Breakout: Thinking Globally, Acting Locally: Approaches to Demonstrating the Social Impact of Libraries
Public libraries are dedicated to improving the quality of life at the community level by delivering programs and services that support literacy, numeracy, lifelong learning, and civic engagement. These same local initiatives also contribute to making global economic progress. While many agree that libraries improve lives, skeptical stakeholders require empirical evidence to convince them of the social impact of libraries.
This session will demonstrate how to connect library programs and services to strategic goals at the community level and to the United Nations’ (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at the global economic level. Participants will examine their library’s metrics to identify how to use library activity data to show progress toward achieving community goals and the UN SDGs.