Created by: Martha Hale, Patti Butcher & Cindi Hickey
Web site design by
Cindi Hickey.

This site is owned by the the Northeast Kansas Library System.

Hosted by

Last revised: 03/12/2008

Site Bibliography

Community Analysis/Community Needs Assessment:

Assess Community Needs and Resources (http://ctb.ku.edu/tools/chapter_1003.htm)
A guide to community assessment including a detailed outline of questions to explore. This web page is one component of the Community Toolbox (http://ctb.ku.edu/tools/), University of Kansas.

Community analysis guides based on the Public Library Association's community scan recommendations from The New Planning for Results: A Streamlined Approach.

Community Engagement: Brief Overview of Data Collection Methods. Fact sheets regarding various data collection methods from the Minnesota Department of Health. [http://www.health.state.mn.us/communityeng/needs/needs.html]

"Community Analysis Methods and Evaluative Options: The CAMEO Handbook"
An alternate plan for analyzing your library community including worksheets and instructions for using them. [http://skyways.lib.ks.us/pathway/cameo/index.htm] This web site is being hosted by New Pathways in partnership with the Library of Virginia.

Evans, G. Edward. (2000). Information needs assessment. Developing Library and Information Center Collections. 4th Ed. Greenwood, CO: Libraries Unlimited. 31-68.

Finding trustees of the future: Library boards should mirror needs of the community. (1994, Spring). Texas Libraries. 55: 27.

Greer, Roger C. and Hale, Martha L. (1980). "Models Related to Community Analysis."

Guerera, S. (1990). Community analysis and needs assessment. Latino Librarianship: A Handbook for Professionals. Jefferson, NC: McFarland.

Hale, Martha L. (1991, November). "Suggestions for Data Collection for Community Analysis".

Keller, Shelly. (1996). The secret power of community connections. The Reference Librarian. 54:29-44.

Krasny, Michael (interviewer). "What is community?" Various "celebrities" offer their definitions of community. [http://www.motherjones.com/mother_jones/MJ94/krasny.html]

McCook, Kathleen de la Pena. (2000). A Place at the Table: Participating in Community Building. Chicago: American Library Association.

Pettigrew, Karen E.and Wilkinson, Margaret A. (1996, Oct.). Control of community information: An analysis of roles. The Library Quarterly. 66: 373-407.

Sarling, Jo Haight and Van Tassel, Debra S. (1999). Community analysis: Research that matters to a North-Central Denver community. Library and Information Research. 21(1): 7-29. (See also -- Community Analysis For Libraries and Librarians for a thorough overview and history of community analysis.) [http://skyways.lib.ks.us/pathway/ca_homepage.html]

Vavrek, B. (1995, January). Rural libraries and community development. Wilson Library Bulletin, 42-44.

Vital Communities.  Resources for Community Revitalization & Reinvention.  A project of the Davenport (IA) Public Library.  [http://www.vitalcommunities.com]

Witkin, B. R. and Alltschuld, J. W. (1995). Planning and Conducting Needs Assessments: A Practical Guide. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Zweizig, Douglas L. (1992). Community Analysis. In Keeping the Books: Public Library Financial Practices. Jane B. Robbins and Douglas L. Zweizig (Eds.) Fort Atkinson, WI: Highsmith Press. pp. 225-238.

Zweizig, D., Johnson, Wilcox, D. Wilcox, and Robbins, J. (1996). The TELL IT! Manual: The Complete Program for Evaluating Library Performance. Chicago: American Library Association.

Example:



Data Collection:

Community Analysis guides based on the Public Library Association's community scan recommendations. (See The New Planning for Results: A Streamlined Approach

Community Engagement: Brief Overview of Data Collection Methods. Fact sheets regarding various data collection methods from the Minnesota Department of Health. [http://www.health.state.mn.us/communityeng/needs/needs.html]

Hale, Martha L. (1991, November). "Suggestions for Data Collection for Community Analysis". [http://academic.emporia.edu/hickeyci/li811/datagath.html]

Demographic (Census) Resources:

ePodunk: The Power of Place (http://www.epodunk.com/)
This web site offers loads of community information. Visit the main web site and then look for a profile of your community, including census information, at http://www.epodunk.com/profiles/ks_a.html. You may even find some picture postcards of your town.

Kansas State Data Center (http://kslib.info/ref/census/index.html)
Provided by the Kansas State Library this web site offers various data tables specific to racial populations, and Kansas city and county tables.

U.S. Census Bureau - Quick Facts for Kansas (http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/20000.html)
A table of Kansas demographic details compared to national figures.

