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The purpose of this paper is to report a range of innovative approaches, methods and tools for evaluating the impact of public libraries and supporting the development of library leaders drawn from projects supported by the Global Libraries initiative of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

A range of approaches, tools and methods are described by specialist staff who were directly involved with these innovations.

Some comments are provided on the effectiveness of these innovations.

All of these innovations have been tried out in public library settings, usually over a period of years.

All of the selected innovations could be adapted and used by library leaders or impact specialists.

Several of the innovations are specifically designed to engage library staff and users in evaluation processes.

The impact planning and assessment programme of GL was the largest sustained international public library evaluation programme so far attempted. This paper reports on the more innovative evaluation activities undertaken through this programme.

The purpose of this paper is to report on recent performance measurement and impact evaluation progress made in Brazil, India, Indonesia, Moldova, Turkey and Vietnam as part of the last phase of the Global Libraries Initiative.

The country reports are presented as a series of case studies, in some cases supplementing those reported earlier in this journal.

Recent country-specific survey findings are reported and some conclusions are offered.

This paper demonstrates how the adoption of a common approach to library service evaluation across several countries can strengthen research practice at country level beyond the Global Libraries Initiative itself.

This paper shares Global Libraries IPA learning at country level with people in other countries who may be contemplating public library evaluation at regional, national or local levels or who are interested in performance measurement and impact evaluation.

The paper shows how focusing on the impact of public library services on users can enhance the understanding of community requirements and inform the development of more effective services to library users and communities.

These case studies reflect concentrated impact evaluation and performance measurement work at country level across a range of countries over more than 18 years.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the evolving IFLA approach to impact evaluation through three of its international programmes: Freedom of Access to Information, Building Strong Library Associations (BSLA) and the International Advocacy Programme (IAP). This review positions these three programmes within the wider discourse of the international evaluation community.

Each of the three programmes is considered in turn to show what they were trying to achieve and how thinking about impact evaluation at IFLA is evolving.

This paper reports key evaluation findings for relevant phases of the BSLA and IAP programmes in general terms.

The views presented are those of the evaluation consultants who advised each of these programmes (and in the cases of BSLA and the IAP conducted the programme evaluations).

The processes described and the conclusions drawn should be of interest to anyone involved in international or national library evaluation, especially of public libraries, library associations and national libraries.

The paper suggests that more systematic impact evaluation of public libraries, library associations and national libraries is necessary to ensure their future survival.

The authors were uniquely placed to see and participate in IFLA impact evaluation discussions over the past decade.

Traces progress in introducing information technology to support administrative and managerial functions in local education authorities and their schools since 1983. Notes the move towards preparing information technology implementation strategies and the somewhat belated recognition of the need for information management of the system. Outlines some likely areas of future difficulty.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the progress made in developing mechanisms for self‐supported impact assessment for a range of library service providers in the UK, and higher education libraries in particular. There is no established tradition for the higher education libraries to evaluate the impact that they have within their organisations.

The authors have created and developed a range of techniques which have been applied across the United Kingdom in school, health, public and higher education libraries, refining the techniques over the last decade.

The impact initiative so far is reviewed and areas for further promotion and development identified.

The work described is one of few that has achieved impact assessment across a wide range of libraries and over a significant period.

When I first became interested in the way social workers use information in the early 1970s, first as an information service provider and then as a researcher:

The purpose of this paper is to report on performance measurement and impact assessment progress made in 14 countries as part of the Global Libraries initiative, starting with the early country grants in Mexico and Chile. For the mature grants in Bulgaria, Botswana, Poland, Romania, Ukraine and Viet Nam which were recently completed or are approaching completion, the nature of the country program is outlined, before the impact assessment work is described and some recent results and conclusions are reported. A similar approach is adopted with pilot and new grants in Colombia, Indonesia, South Africa, Turkey and Lithuania.

The country reports are presented as a series of case studies, in some cases supplementing those in an earlier special issue of this journal.

Where appropriate, recent country-specific survey findings are reported.

This paper shares Global Libraries IPA learning at country level with people in other countries who may be contemplating public library evaluation at regional, national or local level or who are interested in performance measurement and impact evaluation.

These cases studies reflect concentrated impact assessment and performance measurement work at country level across a range of countries over more than 12 years.

The purpose of this paper is to describe a range of innovative (for public library performance measurement and impact assessment) methods and tools developed by country teams as part of the Global Libraries (GL) initiative. Short reports are provided on: a return on investment study, a simplified data processing system for library managers and an online reporting system for public libraries in Ukraine; a study of the public image of Polish libraries in print mass media, two approaches to sustainability of performance measurement and impact assessment in Romania, through tools to conduct pop-up surveys and use of agricultural subsidies support data, assessments of changes in public library managers’ planning efforts in Poland and of their perceptions of libraries and their own role, using Modified Delphi forecasting, in Lithuania, two ways of focussing on the world of public library users by engaging non-profit organizations in library research in Poland and conducting impact studies in virtual environments in Chile.

A range of methods and tools and their uses are described.

No specific research findings are reported.

All of these tools and methods have been (or are being) trialed in national public library contexts; some have been developed over several years.

Useful for people in other (non-GL) countries who may be contemplating public library evaluation at regional, national or local level or who are interested in performance measurement and impact evaluation.

This paper is part of a GL effort to share what participants have learnt about impact planning and assessment in public libraries with the wider international libraries community.

The impact planning and assessment program of GL has been the largest sustained international public library evaluation program so far attempted. This paper reports on the more innovative evaluation activities undertaken at country level through this program.

Over the past few years I have been involved with various research teams looking at organisational communication and at the impact that libraries and other information services have on certain kinds of organisations. When we examined information services in various local government settings (including social services departments, local education authorities, planning departments and more general local government services) we found what appears to be an automatic tendency to serve a relatively narrow band of middle management staff at headquarters.

The aim of this article is to investigate the nature of use and impact of the Improve Your Library self‐evaluation process on school libraries and their integration into whole‐school development planning for pupil learning.

The research is structured in two phases. Phase one seeks to map levels, patterns and experiences of use by those responsible for the library within schools and to establish the nature of support needed for librarians from school library services and training providers. Phase two will track schools in detail to explore the extent of difference the process may have on library integration into the wider school self‐evaluation, development priorities and planning, and on library contribution to pupil reading and learning.

Preliminary investigations indicate that there is considerable diversity in current evaluation practice and in expectations of the Improve Your Library toolkits. There is a need for a national vehicle for sharing individual library experience to inform reflective practice.

The research focused on English schools. Successful delivery of the intended case banks of practice examples is dependent on a good range of schools being willing to share their experience.

Training and support needs and networks will be identified for providers and practitioners. Practical experience will be made available to librarians, school management and policy‐makers.

This is a timely evaluation of the first unified system of library self‐evaluation across English schools within the context of a new approach to whole‐school evaluation. It will provide librarians with a means of sharing and comparing experiences in the absence of a formalised benchmarking system for school libraries and contribute to a national picture of school library activity and priorities.