The first pandemic year’s deeply inequitable impacts on New Yorkers renewed NYPL’s commitment to equity of service delivery and utilization. Strategy & Public Impact team analysis highlighted the particularly damaging effects of physical closure on lower income patrons. To advance strategic conversations about this, we needed to upgrade our existing equity metrics. We sought an analytical framework that could track change over time, compare different services, and be accessible to stakeholders across the Library.

The equity ratio metric takes a complex concept and translates it into a simple, easily understood and visualized indicator. It elevates output data into an impact measure. It is flexible enough to measure supply as well as demand dynamics, and allows us to measure disparate services with a common unit. It lets us zoom into slices of a single service to pinpoint key contributors to equity dynamics (i.e. patron age, material type). All of this lets us engage the institution in strategic targeting and decision-making.

This framework has informed the Library’s policy discussions and program design decisions at multiple levels. It confirmed how vital our physical spaces and offerings are to lower income communities, and informed our branch reopening strategy. It guided the design of, and distribution plan for, our Books in the Home campaign for children. It continues to inform systemwide allocation of resources (staff, hours, programs) to maximize equity and is the centerpiece of our institutional dashboard, shared with all staff.