Impact Score App
Spokane Public Library
Innovation Synopsis
In 2024, Spokane Public Library scored library programs using a Google Sheet — a manageable start, but one that could not keep pace with over 5,000 programs a year. In 2025, library staff rebuilt the entire tool as a full web application — built in-house using AI agentic coding tools rather than a vendor contract or a dedicated developer. Staff now log scores directly into a shared system that programming teams across the library use every day, automatic statistical control charts flag high- and under-performing programs in real time, and board reports that once took hours to assemble by hand now generate at the click of a button.
Challenge/Opportunity
By 2024, the Impact Score Tool had proven its core idea — evaluate programs on design and impact, not just headcount — but it ran on a Google Sheet shared across the entire programming team. Manual entry meant scores were only as current as the last edit; producing a board report meant manually compiling and formatting data by hand; running a statistical control chart meant exporting the sheet and rebuilding the analysis elsewhere; and comparing programs across the adult and youth services teams meant merging spreadsheets by hand. None of this scaled to the more than 5,000 programs the library evaluates each year.
Key Elements of Innovation
Built in-house using AI agentic coding tools — not a vendor contract or a dedicated developer role — the PHP/MySQL web application replaces the spreadsheet entirely and gives every programming staffer a shared, real-time scoring system: dynamic, configurable scoring forms with bulk-entry support; an admin portal for managing questions, form profiles, users, teams, and locations without touching code; automatic SPC control charts that flag high- and under-performing programs; comparison and ad hoc reporting; one-click PDF board reports generated in-browser; and a REST API exposing program and score data as JSON. Session-based authentication separates public score entry from a protected admin layer. Because library staff built and maintain it themselves with AI coding tools, other library systems without dedicated engineering budgets could realistically replicate it.
Achieved Outcomes
Between July 2025 and July 2026, the app scored 5,485 programs reaching 60,305 attendees systemwide (avg. Adjusted Impact Score 19.74), plus 3,475 one-on-one sessions and 57 outreach visits reaching another 5,067 people. Adult Services alone logged 3,997 programs (29,253 attendees, avg. score 20.14); Youth Services logged 1,488 programs (31,052 attendees, avg. score 18.66). Control-chart analysis has surfaced clear standouts — 'Plant Swap' (score 51.91, 1,437 attendees) and a virtual author visit with George Takei (score 50.23, 1,700 attendees) both scored well above the systemwide mean — giving staff, for the first time, real evidence of which programs and formats are worth repeating.
