Data Collection & Communication

The process of developing and hosting events can be boiled down to some key best practices, and most libraries excel at promoting their collections and events in ways that are most relevant to their local communities. Public library collections typically reflect each communities’ potential readership, so their offerings are often more diverse than the average local bookstore’s shelves, and more relevant to local readers than any online retailers’ algorithm. Librarians can also leverage circulation data to produce engaging events that are of specific interest to their local communities, rather than simply aligning with national bestseller lists.

Where too many libraries come up short, however, is in communicating the impact and value of their efforts back to publishers and authors. Most publishers are completely unaware of a library's full commercial impact on discovery and book sales, because full credit typically goes to the final point of sale—also known as last-click attribution.

Measuring the actual value of a library’s marketing efforts, and then communicating that value so publishers can understand and compare it to their traditional marketing channels is a critical final step in the process.

Marketing metrics

  • Ad impressions, email opens/clicks, social engagement

  • Registrations, attendees

  • Feedback survey

  • Monitoring circulation and book sales before and after the event

Book sales

  • At the event

  • Pre- and post-event via local booksellers

  • Additional purchases by library, by format

  • Library-provided giveaways 

Circulation trends

  • Pre- and post-event circulation, by format

  • Impact stories 

Communicating feedback

  • Authors 

  • Publishers/publicists

  • Local booksellers

  • Internal stakeholders (library board, director, manager)

Be sure to thank everyone who supported the event—verbally and through signage at the event itself, and afterwards, via email and/or thank you cards!

Feedback you provide to each stakeholder should be contextualized, easy to read, and backed by hard data. Use specific examples, including positive verbatim feedback received from surveys (anonymized, of course). If you collect data from your ILS / Collection HQ or similar, visualize it with simple charts or graphs.

When communicating with publishers, use the Library Marketing Valuation Toolkit’s customizable templates to present your platform and data in a format they’re used to seeing.