Data collection and reporting to measure success

Measuring changes in confidence of library staff

 We will be asking all library staff to complete the following questionnaire:

  • Have you accessed the training resources for libraries webpage?
  • Yes/No
  • How helpful have you found the information on the training resources for libraries webpage?
  • Likert scale – Not at all helpful through to Very helpful
  • Have you accessed the library communications and social media toolkit?
  • Yes/No
  • How helpful have you found the resources on the library communications and social media toolkit?
  • How confident do you feel to signpost library staff and volunteers to health information resources on the library toolkit?
  • Likert scale – Not at all confident through to Very confident for all confidence questions
  • How confident do you feel showing someone how to use the NHS App?
  • Likert scale – Not at all confident through to Very confident for all confidence questions
  • How confident do you feel showing someone how to use the NHS Account on a browser?
  • Likert scale – Not at all confident through to Very confident for all confidence questions
  • How confident do you feel to signpost people to health information resources for the public?
  • Likert scale – Not at all confident through to Very confident for all confidence questions
  • Please share any thoughts, suggestions or learning so far with us
  • Free text answers

We will be asking for this information at the start of the service, and at six monthly intervals whilst the partnership is in place to measure change.

We will send the survey to each library service for cascade to people working in libraries, and send reminders to ask for return data

(We will use Microsoft Forms to distribute and analyse the survey)

Measuring the estimated numbers of people who supported, the type of support have they received and what to library services need to do?

We will be asking each library service to estimate the numbers of service users helped for each of the following questions:

  • How many people have you helped this week to set up and use an NHS account – NHS Website?
  • How many people have you helped this week to download and use the NHS App?
  • How many people have you helped this week to access trusted health information such as WWW.NHS.UK?

Our preference is that these questions are collected at a library branch level, so that the libraries post code can be used as a proxy measure for service users’ indices of deprivation, if that is feasible.

We also ask that you collect on a library service basis the impact of your local media/social media.

Our suggestion is that we ask for this information to be sent to us bi-monthly. Library staff will be sent a reminder.

We have developed templates that can be used to support collection.

  • A word document that can be printed out and used to write a tally
  • A spreadsheet for library services to capture information shared with them. Please make sure that this is password protected when shared with us.

Please email england.kfh@nhs.net to be sent these templates. Please also fee free to amend these or develop and use your own.

We acknowledge that this is a proxy measure and not all libraries all of the time will be able to complete this information all of the time.

What social media and media information should we collect to help measure impact?  


We recommend you measure the following media and social media impact measures:

How many social media messages have you posted, broken down by the different types

  • Facebook
    •  X
    •  Instagram
    •  Newsletters/bulletins
    •  Other

How many local media opportunities have there been?

  • Print
    •  Radio
    •  Television

Not that we are expecting this, but if there have been please do collect and share.

We then recommend you review impact of these posts using the following measures: 

Instagram analysis per post  

  • Number of post interactions 
    •  Number of likes 
    •  Number of comments  
    •  Number of shares  
    •  Number of impressions 
    •  Number of Accounts reached 
    •  Number of accounts engaged  

    Facebook analysis per post  

  • •  Page views  
    •  Reach  
    •  Impressions 

X analysis per post

  • Number of comments  
    •  Number of Reposts  
    •  Number of Likes 
    •  Number of views 
    •  Newsletter  
    •  Number of members/residents you sent the newsletter to 
    •  Number of click throughs from newsletters 

Local media 

  •  Type and number 
  • • Circulation / opportunities to see if known  

How will we measure how many people are accessing support from NHS.UK  and what to library services need to do?

As part of testing options for measuring usage, we are exploring whether using a unique URL could be an effective way of gathering data.

In theory when service users use this link it will give us an indication on the numbers of people from that library service who are accessing information and support. We will not have any information on the service users themselves. However, of course if service users don’t use this specific link, then the data won’t be collected, so there are limitations.

Library services who would like to use this option will need to think carefully how it is promoted e.g. posters within libraries such as QR posters to scan, links from the library PC browser, included within social media and other promotional materials such as emails sent by local authorities to residents.

We will be providing two unique URLs for two calls to action

  • The first will be for the NHS.uk home page so people can log into their account and find helpful health information 
    The second will be for creating an NHS account
  • It will be up to library services to develop the promotional material to promote the link / amend the resources in the toolkit, as we do not have capacity to do this nationally. 
  • We are asking that library services promote this unique link and use the data monitoring forms so we can see whether this mode of data collection works. 
  • Please email england.kfh@nhs.net if you would like your service to be considered to trial a unique URL. We envisage that we will pilot whether this mode of data collection works, alongside a relatively small number of library services before making it more widely available.

Case studies, learning from each other, and service improvement

  • Library services and local library staff will be invited to a monthly “knowledge exchange”. This will be an opportunity to share what is working well, what the challenges have been and to share stories of service users who have been helped and the impact this has had on them.

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