How can data help us transform our libraries? On this show, Sonia Alcantara-Antoine, Chief Executive Officer of Baltimore County Public Library and Past-President of the Public Library Association, discusses transforming the library with data-driven decisions. This valuable information can help us challenge our assumptions, optimize resources, and create impact.
Transcript
This is Adriane Herrick Juarez. You’re listening to Library Leadership Podcast where we talk about libraries and leadership, and speak with guests who share their ideas, innovations, and strategic insights in the profession.
How can data help us transform our libraries? On this show, Sonia Alcantara-Antoine, Chief Executive Officer of Baltimore County Public Library and Past President of the Public Library Association, discusses transforming the library with data-driven decisions. This valuable information can help us challenge our assumptions, optimize resources, and create impact.
Enjoy the show!
Sonia, welcome to the show.
Sonia Alcantara-Antoine:
Thanks for having me, Adriane. I’m really happy to be here.
Adriane Herrick Juarez:
Question #1: Thanks for being here. I’m really happy to have you. Today we are talking about transforming the library with data-informed decisions. As we start, will you please share the importance of using data to make decisions and why this is sometimes not immediately intuitive? 00:54
Sonia Alcantara-Antoine:
Yeah, that’s a great question. You know, all libraries collect data somehow, some way, to tell our story to funders, to elected officials—donors, to ultimately demonstrate impact. So, it’s much easier for a library to say, I need you to give us money. When they can say, Well, we have X number of people that walk through our doors every day, or we have checked out X number of books, or we have X number of computer sessions, or we have X number of programs attended by X number of people. It’s really important that the data tell our story. However, data can really be used to make smarter decisions about how to run the library more efficiently and how to have even greater impact. That’s not easy to do.
Most of us went to library school, and none of us learned business principles, or even budgeting principles in library school, but yet at the end of the day the library is a business. It doesn’t seem that it is, but it is. While our product and our service model is about warm and fuzzy and community connection, at the end of the day, we are a business, and we have to be held accountable to our funders—who are ultimately our taxpayers. So, it’s important for us to use data to make better decisions, to make smarter decisions, so that we can have the greatest amount of impact for our organizations.
Adriane Herrick Juarez:
Question #2: How can data help eliminate our blind spots in libraries? 02:38
Sonia Alcantara-Antoine:
I think we, as human beings, we all have blind spots. We all have biases. The beauty of data is that it helps you challenge your own assumptions, particularly about what you think you know about your community, and who’s in your community, and how they’re using the library. But also, more importantly, it gives you insights into who’s not using the library and how the library is not being used, if that makes sense.
An example of this at Baltimore County Public Library is that I recently tasked my data person. We have a data person here at the library to work with our planning department to give me information on the fastest growing parts of Baltimore County, and where the population trends were, and how the demographics were shifting in Baltimore County.
Here I was thinking that I knew it all, and I knew where all the fastest growing parts of Baltimore County was, but the information that she provided to me really challenged my assumptions. Based on that information, it really shifted our planning in terms of new facilities, and facility investments based on this information. So, I think it’s really critical to use data just to shine a light on the things that you don’t know, and to hold yourself accountable to the things that you do know, and make sure that you’re always on the right path.
Adriane Herrick Juarez:
Question #3: Absolutely, and data can help us optimize limited resources. Will you please discuss this? 04:03
Sonia Alcantara-Antoine:
Well, in libraries, there’s never enough resources. I don’t care what library system you work for. I don’t care how big your budget is. There are never enough resources. By resources, I’m talking about money, I’m talking about staff, I’m talking about buildings, mobile vehicles. There’s not enough hours in the day, even. There’s never enough resources to do all the work that our communities demand of us. So, data really does help us stretch our limited resources and make sure that you are making the best, smartest decisions for maximum impact.
Here at Baltimore County Public Library, one of the data tools that we use is called the Social Vulnerability Index. This is a tool that the federal government uses to track social vulnerability across census tracts. Social vulnerable populations are the ones that are especially at risk during public health emergencies or natural disasters. Think global pandemic, think a hurricane, because certain factors like socioeconomic status, household characteristics, race, ethnic status, transportation or lack thereof is going to impact your ability to weather those storms and/or survive. It’s going to determine the rate of recovery.
So, we use the Social Vulnerability Index to identify, for example, where we have the most vulnerable populations and prioritize facility improvements in those communities. We used SVI to help us figure out how we were going to do Chromebook distributions. When we brought back Sunday service, post-pandemic, we used SVI as one of the metrics to determine where we were going to concentrate that service. So again, it’s using data just to make the smartest, the most impactful decisions for your community.
Adriane Herrick Juarez:
Question #4: In creating impact for your community. This leads us to the next question. How does data serve as a catalyst for advocacy? 06:09
Sonia Alcantara-Antoine:
Well, in my community Baltimore County, and the state of Maryland are pretty blue, pretty progressive. There is a lot of attention paid towards equity. We’re always talking about equity in this community. When I can talk about SVI, for example, and I can say how based on SVI we have identified certain vulnerable under-invested communities and we want to make significant investments in these communities, and make sure that they have 21st-century state-of-the-art libraries—therefore, I need X millions of dollars to build a new library or to expand the existing library. We’ve gotten lots of momentum and lots of support because we’ve been able to tie equity to the reasons why we need funding and support.
In my four years here at Baltimore County Public Library, we have gotten millions of dollars for capital projects from the county and from the state, because we’re able to make that connection about our priorities and the data and equity, and all of that. So, I think it’s been really critical for us—we’ve had a lot of success because of it.
