Panorama Project's 2020 Initiatives Previewed in Newly Released Annual Report
/Reposted from a Press release:
2020 Initiatives Previewed in Newly Released Annual Report
“The share of Americans who report not reading any books in the past 12 months is higher today than it was nearly a decade ago. Today, 27% of adults say they have not read any books in the past year, up from 19% in 2011.”
The Panorama Project’s first full year was a busy one as new ebook and audiobook terms from major publishers sparked intense conversations about libraries’ role in the publishing ecosystem, and the lack of transparent data limited the impact of those conversations. The Project itself was busy as a mid-summer change in leadership and a pivot towards advocacy and engagement required a shift in methodologies and priorities.
“Despite the growth in ebooks and audiobooks over the past decade, there are reportedly fewer people reading books today, and fierce competition for their attention and discretionary spending,” explained project lead, Guy LeCharles Gonzalez. “Coupled with fewer bookstores in fewer communities, it’s vitally important to understand what impact the 16,000+ public libraries across the United States have on developing readers, driving book discovery, and generating book sales.”
“Most people agree,” said Gonzalez, “transparent, actionable data about the public library’s role in the publishing ecosystem would be enormously helpful to everyone.”
To help generate some of this data, the Project announced two new initiatives for 2020 in its newly released annual report. Read the full announcement
These initiatives will include a Consumer Survey and a LIbrary Marketing Valuation Toolkit:
The Consumer Research Committee will include members from key industry stakeholders to ensure credible, actionable research on which media consumers are (and aren't) engaging with, on which platforms, and how perceptions of ownership are evolving in the digital age. The Committee will be chaired by Dr. Rachel Noorda, Director of Publishing and Assistant Professor of English at Portland State University.
We will produce a combined report & toolkit—encompassing the Readers Advisory Activities and Library Events & Book Sales survey results, as well as Cuyahoga County Public Library’s 2018 author events data and a version of their marketing calculator—which will identify best practices for producing events, and specific tactics libraries can use to drive book sales and calculate the total monetary value of their readers’ advisory and marketing efforts.
RF encourages librarians to follow and engage in all efforts to quantify and qualify our impact in hopes of working well with publishers and other stakeholders.