There is a lack of outcomes data being provided by libraries, making it difficult to advocate for funding and support of their services. Libraries have a great amount of anecdotal information and output measurement to share with their stakeholders, but due to the drop-in nature of our programs and services there is great difficulty in providing both qualitative and quantitative measures. In a time where funding and support are more and more dependent on outcomes measures, this process provides outcomes based measurements that prove our programs change lives.

Sharing outcomes provides a far more compelling story to tell your community stakeholders. This is an opportunity to begin saying “500 parents of toddlers learned the importance of their role in their child’s literacy development and increased the time they spent actively engaging with their child in the five most important early literacy activities” instead of “we served 500 parents and their children with our storytime programs”. The ability to say not just how many participants but what happened because they participated encourages communities to value the libraries’ place in the continuum of education, specifically for early literacy.

The second round of measurement testing ended in May 2016. Since that time we have had preliminary discussions with state organizations focused on early childhood education. We have used these discussion to share the value of library programs and the outcomes they provide to our families in need of systems that support 0-3 education. We will share this information in our annual report, in meetings with key stakeholders and with funders for early childhood education. We anticipate that private foundations and individual supporters will find them compelling enough to begin/increase their support of KDL.