LSTA five year evaluation for state library agencies
Federal law directs every state library administrative agency to “independently evaluate, and report to the Director regarding, the activities assisted under this subchapter, prior to the end of the 5-year plan.” That is 20 U.S.C. 9134(c). For the FY2023 to 2027 cycle, IMLS has told agencies the evaluation is due by March 30, 2027, with program officers reviewing every state’s report between April and June 2027.
Blue Peak Data Consulting runs that evaluation as your outside evaluator: evidence review, stakeholder interviews and surveys, State Program Report analysis, a written report in the format IMLS specifies, and a presentation of the findings. A written scope and quote, agreed before anything starts.
What the statute and the guidelines ask for
Four things decide whether an evaluation is accepted.
It has to be independent
IMLS defines an independent evaluation as objective, carried out free from outside influence. An agency may do it in house only if the evaluator does not report to the people responsible for LSTA funded services. Most states have historically used a third party, because that argument then gets made once.
The evaluator has to be competent to do it
The guidelines require the evaluator to demonstrate professional competency to conduct the evaluation rigorously, including expertise in statistical, qualitative and general social science research methods. Question C-1 asks you to say on the record how you met that test.
The format is fixed
A cover page, a summary of two to five pages, a report capped at 25 pages, and appendices. IMLS reads all 59 state and territory reports side by side and publishes them, so the layout is set to make that possible.
It feeds the next plan
The state plan guidelines say the needs assessment in the next plan should be based on the most recent five year evaluation, and the 2028 to 2032 guidelines are already out. An evaluation written only to close the last cycle leaves the next starting from nothing.
Grants to States is the largest federal funding source for library services in the country, roughly $180 million a year by population formula. The evaluation is where the whole five years gets examined at once.
The ten questions your report has to answer
IMLS sets them, numbered, in three groups, and the report answers them in order.
Two retrospective questions
A-1: to what extent the plan activities made progress toward each goal, with every goal categorized achieved, partly achieved or not achieved and the contributing factors named, such as staffing, budget and partners. A-2: to what extent the activities achieved results against the Measuring Success focal areas and their intents.
Five process questions
B-1: how State Program Report data and other sources, such as the Public Libraries Survey, guided the plan activities. B-2: what was modified in the plan, especially its goals, and why. B-3: how and with whom SPR and other evaluation data were shared. B-4: how the 2018 to 2022 evaluation informed this cycle and how it was used throughout it. B-5: how the findings and recommendations of this evaluation will be shared.
Three methodology questions
C-1: how the evaluation was implemented independently, including how the evaluator meets the competency test. C-2: the statistical and qualitative methods used, administrative records included, with their validity and reliability described. C-3: the critical partners involved at each stage and how they were engaged.
Last cycle every state’s evaluator used document review, and most combined it with surveys, interviews and focus groups. Of 231 goals reported nationally, 141 were categorized achieved, 85 partly achieved and 5 not achieved. Those are the numbers your report gets read next to.
Discovery
We read your plan, your prior evaluation, your SPR submissions and your subaward records, then agree in writing what the evaluation has to answer, who gets interviewed and surveyed, and what the schedule is. You get a written scope and a written quote before anything is signed.
Solution design
Instruments and the evidence plan get built once: interview protocols, survey instruments, focus group guides, the crosswalk from your goals to the Measuring Success focal areas, and the rule for judging each goal. Agreeing that rule before the evidence arrives is what keeps a finding defensible.
Implementation
Collection and analysis. Document review across the plan, the prior evaluation, budgets, council minutes, subaward files and any audits, where most goal level evidence lives. Interviews and focus groups with grantees, statewide partners, council members and staff. Surveys where reach matters more than depth. SPR and Public Libraries Survey data pulled and analyzed. You see findings as they form, not for the first time at the end.
Optimization and handoff
The report is drafted to the IMLS format, reviewed with you, revised and delivered with its appendices. IMLS normally asks for clarifications or edits, so we stay available through that exchange until the acceptance letter arrives. You keep the instruments, the coded data and the analysis files, which makes the next evaluation cheaper than this one.
What the analysis looks like when it lands: a working demo on Kansas public library data, built from the IMLS Public Libraries Survey public use files. Pick a library, pick a measure, and it recomputes service per resident, a six year trend and a peer comparison by service population band. Same pipeline, pointed at your state and your State Program Report extracts.
What your agency gets
A submission ready evaluation in the IMLS format. Where the evidence does not support a finding, the report says so: an answer of no is as useful as an answer of yes.
