On Wednesday, November 19, I attended a program at RCLS titled “Early Literacy Community Asset Analysis Training.” Essentially, the program explored ways to assess the demographics of a library’s patrons, especially groups that are being under served. Beth Zambito and Randy Enos presented various avenues to explore in order to access the information needed to determine the wants and needs of the community.
A good deal of time was spent on how to set up and lead focus groups to gain an insight into the community.
One idea that I found interesting was how to analyze information gathered. Three categories: the norm, the anomaly, and the trend could help the staff understand data collected. The norm is what is currently being offered by a library, an anomaly deviates from what is expected and a trend is something you can start to predict. Basically, the staff might be working under misinformation thinking, for example, that a norm that you are operating under is no longer accurate.