Stratford got some good news delivered to city council on June 24 - the public library is seeing outstanding returns on investment.
Krista Robinson, Stratford Public Library’s chief executive officer, presented a report to council detailing the findings of their 2023 Social Return On Investment. Using VOLT (Valuing Ontario Libraries Toolkit), Robinson’s report indicated that for every municipal dollar spent on SPL, the social return on investment (SROI) came back at $6.48 per person in Stratford’s population. That resulted in a total economic benefit of $17,547,252 - a return of nearly 650 per cent.
“SROI calculations take something that is offered at no charge (library services, events, classes and tools) and apply a dollar value to them - with the VOLT, it assesses a dollar value of the library in seven different domains,” she said. “Education, culture, inclusion and well-being, entertainment and leisure, economic development, civic engagement and space. VOLT calculations used our community profile as well as a number of data indicators in each category and applied comparative market values to library services, and within the calculations, dead weight, displacement or attribution values were calculated to subtract from the calculations to most accurately represent the benefits that are unique to public libraries.”
As part of the report, Robinson cited a nine per cent collective increase in the circulation of the library’s materials, including physical (up seven per cent) and digital (up 14 percent). Programming also played a part, as the summer reading programs in 2023 saw more than 5,000 youth and their families engage in 144 programs.
“Additionally, our Drop’N’Swap events were very popular,” Robinson added. “Each swap had between 200-300 in attendance.”
The value added figure also stood out in Robinson’s report. With the library costing each person in Stratford $82 is weighed against the SROI, the economic benefit comes out at $508 per person - a value of over $400 more than the actual cost.
“These results will hopefully let us advocate for continued investment in the library and the work we do in the community,” she said. “The results really do demonstrate the significant importance of the library and the impact it has on Stratford, and helps to show the tangible value of the human-based service we provide.”
Other statistics included in Robinson’s report showed the SPL was visited in person 134,884 times (47 visits per hour), while its digital platforms and social media recorded 657,972 visits. The in-house computers and free Wi-Fi were used 21,878 times as well.
