Library Index: replication and expansion

The Wiki on this page acts as the detailed description of all project steps, activities, and methods. The IMLS study "Understanding the Social Wellbeing Impacts of the Nation's Libraries and Museums" presents a Library Presence and Usage Index based on 12 data indicators using 2016 data on US county boundaries. This replication and extension study recreates the index with the library system boundary as the unit of analysis. It expands the index analysis by applying regional variation and studying the difference in variable relevance by level of rurality/urbanity and library type. A further expansion leverages the expertise of library workers to ask: What library data are useful to planning and improving local service? Responses to these questions are compared to variable relevance analysis (factor loadings) to construct a worker-informed Library Performance Index which might be variably constructed based on rurality/urbanity of the community and library structure type.