Telling Your Story With Numbers Annual Northwest Resource Sharing and Interlibrary Loan Conference Presented by Jill Wolf, M.Ed., Data Analyst - Brooklyn Public Library Materials prepared by Jill Wolf and Jeanne Goodrich. Portland, Oregon September 14 & 15, 2006
Agenda Data Collection –What do you want to know and how do you get it? Data Analysis – What does your data tell you? Data Presentation – How can you tell your story most effectively?
Why Collect Data? Measure progress Influence Directors Make resource allocation decisions Meet data collection requirements of a grant project state library/association/federal reports
Collect the Right Data Too little isn’t helpful Too much can be overwhelming The wrong data is misleading
Two Kinds of Data: Quantitative (quantity): numeric measures how much and/or how often something happens Example: Fill Rate Turn around time Number of borrows/lend per month or year
Two Kinds of Data: Qualitative (quality): Data that is rich in detail and description Includes data from surveys, focus groups Example: User satisfaction surveys Customer service surveys
Where Do You Get Data? ILS/ILL system Published reports, ex: demographic information from Census, PLDS Surveys Observation Self-reporting
Data Analysis reading the data
Data Analysis Techniques Compare - benchmark Use averages & medians Percentages Change over time - trends
Read the Data Look for: Trends Patterns Highs and lows Anomalies
Analyzing Use Actual Numbers Raw Numbers
Analyzing Use Percent Change
Trends
Patterns Suspended service during ILS migration
Comparative Data/Benchmarking Public Library Data Service (PLDS) Library Peer Comparison Tool public, academic, school National Center for Education Statistics Bibliostat Connect/WebConnect State, federal and PLDS statistics Cool! Google: “peer library tool”
Comparative Data/Benchmarking Click on chart symbol to view chart.
Comparative Data/Benchmarking
Understand average, median Average (mean): sum of all values divided by number of values Median: the value in the middle of the data series
Percentages Percentages show the relative size of two or more categories.
Percentages Examples 50 is what percent of 100? 50/100 =.50 or 50% 10 is what percent of 125? 10/125 =.08 or 8% OF means DIVIDE
Percentages Example Beaver State University subscribed to 5,600 serials in 2005 but had to cut the subscription list to 4,725 in This was a decrease of 16%. New Value -Old Value Answer/Old Value Answer x 100=x% = / 5600 = x 100 = -16% (rounded up) In Excel -
Percent Change Last year I spent 18% of my materials budget on AV materials. This year I plan on spending 20%. What is the difference? Answer At first glance, you might think the difference is 2% - but the difference is 11%. (2/18 = 11) The dollar difference and absolute difference will also depend on the dollar amounts being talked about. In other words, 18% of x may be more than 20% of y. 20% of $10,000 = $2,000 18% of $50,000 = $9,000
Presentation telling your story “statisfaction”
Consider Your Audience Why are you presenting to them? What are you trying to get them to do? How do they prefer to see data? How do you tell your story most effectively?
Presentation Options: Narrative description Tables Graphs and Charts Maps Spreadsheets
Excel Is Your Friend Learn to use Excel spreadsheets and charts
Table or Chart?
Fishbone Diagram
Maps and Census Data
Column Charts 3-D Column Chart
Column Charts Stacked Column Chart
Column Charts Stacked Column Chart with Data Table
Pie Charts
Bar Charts Stacked Bar Chart
Dashboards
Resources Blogs Juice Analytics Dash Board Spy
Resources Books Data Analysis with Microsoft Excel: Updated for Office XP (with CD- ROM) (Paperback) by Kenneth N. Berk, Partrick CareyKenneth N. Berk Partrick Carey
Resources Books Excel Data Analysis for Dummies (Paperback) by Stephen L. NelsonStephen L. Nelson
Resources Websites Colorado State Library and the Colorado Department of Education
Contact Information If you have questions, please feel free to contact me at: Jill Wolf