Dr. Dan Barron, USC
Summarized by: Ms. Joan Newberry
How do we measure the success of our community networking projects so that we can go to our local agencies and say, "Start working us into your budgets"? How can we demonstrate that we have made a difference in the community?
We can say that we have a certain number of databases containing information relating to various topics, we can state the number of persons who have signed on to the service, we can count the training sessions we have conducted, but how do we prove we have made a difference?
One participant suggested that it might be possible to demonstrate to an agency that it could save money on postage and printing by posting its schedule on a community network. If the network became the provider of information, agency staff could be diverted from answering questions over the phone to accomplishing more productive work.
Another participant described a mentor program in use in her area. Students from each school in the area were trained at the network center and paid (through grant funds) to go back to their schools and teach others the skills needed to use the network.
There are no easy answers. A research agenda is currently lacking in this area. The traditional reports that libraries have always used are not very helpful. Most measure usage, but don't really show how the services provided make a difference in the community.
The objectives you set will determine how you will measure. The systematic development of your program should be done with an eye on reporting back to your funding agencies and demonstrating the positive impact. Build into the plan an outside evaluation team. Some of your information providers may already have in place a way to evaluate the impact of their services in the community, and they can share this information with you.
Dr. Barron recommends a portfolio evaluation. Label every element, every objective. Answer the question, "What have we done to reach this goal?" This could serve as a type of marketing of your services.
Some work has been done in this area. Stanford University has done a lot of study on the impact of online communications in their community. Dr. Barron is working on a paper that has to do with the impact of community networks on communities.
Education and information are critical for economic development of a community; they are critical for cultural maintenance and critical for personal quality of life. By education and information, Dr. Barron means the totality of formal skills as well as informal education that has to belong to some of our agencies and institutions which help people in lifelong learning and decision making. He is not just talking about formal schooling, but also counseling from agencies such as the Red Cross, the Cancer Foundation, and the Rape Crisis and Prevention Center.
Cultural maintenance should be a celebration of difference. Community networks can help here. The more we know and understand other cultures in the community, the more we talk to each other, the more we share with each other, the more we will have a community that really is a community. The community network should be able to demonstrate its effectiveness as bridging the gap between those people who have information and know how to use it and those who don't.