Three impact evaluations in the province of Barcelona libraries

In recent years, Barcelona Provincial Council has followed a strategy of evaluating the impact of its library programmes. This article presents the impact evaluation results of three such programmes. The impact evaluation of ‘easy-to-read’ clubs was made using a before-and-after methodology, and it showed a 54% increase in participants’ reading habits, and an 18% increase in their language skills. Digital training courses for over 55s were evaluated through randomized control trials. Participants increased their use of communication apps by 15%, and their use of Internet for leisure purposes and access to media by 18%. Finally, a reading promotion programme called ‘Velocirepte’ was analysed to evaluate its impact on the use of library services, through a quasi-experimental matching methodology. On average, participants took out almost 9 more library books per year than the control group.