Tag Archives: Library Map of the World

The 10-Minute International Librarian #82: Ask for a testimonial

It’s important for libraries to be able to tell the story of what they do.

Showing how a collection, a service or a programme can make a difference to someone’s life is a powerful way of explaining why our institutions and our profession matter.

You can find some great examples of this on the Library Map of the World for example.

But as we’ve already discussed in a previous exercise, sometimes the most powerful advocates for libraries are non-librarians.

Because while librarians advocating for libraries is to be expected, external support can provide key support, getting new groups to think about what is so important our work.

While they can be someone more famous, day-to-day users can also be effective, even only by providing a story of a positive experience that you can use in your work.

So for our 82nd 10-Minute International Librarian, ask for a testimonial.

Think if any of your users could record – in writing or on video – a short piece talking about how your work made a difference for them.

Be gentle about asking them, and explain why it will help ensure that they can continue to benefit from effective services into the future.

Give them the option to contribute in a way that works for them – submitting by e-mail, filling in a paper at the library, or recoding in the library itself.

Be clear about what you would use the testimonial for and encourage them to be brief and to the point in their words.

Let us know the best stories from users you have received in the comments box below.

Good luck!

 

This idea relates to the IFLA Strategy! Key Initiative 3.3: Empower the field at the national and regional levels

As we publish more ideas, you will be able to view these using the #10MinuteInternationalLibrarian tag on this blog, and of course on IFLA’s Ideas Store! Do also share your ideas in the comments box below!

The 10-Minute International Librarian #25: Learn and Tell a Library Story

The two key types of evidence in building the case for libraries are data and stories.

Data reaches out to the ‘right’ brain, appealing to the logical, the rational.

But sometimes, you need to be able to reach out first to emotions, to help them to see themselves in a particular situation.

You need to attract the ‘left’ brain as well

Stories, featuring people rather than just statistics, can help do this, engaging the person you are talking to, ensuring that they pay more attention to the numbers afterwards.

Of course, this is not to say that statistics do not have their place in stories. They can back up your arguments, demonstrate real-world change.

So for our 25th 10-Minute International Librarian exercise, learn and tell a library story.

You can find great examples of course on IFLA’s Library Map of the World, or in articles in newspapers or online.

Choose a story with a strong human element, even with names if that is possible. Make sure you can tell it confidently and quickly – it can be a great way of starting a conversation.

Share your favourite example in the comments below.

Good luck!

 

This idea relates to the IFLA Strategy! 2.1 Produce, communicate and distribute key resources and materials that inspire the profession .

You can view all of our ideas using the #10MinuteInternationalLibrarian tag on this blog, and of course on IFLA’s Ideas Store! Do also share your ideas in the comments box.

 

The 10-Minute International Librarian #22: Find out about priorities for libraries in another country

We have so much to learn from each other!

Wherever libraries exist, there are people reflecting on how best to offer services that meet the needs of users.

Everyone has lessons to give and to take.

Indeed, one of the key goals of the IFLA Strategy is to enable discussion and exchange between libraries in different countries.

A key starting point for any exchange is to identify issues of shared interest – concrete topics on which you can organise discussions or ask questions.

So for our 22nd 10-Minute International Librarian exercise, find out about priorities for libraries in another country.

Thanks to the internet, this can be easy. A first place to look is IFLA’s Library Map of the World, where our country pages include an overview of key issues for the library field in each country.

You can also simply choose a country in which you’re interested, and look for their website or social media pages online.

If they have a published strategy, what are the subjects that matter most? If not, which topics get the most attention?

If some are the same as the issues you are facing, why not get in contact to find out more?

You can use the comments box below to share the most interesting library association websites or social media pages from other countries that you have visited.

Good luck!

 

This idea relates to the IFLA Strategy! 3.2 Support virtual networking and connections.

You can view all of our ideas using the #10MinuteInternationalLibrarian tag on this blog, and of course on IFLA’s Ideas Store! Do also share your ideas in the comments box.

Library Stat of the Week #9: Globally, one in every 1525 workers is a member of library staff, but it’s 1 in 613 in North America, and 1 in 237 in Estonia!

Library Stat of the Week 9 - Globally, one in every 1525 workers is a member of library staff, but it's 1 in 613 in North America and 1 in 237 in EstoniaLast week, we looked at the number of librarians for every 100 000 people around the world, with Oceania coming in highest at 84 – that’s one in every 1190 people.

But what about library staff in the workforce? How big a share of jobs are as librarians and related staff members (defined as librarians, other professional staff, project staff and assistants)?

This matters because in addition to the role that libraries play in their communities, librarianship in itself is a significant profession, like journalism, publishing, or architecture.

Librarians can also contribute to the success of businesses and other organisations through effective knowledge management and presentation.

In order to understand how big a share of the workforce librarians represent, we therefore compared Library Map of the World data on number of library staff (including librarians, assistants and project staff) with World Bank figures on the size of the workforce.

Globally – or at least for the 111 countries for which we can carry out the analysis – there are 2.1 million library staff in a workforce of 3.2 billion. This means that one in every 1525 workers is a librarian or other professional staff member.

Graph showing the number of library staff as a share of the workforce

But as always, this varies, with North America having the biggest share of librarians in the total workforce – 1 in 613, closely followed by Europe outside of the EU at 1 in 650 (the figure for Europe as a whole is 1 in 759) and with Oceania a little further behind at 1 in 748.

In eleven countries, 1 in 500 or fewer workers is a library staffer, with Estonia coming in top at 1 in 237. Cuba scores highest outside of Europe at 1 in 374 (Chile comes in on 1 in 517).

