Keith Curry Lance

Topics for all types of libraries include:

• Can We Talk?: Collecting Data Via Focus Group and Key Informant Interviews
  
Two alternatives to surveys are focus group and key informant interviews. Focus group interviews are a good way to seek out information and develop consensus. Key informant interviews allow one to tap the knowledge of experts. Learn when to use these approaches, and how to pursue them successfully.
• Cut-to-the-Chase Research: Making the Most of Available Data about Libraries, Librarians, and Users
  
Why collect data when it isn't necessary? Consider the possibility that the data you need may already exist. Learn about major sources of available data about libraries, librarians, and users, and how to mine them for what you need to know to make good decisions.
• The Numbers Game (adaptable for all or individual library types)
  
Including any combination of the following:
-- Who's Who in Library Research and Statistics
-- Issues in Collecting and Reporting Statistics
-- Issues in Measuring Use of Electronic Services
-- Strategies for Analyzing and Presenting Data
-- Strategies for Outcome-Based Evaluation
Library managers are frequently daunted by one aspect of their jobs that most library schools do little to prepare them for: dealing with numbers. Mix and match the NUMBERS GAME segments to tailor a session or workshop that meets your needs.
• Policy Research 101: How to Get the Information You Need to Create Good Policy & Make Good Decisions
  
Including any combination of the following:
-- How to Decide?: Available Data, Survey, or Focus Group?
-- Where to Find and How to Use Available Data
-- How to Design a Sample
-- How to Design a Focus Group or Key Informant Interview
-- How to Design a Survey
-- How to Report Survey Results
-- How to Read Research Reports
A new policy is needed, or there is a big decision to be made. You need information. What do you need to know? Who has that information? How can you best elicit it? In addition to answering such questions, these mix-and-match segments can introduce participants to the nuts-and-bolts of the three major strategies for gathering policy- and decision-making data.
• Survey Fatigue: Proven strategies for Avoiding it as Survey Researcher and Potential Respondent
  
People are getting fed-up with surveys. Fatigue, resistance, and low response rates are becoming more frequent. How can a researcher for whom a survey truly is the best methodology design one that doesn't make the potential respondents want to kill you? How can survey-weary practitioners cope better with the torrent of surveys that sometimes comes their way? People on both sides of the survey research divide will get answers to these questions.

Public library topics include:

• Counting on Results: Tools for Outcome-Based Evaluation in Public Libraries
The pressure is on to demonstrate how we make a difference and for whom. This session introduces public library managers to outcome-based evaluation, presents tested models and helps participants get a head-start adapting and applying them in their own situations.
• The LJ Index of Public Library Service: Ranking U.S. Public Libraries on Service Output
In 2009, Keith Curry Lance and Ray Lyons will begin ranking American public libraries on their service output--visits, circulation, use of public Internet computers, and program attendance. How will your library rank? What does that ranking mean? What is your input for the ongoing development of this new planning and evaluation tool?
• Making It Count @ Your Library: the strongest messages, the latest facts, the best sources ... and your library's story
Learn about the research that backs up key public library messages and how to use it to tell your own library's story.
• What's It Worth to You? How to Conduct a Return on Investment (ROI) Study for your Public Library
Since the late Nineties, several states and individual public libraries have answered for their users the following question: for every dollar invested in public libraries, how many dollars of value have been received in return? There are several approaches to answering that question, and several variations of each approach. This presentation will introduce you to them, and you will participate in a guided discussion that will help you decide what kind of ROI study to do. You can then do it yourself, or hire Keith and his consulting colleagues to help.

Topics of interest to school libraries include:

• Power Librarianship: Research-Based Strategies for Leadership, Collaboration, and Technology Integration by School Librarians
What are the implications of all that research for the practice of school librarianship? This session provides research-based strategies, real-life examples, and opportunities to explore how to put these strategies into practice locally.
• Powering Achievement: The Impact of School Librarians and Libraries on Academic Achievement
Since 2000, over a dozen state studies by multiple teams of researchers have demonstrated the measurable impact of school librarians and libraries on students' scores on high-stakes, standards-based tests. This session provides an overview of that research along with recommendations for action based on it.
• What's In It For Me? How Principals and Teachers Benefit from Strong School Library Programs
Having a tough time getting principals and teachers to hear the message of the school library impact studies done in Colorado and at least 15 other states? Maybe it's because they haven't heard what the results mean for them. Remember, everybody's favorite radio station is WII FM (what's in it for me?)!