Webinar Series: Outcomes and Beyond: A 3-Step Approach to Evaluating Program Success
These webinars occurred on December 5 and 12, 2024.
Webinar 1 Recording, Slides, and Resources:
Webinar 2 Recording, Slides, and Resources:
Dimensions of Success activity
Library Evaluation 101 Videos (short tutorials on research ethics, data collection methods, data analysis, and reporting)
Research Institute for Public Libraries (RIPL) Webinars:
Observations: Data Hiding in Plain Sight
Webinar Series Description:
You put a lot of effort into developing public-facing programs for your community, but how do you know whether these programs are successful?
In this webinar series, you will learn a 3-step process for evaluating public-facing programs. In the first webinar, you will learn to specify what “success” looks like for a sample library program. This often reflects the desired outcomes of the program, such as changes in participants’ knowledge, skills, attitude, behavior, condition, or life status. You will also learn about additional dimensions of success, such as equity, relevance, sustainability, and more, so that you can capture a more complete picture of the program’s success. Then, you will learn to develop a logic model that depicts the relationship between the resources invested in a sample program, program attendance and other outputs, and the desired outcomes.
In the second webinar, you will return to the logic model for a sample program to consider issues of sustainability and equity and whether all of the necessary components are in place to achieve success. Finally, you will learn how to create a plan to measure the multiple dimensions of success that are relevant for the sample program and the types of data you need to collect to measure success.
You will leave this webinar series with the knowledge needed to apply these concepts to your own public-facing programs and services.