Reviewing trends in demographic data reveals what local communities look like and how they are changing. State, District, and local libraries rely on data from the U.S. Census Bureau to inform decisions about the distribution of funds and assistance to the locations with the most need. Community stakeholders determine where to build new branches, host programs, and find their most vulnerable patrons based on census data.
But to improve services, programs, and resources, to plan strategically for the future, and to realize your library’s full potential, consider going beyond demographics.
Broadening the data collection net beyond the ultra-important neighborhood-level demographic data from the Census and the American Community Survey (ACS) allows you to better identify community needs and close service gaps. By examining economic, social, health, and/or housing datasets that shed light on other issues beyond population, age, language, race, and ethnicity, you can support all the members of your community.
Consider digging deeper into:
Leveraging additional place-based data resources can also help your library locate community advocates and stakeholders:
Wondering “How do I find information about my library’s community?” PolicyMap has the web’s largest collection of geographic data. Our data comes from hundreds of disparate sources, but is standardized to allow for simple analysis across indicators.
Through PolicyMap, your internal measures like circulation, visits, collection, acquisitions, electronic resource usage, reference/chat transactions, and library instruction sessions can be aggregated and layered with community-level data on computer and internet access, transportation, social determinants of health, health outcomes, educational attainment, graduation rates, and more. Visualizing the combined datasets produces unparalleled community insights; leading to improvements in cardholder engagement, in collection development, and in addressing service area needs.
Interested in digging deeper into your own community analysis? Fill in the form below to schedule time to learn more about how PolicyMap allows librarians to combine Census and ACS data with other place-based data to uncover powerful community insights. We work with state, district and local libraries across the U.S. on planning, developing, and evaluating their services. We also support incredible library consultants who develop community and demographics analysis for public libraries.