KPI Reporting for Staff Freedom and Responsibility

About the Program

Category: Libraries (Best in Category)

Year: 2022

Public libraries, as an institution, have typically found it difficult to quantify impact to their communities. While widely acknowledged as central to quality of life, internal decision making on how to use resources has often relied on past practices and assumptions. To make more data-driven decisions, use resources in the most efficient way possible, and have timely feedback on what products and services are most valuable to the public, CCPL used internal resources to build a performance dashboarding system delivering timely and accurate branch performance data and analysis. This system replaces an outdated performance assessment system which did not allow for objective, measurable, and iterative progress towards individual or system goals, helping to rebuild metrics towards pre-pandemic levels. As a result of this system, customer opinion has risen, and branch volume has built back up quickly after pandemic-related closures. As of December 2021, physical circulation at CCPL is at 80% of pre-pandemic levels, and door count is at 60%, an impressive achievement given the headwinds facing public libraries today.