Rob Geiszler Bio

Like many other librarians, I came to librarianship later in life, after teaching science and math in the Peace Corps, practicing law, flying charters and running a small real estate development company.  Originally a Vermonter, I lived and worked in the St. Petersburg, Florida area for more than 20 years, getting my MLS from USF in Tampa, and only recently returning to Vermont as a consultant for the Department of Libraries.  As a consequence, I have the perspective of working with both very large library systems and unbelievably small libraries.  Data collection and use takes on different meanings in these different contexts.  I understand how difficult it is for a one-person-library librarian to collect the information, let alone find the time to document and report it.  On the other hand, for larger libraries, there is always the thought that there’s more and more finely shredded data to be gathered.  How much is enough?  How do we determine its validity?  What conclusions can be drawn from the data available?  As the Vermont State Data coordinator, my math and science background have come back to inform yet another new endeavor.  I’ve been discussing and looking at the statistics we collect, trying to understand the best uses and encouraging our librarians to use the data effectively.  This is probably the most enjoyable part of my job.

I’m hoping that as we examine the information we collect, we’ll find better, more meaningful measures of library performance, and perhaps better means with which to disseminate this information both inside and outside the library community.