What are libraries worth? A way to assess the impact of Italian public libraries on user's lives and society

Abstract

In recent years libraries all over the world have faced major funding cuts, and now more than ever they need to prove their value for individuals and for society. Evaluating the impact of public libraries means to mea- sure elusive and intangible features such as access to information, well-being and social inclusion, and soft methods like interviews, surveys and focus groups are at the moment the most effective techniques to do it. The aim of this project is to identify and test an effective, simple and repeatable method for asses- sing the impact of Italian public libraries. The questionnaire used for the research was originally developed by the IFLA project Global statistics for the 21st century: a few changes were made in order to adapt it to the regional circumstances, then it was tested in 4 libraries situated in Emilia Romagna (northern Italy). The research results tell us something about the perceived and the potential value of the library, since the impact of a library seems to have much to do with the critical topic of the sense or significance of the library. What are the library's aims and relevance today – when so much information can be found and downloaded from the Internet – and what is its future? An impact evaluation study seems capable to – partly – answer to such kind of questions.