Situation & Trends Reports 2008 for Kansas (http://www.oznet.ksu.edu/direct/Sit&Trends.htm)
"Social, economic, and demographic data and trends for each Kansas county from Census data and other sources." Office of Local Government, K-State Research and Extension

Census 2000 - Kansas (http://www.ku.edu/pri/ksdata/census/2000/index.shtml)
Institute for Policy & Social Research, University of Kansas (http://www.ipsr.ku.edu/ksdata/), offers a variety of graphs, tables and maps of Kansas census data in formats including Microsoft Excel and Adobe Acrobat. Links to download sites for view software for these formats are also included.

Community Information by Zip Code (http://library.csun.edu/mfinley/zipstats.html)
Offered by the California State University Northridge, University Library, this web site offers links to a variety of resources related to zip code demographic research.

Facts for Features & Special Editions
"Facts for Features and Special Editions consist of collections of statistics from the Census Bureau's demographic and economic subject areas intended to commemorate anniversaries or observances or to provide background information for topics in the news."

Focused Conversations:

Bell South, Digital Storyteller. (2002). The Art of Conducting an Interview. (http://www.knowitall.org/bellsouthdigitalstoryteller/training/pdf/interview.pdf)

Burke, Raymond R. (1997). "Focus Groups." Kelley School of Business, Indiana University. [http://www.bus.indiana.edu/mcarterg/clp/focusg.htm]

Community Engagement: When to Use Focus Groups. Minnesota Department of Health. [http://www.health.state.mn.us/communityeng/needs/focus.html]

Gibbs, Anita. (1997, Winter). Focus Groups. Social Research Update. [http://www.soc.surrey.ac.uk/sru/SRU19.html]

Greenbaum, Thomas. (1998, Sep. 14). 10 tips for running successful focus groups. Marketing News. 32(19): 25-26. [Available at: http://www.groupsplus.com/pages/mn091498.htm.]
See also: Articles by Tom Greenbaum for a list of recent articles about conducting focus groups.

Greenbaum, Thomas L. (1993). The Handbook for Focus Group Research. New York: Lexington Books.

Guidelines for Conducting a Focus Group. Center for Urban Transportation Studies, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. [http://www.uwm.edu/Dept/CUTS/focus.htm]

Hutton, R. Bruce and Suzanne Walters. (1988). Focus groups: Linkages to the community. Public Libraries. 27(3).
Krueger, Richard A. & Casey, Mary Anne. (2000). Focus groups: A practical guide for applied research. (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Ledingham, John A. and Bruning, Stephen D. (1998/1999 Winter). Ten tips for better focus groups. Public Relations Quarterly. 43(4): 25-28. [Note: This article is available in full-text through the statewide access to FirstSearch.]

Massey-Burzio, Virginia. (1998, May). From the other side of the reference desk: focus group study. The Journal of Academic Librarianship. 24(3): 208-215.

*McNamara, Carter. (1999). General Guidelines for Conducting Interviews. (http://www.mapnp.org/library/evaluatn/intrview.htm) - This is an excellent, comprehensive resource for interviewing.

McNamara, Carter, PhD. (1998, February 16). "Basics of Conducting Focus Groups." The Management Assistance Program for Nonprofits. [http://www.mapnp.org/library/evaluatn/focusgrp.htm]

Nielsen, Jakob. (1997). The use and misuse of focus groups. [http://www.useit.com/papers/focusgroups.html]

Sandlian, Pamela and Walters, Suzanne. (1991, February). A Room of their Own: Planning the new Denver Children's Library. School Library Journal, pp. 26-29.

Sherraden, Michael. (1998). "How to do Focus Groups." Originally included in IDA Evaluation Handbook: A Practical Guide and Tools for Evaluation of Pioneering IDA Projects. Note: This web site is a Microsoft Word document. [http://www.ln.edu.hk/mkt/courses/howtodofocusgroups.doc]

Terman, Karen. (1996). Getting things in focus: The use of focus groups in Brent libraries. Library Management. 17(2): 36-39.

For links to a variety of web sites with information about Focus Group research, visit Research Methods Resources on the WWW, Qualitative Group Methods: Focus Groups. [http://www.slais.ubc.ca/resources/research_methods/group.htm]

Interviewing:

Bell South, Digital Storyteller. (2002). The Art of Conducting an Interview. (http://www.knowitall.org/bellsouthdigitalstoryteller/training/pdf/interview.pdf)

Ledingham, John A. and Bruning, Stephen D. (1998/1999 Winter). Ten tips for better focus groups. Public Relations Quarterly. 43(4): 25-28.

*McNamara, Carter. (1999). General Guidelines for Conducting Interviews. (http://www.mapnp.org/library/evaluatn/intrview.htm) - This is an excellent, comprehensive resource for interviewing.