The cover page, the summary, the report inside the 25 page cap and the appendices, with every goal categorized and defended and a plain account of how the independence test was met, so question C-1 is answered with evidence rather than assertion. Findings and recommendations written to be lifted into the needs assessment of your next plan, and presented to your staff, your council or your legislature. And the instruments, response data and analysis files, so your next evaluator starts with a baseline instead of a blank page.
How agencies buy this
Most agencies run a competitive solicitation through the state’s central procurement portal, usually under NAICS 541611, and many award a purchase order rather than a long form contract. In the summer of 2026 the Florida Department of State and the State Library of Iowa each issued one for this scope. Iowa’s asked for statewide data collection by interviews, surveys, social media and focus groups, a preliminary report, a final report in the IMLS format, and an optional in person presentation.
We quote from a written scope, each phase its own scope, acceptance and invoice. If your office needs a quote with a statement of work attached, or a sole source justification, say so. Blue Peak is a SAM.gov active small business, UEI PRPBEM9HEND3, CAGE 15CS5.
Who does the work
One senior consultant runs the evaluation end to end, so the competency IMLS asks about sits with one identifiable person, and whoever scopes it writes it. That lead consultant brings twelve years in production analytics and program reporting, with the rest of our team on scheduling, data handling and production.
That consultant led reporting on a $30M multi jurisdictional federal initiative from 2019 to 2022, integrating grantee data across jurisdictions and producing grant compliance reporting that passed federal funder review, and built an analytics product line used by more than 100 people at a national telecom, unifying a sales pipeline spanning six source systems into one Power BI environment.
That record was earned before Blue Peak, so we describe it as our people’s experience rather than the firm’s past performance, on purpose. What it means for you is that the subgrant data, the SPR extracts and the survey files get handled by people who have done federal grant reporting a federal funder reviewed.
Questions state libraries ask
When is the FY2023 to 2027 five year evaluation due to IMLS?
March 30, 2027. IMLS stated that date in its own Grants to States guidance for this cycle, and said program officers then have 90 days, April to June 2027, to finish reviewing every state’s evaluation. IMLS accepts evaluations rather than grading them, and sends an official letter of acceptance. It is normal for IMLS to come back asking for clarifications or edits, so build that exchange into your schedule rather than treating submission as the finish line.
Does the LSTA five year evaluator have to be external?
Not strictly, but the bar for doing it in house is real. IMLS requires the evaluation to be independent, meaning objective and carried out free from outside influence. An in house evaluator has to be able to show they do not report to the people with managerial responsibility for LSTA funded services, and that they hold professional competency in statistical, qualitative and general social science research methods. Most states have historically used a third party evaluator, which answers the question rather than arguing it.
What does the final LSTA evaluation report have to contain?
A cover page, an evaluation summary of two to five pages, an evaluation report capped at 25 pages, and appendices. Inside it, ten numbered questions answered in order: two retrospective questions on goal progress and the Measuring Success focal areas, five process questions on how State Program Report data guided the plan, what changed and why, how data was shared, how the last evaluation was used and how this one will be shared, and three methodology questions on independence, methods and critical partners.
How long does an LSTA five year evaluation take?
Plan on several months rather than several weeks, and start earlier than feels necessary. The schedule is set by other people’s calendars: getting advisory council members and subgrantees into interviews, keeping a survey open long enough to reach a usable response rate, and leaving room for IMLS to ask for edits before the acceptance letter. IMLS’s own advice is to buffer the project schedule for the unexpected, and that advice is earned.
Can the five year evaluation be paid for with LSTA funds?
IMLS says the evaluation can be funded with LSTA project funds, administrative funds or state funds, and that consistency matters. If you plan to fund it differently this cycle than last, IMLS asks you to contact your program officer first. That is a question for your program officer, not for us, and it is worth asking early because it can change how the procurement is written.
Do you work with state library agencies outside Kansas?
Yes. Blue Peak is based in Olathe, Kansas and delivers remotely. Evaluation work is document review, interviews, surveys and analysis, so distance changes the travel line and nothing else. If your solicitation requires an in person presentation of the findings, we price the travel into the fee rather than leaving it as a surprise. Blue Peak is a SAM.gov active small business, UEI PRPBEM9HEND3, CAGE 15CS5, and will complete whatever vendor registration your state requires before an award.
Send us your plan goals and your timeline
Email sergei@bluepeakdataconsulting.com with your plan goals, roughly how many subgrantees are in scope, and when your procurement has to be on the street. You get an honest read back within one business day, including whether your timeline still works.