To continue a series of progress reports almost nobody will (or should!) care about…
Although a couple of those posts combine progress reports with other things–in one case, the second part of my probably-two-part Relevance and Reward, in another case some notes on the “computer game” I actually play…
Wisconsin done
More reporting libraries/library agencies than any state I’d surveyed before–381 of them in all. And almost all of them with web pages (certainly not true for every state). Probably just finished in time: Twitter’s now showing me Wisconsin tourism ads for every search that includes the word “wisconsin.”
The decision
I’m now at the point where I was going to make a decision on just how much I’d expand the original survey of 25 states and slightly more than 2,400 libraries (but more than half of the people).
The eleven states I’ve done now add another 2,537 libraries–which means I’ve now checked more than half of the 9,000-odd public libraries (not physical locations, but reporting entities) in the U.S.
There are two more states I could reasonably survey (the rows are in my spreadsheet but not yet checked): Pennsylvania and Texas. Each of which has a whole bunch of reporting libraries–1,014 between the two of them.
If I stop now, I’ve covered 72% of the states, just about two-thirds of the population, and around 55% of the libraries.
If I add PA and TX, I’ll have covered 76% of the states…but also about 80% of the population and about two-thirds of the libraries. Pennsylvania and Texas combined have almost as much population as the 11 states I just finished surveying…
As very populous states with lots of independent libraries, they also add to the incredible diversity of the states I’ve included (although Massachusetts also fits in this category); California and Florida have relatively few–or at least fewer–reporting library agencies. (New York is one of the dozen states that just isn’t going to be part of this survey, both because of time and because the state library doesn’t show a spreadsheet of library names and LSAs on its statistics website. Illinois and Michigan are also in that group.)
The book really doesn’t need the extra data, but having it will add a little more richness to the picture.
So, well, I’m 99% certain I’ll continue with those two. Not that it matters.
Except….
That I’m formulating a newer “ideal job” picture, one that might be worth posting. I don’t know that it has any more real-world chances than other pipe dreams, but it might be worth fleshing out. Maybe in another post, before or after a stub issue of C&I (yes, I think there will be another 2011 issue; no, I don’t think it will be a substantial one).
How many more Facebook pages and Twitter accounts have I surfaced this time around? Dunno; I haven’t done any analysis of the 11 states. “A bunch” would be one fair summary, as would “certainly not present in nearly all libraries”–but that’s nothing new.
