Children’s program evaluation project.
My library is going through a children’s program evaluation project. One of the topics that I have been asked to research is how libraries evaluate their children’s programs (for newborns through sixth grade) and how they share their results with the community. Currently, we use surveys that we have parents and sometimes school-age kids fill out at the end of a program or programming series like a storytime session. I’m not sure that we are asking the right questions or getting information that is useful though. Also, I think our parents are sometimes tired of filling out the forms. We also look at attendance statistics and talk to the programmer to get their impression of the success of the program but we don’t really do this in any formalized manner. I would appreciate any and all advice. I’ve included some questions below. If you wouldn’t mind answering them, I would be grateful.
How do you evaluate your programs? (If you have any forms that you use, could you send me a copy of the form?)
Do you have different evaluation methods for the different ages, i.e. storytimes vs. school-age?
How often do you evaluate your programs?
Does your library do any outcome based evaluation? If so, could you tell me a little bit about that process?
How do you evaluate your performers and/or programming staff?
How do you share your successes with the public?
As I’ve been researching this topic, I came across two really great books on outcomes: Dynamic Youth Services through Outcome-Based Planning and Evaluation and How Libraries and Librarians Help: a Guide to Identifying User-Centered Outcomes. If your library is doing outcome based evaluation, I would love to hear about it.
Thank you!
Amy Brown
Youth Services Lead Librarian
Worthington Libraries
2280 Hard Road
Columbus, OH 43235
(614) 807-2653
(614) 807-2659 fax