Adriane Herrick Juarez:
Question #5: That’s fantastic. While data can guide us in taking new actions, it can also help us discontinue others. What is the benefit of this? 07:27
Sonia Alcantara-Antoine:
I think data keeps us honest, which is hard to do—well, being honest is easy to do, right? But again, because our service model is warm and fuzzy, touchy/feely, sometimes it’s hard for us in libraries to stop doing the thing that doesn’t have the impact that it should have, or that it used to have, or that we would like it to have because of the one guy that we know, that really sweet guy that comes in and he takes advantage of this one thing that we do. So sometimes, the data gives us permission to be like, You know what? This isn’t working, or it never worked, or it worked before but it’s not working anymore, and maybe we just need to stop doing it.
One of the things that I always challenge my team to do is anytime we’re about to add something onto the plate—we’re going to start something new, we’re going to do something new, we’re going to do something different—then there should always be a discussion of, Okay, if we’re going to start doing this, then what are we going to stop doing?
Sometimes, after discussion, after analysis, after review, we don’t stop doing anything. But sometimes we do stop doing something so that we can accommodate something new. Again, that’s also about managing your resources. There’s never enough people, never enough money, never enough hours in the day to do all the things, but when you are very intentional about deciding what it is that you are going to do, using that data and having those conversations about stopping certain things or discontinuing certain activities allows you to do the things that demonstrate impact for your community.
Adriane Herrick Juarez:
Question #6: That impact and intentionality are important. Thank you. Is there anything else you’d like to share? 09:18
Sonia Alcantara-Antoine:
I think the only thing that I would share is that there’s no—this isn’t a science. Well, data is a science, right? But, the act of trying to use data to make the best decisions is, more of an art and less of a science. There’s not a right or wrong way to do it. I always encourage people just to identify, What data do you already have, and can you use that to make better decisions or smarter decisions? But also try to identify—Well, what’s the data that we’re not collecting? What’s the data that we should be collecting to help us make better decisions?
I really do think that it’s important to also remember to not collect data just for data’s sake—where you just do the door count and then you do the program stats, but then you don’t turn around and then take a look at that data analytically. You should always be looking at the data and asking questions about the data and trying to understand what the data is trying to tell you. It’s not there just for the sake of data. It has a purpose and you should use it.
Adriane Herrick Juarez:
Question #7: It does have a purpose and I appreciate you talking about that. Do you have any favorite leadership books or resources you’d like to share and why? 10:31
Sonia Alcantara-Antoine:
Yeah, there’s a few books that I’ve gravitated towards throughout my career that have always been just go-to’s for me. The First 90 Days by Michael Watkins is a book that I use a lot. This is a fantastic resource for new leaders, or they’re brand new to their organization, or they’re brand new to their role—how do you get yourself acclimated, and how do you start the process of making changes incrementally? But also, thinking about Impact without blowing everything up, right? It’s something that I read when I first got the job as the director of Newport News, and then later on, when I became the director of Baltimore County Public Library, I whipped out my copy of The First 90 Days. Periodically I go back to it because there’s a lot of really great nuggets of wisdom, and it’s a really helpful orientation tool when you have new leaders coming on board in your organization to share, not only to share the book entirely, but also to share certain principles with new leaders, to help them acclimate to their roles and be more successful. That’s an old go-to that I have.
Also on my shelf, I have The Black Public Librarian in America, which I’ve just started reading, but it’s a really great primer on the history of African American librarianship, which is sadly one of the things that none of us ever really learned about in library school, but it is a critical part of our history in this profession. So, those are my two.
Adriane Herrick Juarez:
Question #8: Fantastic resources, thank you. Sonia, in closing, what do libraries mean to you personally? 12:18
Sonia Alcantara-Antoine:
Personally, libraries are a place of transformation where libraries help people live their best lives, but libraries also help you achieve your fullest potential as a human being— whatever that means for you. My parents were immigrants to this country, and they did not have a history of public libraries in their native country, which was the Dominican Republic. They were avid readers. Growing up, I constantly saw books in their hands. They were always reading and they were reading to me, but they never knew—they never took me to the public library because they didn’t know about public libraries as an institution here in the United States. They didn’t know what that building was down the street. They didn’t know that it was free. They didn’t know that there were resources available for me, or that they even had books in Spanish for them. They didn’t know any of that stuff. So, I never discovered public libraries, or I hadn’t discovered public libraries until I was a teenager. But, once I discovered public libraries in particular, I’ve just been hooked. They’re just incredible institutions. And, I am the luckiest gal in the world, because I get to do this job where every day the decisions that I make are impacting the lives of people in my community in big ways, small ways where the library is changing people’s lives every day. And I love that.
Adriane Herrick Juarez:
Question #9: I appreciate you sharing that. Libraries are incredible institutions. Like you, I feel lucky to make an impact as a librarian, and I believe our listeners do too. You mentioned that libraries help all of us realize our fullest potential. What you shared about transforming libraries by making data-driven decisions will help all of us do that. Thank you for being on the show and thank you for all you do. 13:52
Sonia Alcantara-Antoine:
Well, thank you so much and thank you again for having me. I’m a little bit of a data nerd, so I love talking about data and the collection of data, and we should be looking at it and all that. So, thank you for giving me some time to talk about one of my favorite subjects. It’s been a pleasure.
Adriane Herrick Juarez:
My pleasure too, Sonia. Thank you so much.
Sonia Alcantara-Antoine:
Thank you. Adriane.
Adriane Herrick Juarez:
You’ve been listening to Library Leadership podcast. This is Adriane Herrick Juarez. For more episodes, tune into LibraryLeadershipPodcast.com, where you can now subscribe to get episodes delivered right into your email inbox. Our producer is Nathan Sinclair Vineyard. Thanks for listening. We’ll see you next time.
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