In Asia, Macao has the largest share of librarians in the workforce (1 in 514), in North America it’s the United States (1 in 589), in Oceania it’s Australia (1 in 590), in the Middle East and North Africa it’s Qatar (1 in 3126) and in Africa it’s Namibia (1 in 3934).

To give a sense of comparison, this means that in a country like the United States, for example, there are almost three times as many library staff as there are architects, while in the UK, there are 50% more library staff than there are people working in publishing.

 

Find out more on the Library Map of the World, where you can download key library data in order to carry out your own analysis! See our other Library Stats of the Week! We are happy to share the data that supported this analysis on request.

 

Library Stat of the Week #8: The Oceania region has the highest number of library staff per 100 000 people – over 84 – but Belarus has the highest for a single country at 227!

One of the key attractions of libraries as places to deliver public policy goals are librarians and other library staff – professional and qualified staff, plus project staff and assistants.

With either specific library qualifications or bringing other skills, they are vital for ensuring that users receive the support they need, and keeping spaces welcoming and friendly. Through their initiatives, libraries can become skills hubs, cultural centres, and portals to open government information, to give just a few examples.

While there is a growing reliance on volunteers, and even experimentation with staff-less libraries, in some countries, none of this lessens the value of professional staff.

Library Map of the World Data already gives an idea of how many library staff there are globally – over 1.5 million!

Comparing this with population data from the World Bank allows us to go further and understand how many librarians and other library staff are at work for every 100 000 people – the size of a large town or small city.

Graph showing number of library staff per 100 000 people in different world regions

Looking across regions, and countries for which data is available, it is possible to show that Oceania has the highest number of library staff per 100 000 people – 84.4, with North America close behind at 83.3. Globally, the figure is 26.3 – roughly one librarian for every 3 800 people.

Nationally, the variation is much stronger – Belarus has the highest number of librarians per 100 000 people at 226.8, with Estonia not far behind at 221.

In other regions, Macao China has the most in Asia (121.4), Cuba in Latin America (119.9), Australia in Oceania (89.8), the United States in North America (86.1), Qatar the most in the Middle East and North Africa (24.5) and Namibia the most in Africa (10).

 

Find out more on the Library Map of the World, where you can download key library data in order to carry out your own analysis! See our other Library Stats of the Week! We are happy to share the data that supported this analysis on request.

Library Stat of the Week #7: High rates of library connectivity in Kenya, Thailand and Mongolia offer potential for digital skills programming

In our 6th Library Stat of the Week, we looked at the share of public libraries which offer internet access in countries for which data is available.

As underlined, being able to provide this access is an increasingly important way for libraries to achieve their mission to give access to information.

The possibility to give access also means that libraries can host digital skills training, from the most basic abilities to more advanced capabilities. Such training can be particularly important in countries where people are less used to the internet, and so have not had the possibility to develop digital literacy.

Many funders are keen to support such initiatives. But how to identify where it could be easiest to do so?

One way is to look at data about the share of public libraries which offer internet access compared to the share of adults with their own internet access. Where there are higher levels of library connectivity (share of public libraries offering internet access), but lower levels of general connectivity (share of the adult population online), potential funders of digital skills programmes may have a particular interest in working with libraries.

We can identify these countries by crossing data from the IFLA Library Map of the World with that from the International Telecommunications Union:

Graph comparing shares of libraries offering internet access with shares of the population online

In this graph, each dot is a country for which data is available. Every country over the diagonal line has a higher rate of library connectivity than of general connectivity.

 

This gap is particularly high in Kenya, Mongolia, Saint Lucia, Thailand, Croatia, Kenya and South Africa, suggesting that they may be particularly interesting places to invest in digital skills programmes in libraries.

Clearly, as ever, the data is incomplete – figures for public library connectivity are only available for 30 countries, and there is the possibility of under-reporting. Nonetheless, this underlines the possibility to apply Library Map of the World data to support this sort of decision-making.

 

Find out more on the Library Map of the World, where you can download key library data in order to carry out your own analysis! See our other Library Stats of the Week! We are happy to share the data that supported this analysis on request.

Library Stat of the Week #4: Around the world, having more public libraries tends to be associated with higher literacy rates

A core function of libraries is the support they provide for literacy.

Traditionally, this has been through providing access to materials. Many librarians have brought their passion for books to their jobs, and encourage others to do the same.

In some cases, libraries are involved in more formal efforts to build literacy, in particular among people outside of the formal education system.

Clearly the capacity of libraries to promote literacy depends on how far they are able to reach people. If there is only one library covering a large area and/or population, this job may be harder.

Early analysis of figures from Library Map of the World allow us to take a first look at the correlation between numbers of libraries and adult literacy rates (taken from the World Bank).

They show that there is a correlation between these. The smaller the population individual public libraries need to cover, the higher the literacy rates of the country.

Graph comparing the average number of people served by each public library in a country and the adult literacy rate

Based on figures forcountries where both sets of numbers are available (numbers of public libraries per head and adult literacy in the past three years), it appears that for every 50000 people the average public library needs to serve, adult literacy falls by 0.4 percentage points.

Clearly it is necessary to be cautious in interpreting these figures, which cover only 32 countries. Moreover, correlation does not mean causality.

Finally, it may well be the case that below a certain threshold of people served per library, the connection disappears. However, it remains clear that countries with higher adult literacy are, in general, characterised by denser coverage of libraries.

 

Find out more on the Library Map of the World, where you can download key library data in order to carry out your own analysis! See our other Library Stats of the Week! We are happy to share the data that supported this analysis on request.