generating meaningful conversations and insights in this area.”

Matt Little, Co-founder of RIO, said: “RIO are one of the leading social enterprises in the South West and it is a real pleasure to be working on this research project with Libraries Unlimited and the university.

“We are all learning a lot from each other and we want this research to make a real impact. These are difficult and challenging times and against this backdrop libraries play such a crucial role in people’s lives and in communities.

“It is vital that we all do all we can to help them thrive and prosper, and social enterprise offers some useful lessons and ways forward, with Libraries Unlimited leading the way here.”

Phil Gibby, Director, South West, Arts Council England, said: “We are proud to support Libraries Unlimited through our strategic funding streams and from April 2018 we will welcome them into our regularly funded body of National Portfolio Organisations.

“By facilitating cross-sector discussion, reflecting on best practice and carrying out research, Libraries Unlimited are enhancing the valuable creative and social offer libraries serve to communities across the country, helping to achieve our mission for more people in more places to experience and be inspired by arts and culture.”

At the heart of the research is a programme that will build the capacity of Libraries Unlimited’s staff to support and develop the potential for libraries to bring people together, offer services that make a difference to communities, and play a role in improving the quality of life and opportunities available to people, all whilst ensuring the financial imperative for the organisation is sustained.

Over the next few months, the project team will work together to analyse feedback and contributions whilst also undertaking research-led teaching projects embedded within curriculum to analyse Libraries Unlimited’s data and information to better understand user trends and behaviours.

As a result, the project team hope to establish new business models and best practice for socially enterprising organisations, helping to demonstrate how the arts and culture sector can make a real difference in people’s lives whilst also operating financially sustainable organisations.

In so doing, it is hoped that Libraries Unlimited will be able to create new partnerships and opportunities that will help to ensure its sustainability as a charity and social enterprise.

For more information about the project visit http://blogs.exeter.ac.uk/unlimitedvalue/ and follow the conversation on Twitter #UnlimitedValue.

Much of my working life has focussed on children and young people, both before and after I helped set up RIO with colleagues. In particular, I am interested in models and practice, in school and out, that build on the potential, interests, latent talent and innate creativity of young people, that gives them responsibility and permits them real, valued and meaningful consequences. Rather than, in contrast, approaching them as either bundles of problems and issues to be resolved, energy to be controlled, or empty vessels to be filled by pre-determined knowledge and then tested based on absorption rate!

In Aarhus I was particularly struck by a workshop delivered by the librarians working with and specialising in services for teenagers at Dokk1.

They had recently carried out a review of their services and spaces for this age group and their conclusions and actions since were very interesting.

The gist of their findings, based on feedback from young people, was that ‘less is more’. And these findings rang true for me.

Teenagers lead such busy and processed lives, full of noise, pressure and expectation. They are changing rapidly, developing different facets every few months. They are under extreme pressure to perform – whether in education or via social media. The world around them is changing dramatically and constantly. They are constantly categorised and judged. They are required to jump hoop after hoop from a very early age. And, as an aside, it is no surprise to me that popular teenage literature strands like Hunger Games and Maze Runner reflect and resonate with many aspects of a performative, divisive, competitive, pressured and judgemental society.

So when these young people are in a library they don’t necessarily want to be facilitated or developed. They don’t always want to be taught or to learn something new, to be compared or judged or awarded a badge or qualification. They want to be left alone to a large extent, in places and spaces where they feel intrinsically comfortable and welcome; to follow their interests in a gentle way, to relate to each other, and for different groups to merge and connect, to enjoy moments of peace, to catch up on work, to more slowly become themselves, or to think, write, revise or read in a free, non-commercial, diverse, quiet and companionable space among peers and fellows.

In terms of social value and libraries, this thinking has interesting implications. First, where on earth else could teenagers be this way than a library? And second, by doing less libraries can sometimes create more! It is not all about agency and activity, and about action leading to impact…

In June this year myself, Hugh Waters Research Fellow at the University of Exeter and Ciara Eastell Chief Executive of Libraries Unlimited were lucky enough to travel to Aarhus to take part in the ‘Next Library’ conference. We are working together on a joint research project focussed on social and financial value in libraries, so the conference represented our first chance to share early findings, get feedback, and make new and relevant connections with the library community across the world.