S.W.O.T. Analysis:

Danca, Anthony C. SWOT Analysis.
An explanation of the S.W.O.T. Analysis process. [http://www.stfrancis.edu/ba/ghkickul/stuwebs/btopics/works/swot.htm]

McNamara, Carter. (1999). Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT Analysis).
A portion of a comprehensive web site, Strategic Planning (in nonprofit or for-profit organizations). This site offers a wealth of information for library planners. [http://www.mapnp.org/library/plan_dec/str_plan/str_plan.htm#anchor954715]

Mind Tools. (2001, Dec.) SWOT Analysis - Understanding Your Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.
A guide to using the S.W.O.T. Analysis tool it provides information about why to use S.W.O.T., provides questions to consider, and an example. [http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTMC_05.htm]

National Arts Marketing Project. (2002, April 10). SWOT: A Planning Tool for the Future.
A concise guide to employing S.W.O.T. Analysis. [http://www.cultural-alliance.org/pubs/swot.htm]

UBC Library SWOT Analysis.
A checklist of questions to consider when participating in a S.W.O.T. analysis for your library. [http://www.library.ubc.ca/home/swot-analysis.pdf]

Walkabout:

Doing a Walkabout from Pointer (Patterns of Interaction)




Evaluation:

McNamara, Carter. Basic Guide to Program Evaluation. (1999). The Management Assistance Program for Nonprofits. [http://www.mapnp.org/library/evaluatn/fnl_eval.htm]

Robbins, Jane and Zweizig, Douglas. (1988). Are We There Yet? Evaluating Library Collections, Reference Services, Programs, and Personnel. School of Library and Information Studies, University of Wisconsin, Madison.



Internal Library Audit:

Booth, Tracey. Pre-Marketing: Analysis of Information Needs.
Booth's web guide provides a planning process for library marketing, including a discussion of the assessment of the internal environment. [http://www.libsci.sc.edu/bob/class/clis724/SpecialLibrariesHandbook/booth.htm]

Cram, Laura. (1995, Winter). The marketing audit: Baseline for action. Library Trends. 43(3): 326-348.
This article provides an enlightening discussion of the importance of self assessment (internal audit) as part of the planning process.

Weingand, Darlene E. (1997). Chapter 4: The marketing audit: Using systems analysis to inform marketing research. Future Driven Marketing. Chicago: American Library Association, 47-61.

Weingand, Darlene. (1999). Marketing/Planning Library and Information Services. (2nd Ed.) Englewood, CO: Libraries Unlimited.


Mission & Vision Statements:

Sample Public Library Mission Statements [http://midhudson.org/department/member_information/missions.htm]

Mission statements - mission impossible? From Libraries Build Communities [http://librariesbuildcommunities.org/?p=48]

Why do libraries exist? What's Your Mission? [http://www.olc.org/orientation/lib.htm]

The Alliance for Nonprofit Management. [http://www.allianceonline.org/FAQ/strategic_planning]
This link will take you to a FAQ site. Click on "Strategic Planning" and browse the whole section on planning, including the useful comments on mission statements and vision statements.

Kouzes, James M. and Posner, Barry Z. (1996, May-June). The Futurist. pp. 14-19.


Planning:

Imperatives for Planning. Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, Public Library Development. [http://www.dpi.state.wi.us/dlcl/pld/chapter1.html]

Lewis, Andrea D. (2000, July/August). Writing a successful long-range Plan for a PL. Marketing Library Services. 14(5). Available http://www.infotoday.com/mls/jul00/lewis.htm.

McNamara, Carter. (1999). Strategic Planning (in nonprofit or for-profit organizations). Management Assistance Program for Nonprofits. [http://www.mapnp.org/library/plan_dec/str_plan/str_plan.htm]

Nelson, Sandra for the Public Library Association. (2001). The New Planning for Results: A Sreamlined Approach. Chicago: American Library Association.

Library Marketing - Chris Rippel's favorite links [http://del.icio.us/chrisrippel/LibraryMarketing]

Raber, Douglas. (1995, Fall.) A conflict of cultures: Planning vs. tradition in public libraries. Reference Quarterly. 35(1): 50-63.

Strategic Planning in Smaller Nonprofit Organizations: A Practical Guide for the Process (April, 1999). [http://www.wmich.edu/nonprofit/Guide/guide7.htm]
Jan Lyddon, Ph.D., Western Michigan University.

Zimmerman, Michael. (1997, December). Your library strategic plan: Plan the writing before you write the plan. Information Outlook. 40-41.


What is community?

Krasny, Michael (interviewer). "What is community?" Various "celebrities" offer their definitions of community. [http://www.motherjones.com/mother_jones/MJ94/krasny.html]

Vital Communities.   Resources for Community Revitalization & Reinvention.  A project of the Davenport (IA) Public Library.  [http://www.vitalcommunities.com]