Thomas Childers

The Use of Public Library Roles for Effectiveness Evaluation.

Abstract This article examines the roles from the Public Library Association planning and measurement tools for their usefulness in evaluating public library effectiveness. It addresses four questions: What roles are chosen most often?, Can we distinguish among libraries based on their role choices?, Do libraries with different role choices perform differently?, and, Can performance differences form an empirical basis for role definitions? Data for this study came from the Public Library Effectiveness Study (PLES), a survey of 2,418 stakeholders in 84 public libraries nationwide. Respondents from the sampled libraries evidenced both uniformity and diversity in their choice of roles; the favorite roles were those historically associated with public libraries. The libraries could be divided into one group serving smaller populations and focusing on the more popular roles and another serving larger populations and aspiring to fulfill a greater variety of roles. The cluster with a greater variety of roles also performed better than did the other group on more than half of the effectiveness indicators tested. This study has implications for future revisions in standardized role statements and for future research Unking performance to organizational goals.