The conference takes place every 2 years, is internationally significant, and gathers together leaders and innovators from many of the leading libraries around the world, including several of us from the UK. This year it took place in Aarhus, Denmark. Aarhus is European City of Culture for 2017, and also proud owner of an amazing new library, Dokk1, right by the waterfront. See the pictures for a taste. The library hosted the conference, and did so brilliantly. The setting and spaces were spectacular, but the event was also managed in the warm, friendly, unruffled, relaxed and open way that Scandinavia seems to do so well.

We met and heard from many inspiring people and came away with lots of new ideas and connections. Though I am passionate about libraries and their role in local communities, my own work has, to date, been more focussed on social enterprise and the wider cultural sector, so this was the first major libraries conference I had been to. I was particularly impressed by the level of thoughtful debate and attention that the librarians attending gave to their practice and craft.

The conference is still giving me pause for thought, and this is the first in a couple of blogs to share some of the learning and reflections that emerged for me. If you are interested in the conference you can find out more here. All the presentations and keynotes are online and, if the opportunity presents, I would highly recommend attending in future years if you are able. This first blog reflects on some of the big picture questions that hang in the air for me, and the second is more practical.

First, a bit of background. Our research is a partnership between Libraries Unlimited, the University of Exeter Business School, the Real Ideas Organisation and the Open Data Institute (Devon). Libraries Unlimited has relatively recently mutualised and ‘spun out’ of Devon County Council and, as such, is one of the first library services in the country to do so. A genuine pioneer, and driven by a desire to take the future into its own hands and seize opportunities to work in new ways during difficult and challenging times. This is a large and complex undertaking, involving change in many, many areas.

Against this backdrop our research is focussed on the following questions:

• What social value do libraries create and how do they do so?
• How can libraries connect social value to financial value in ways that amplify rather than undermine the essence of what makes a library ‘special’ in the eyes of the public?
• How can library leaders and managers best respond to this challenge of needing to work in more ‘socially enterprising’ ways?

So, in Aarhus we were particularly interested to find ways that libraries were getting a handle on, articulating and building their social value but also approaches they were using to create new financial value too. As well as networking with others interested in and working at this ‘social enterprise’ intersection.

First, I came away from Aarhus feeling like there are two diverging and very different paths, each with their own distinct qualities and characteristics. Libraries in the UK, and public services more generally, are on one of these paths. And European library services, particularly those in Scandinavia, are on the other.

Our path is characterised and shaped by austerity, significant public service reform, new operating models arising as a result, Brexit, the advent of commissioning and market-based approaches rolling out in previously public spaces. With Libraries Unlimited a product of and constructive response to this backdrop.

This context – like it or not – leads to change and innovation, as individuals and organisations take responsibility and respond to the opportunities and challenges that arise, establish new delivery models and organisations, and do all they can to make this all work whilst genuinely understanding, maintaining or, if at all possible, striving to enhance the social value created for citizens or ‘customers’ (depending how you want to view it), and their communities.

Social enterprise exists and can thrive in this tension, as an attempt to balance, fuse and develop the best of the public sector (e.g. ethical commitment to re-channel resources for public good; commitment to that at whatever cost) with the best of the private sector (e.g. an enterprise dynamic – encapsulating far more than just money, including a desire to constantly create value for people, and a relentless ‘customer’ focus).

It is worth noting, of course, that these two ‘bests’ are, of course, both theoretical. We have all encountered public sector services that are overly politicised not as focussed as they could be on creating positive value for the person in the street. Watch I, Daniel Blake. And private sector businesses who don’t exactly deliver slick, enterprising and dynamic customer service. Phone a bank or try to get a new mobile phone.

But we can still aspire! And there is creativity, dynamic, complexity, challenge and opportunity on this path.

The Scandinavian path is a simpler one. And there is a lot to be said for simplicity. People are prepared to pay higher taxes as part of their social contract and, in return, they receive better resourced public services, including state of the art libraries. Less impetus here, therefore, for social enterprise models. Less need too for complex and nuanced ways to understand and articulate social value in libraries – either to make more of it, to sell it to commissioners and funders, or to monetise it in diverse ways. They are simply taken to be a good and necessary thing and that is all that matters.

It felt to me, both stood in Aarhus and on walking back through the EU passport channel at Heathrow, like a very profound change is taking place in our country and we are right in the middle of it. We are heading down one path. Large parts of Europe are on another. And we are slowly heading in very different directions…

Which path would you rather be on?