Tuesday, March 17, 2020

Data Collection for Virtual Programs

[Note: For additional updated information on this post, please see this March 19 update on the blog]

Dear Library Staff Serving Youth,

Compassionate greetings to you all during these unprecedented times. I know that many of you are responding to library closures, cleaning materials, and offering virtual resources to children and families, amongst numerous other efforts right now.

Specifically regarding virtual programming, I wanted to share the following detail about data collection for virtual attendance. Livestreaming numbers should be counted for attendance - views of recordings should not. 

It's tricky with online platforms to measure attendance in a meaningful way. This article from Boxcast that explains the differences in measuring using those platforms. For example, if you're scrolling through your Facebook feed and the library's livestream starts auto-playing and you let it auto play for 3 seconds - Facebook counts that viewer as viewer who watched for "a significant amount of time."
I hope this information is helpful to you.

Be well,

Tessa Michaelson Schmidt
Public Library Consultant – Youth and Inclusive Services
Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction
(608) 267-5077

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