From the Edge website
“Edge is a nationally recognized management and leadership tool that is helping libraries and local governments work together to achieve community goals. With this professional tool, libraries can be better positioned to address community issues - like creating a stronger economy, ensuring workforce development and leading lifelong learning.”
Geared toward public libraries, the Edge Initiative is a comprehensive toolkit aimed toward giving library leaders the talking points and comparative data that will help them more successfully advocate for resources to develop library technology and services.
The benchmarks are available online and measure a library’s overall effectiveness in creating community value, engaging with the community and managing technology at an organizational level. The benchmarks page lists a variety of resources that can help any library interested in improving their performance in specific areas.
Libraries interested in getting access to the full toolkit need to sign up with the site to take the self-assessment. Even before the library receives logon information, you can download the Assessment Workbook to start gathering data.
After submitting the self-assessment the library will get an overall point rating for their library, a set of strategic plan-style action items to support improvements, and have access an online training suite focused on public access technology, partnerships and advocacy.