Value of Library ServicesA presentation to the

Joint Chapter

Professional

Development Day

by Joe Matthews

Overview

Outward FocusEffectiveness

Are we doing the right thing?

The focus is on the library & its impact on its parent organization

Inward Focus Efficiency

Are we doing things right?

Pricing

Econometric

Activity-basedCosting Strategic

approaches, e.g., Parker

InfoMape.g., Burk &

Horton

Priority & Performance Evaluation,

e.g., Broadbent

Cost-BenefitAnalysis

Decisionanalysis

Sector

Organization

System/Service

Individual

Situation specific Situation Generic

The value of information

Cost/Benefit Analysis

Maximize benefits for a given cost

Minimize costs for a given level of benefits

Maximize the ratio of benefits over costs

Maximize the net benefits (Present value of

benefits over present value of costs)

Maximize the internal rate of return (ROI)

FavoriteDefinition of a

Library Catalog

Library’s Catalog

The value of a library is found in its collection & services provided by staff

The library’s catalog is a finding aid to information resources located within the library & elsewhere

The bibliographic record is the surrogate of the “real thing”

Information Package

Each book or other information resource,

e.g., audio or videotape, map, manuscript,

microform, etc., contained within a

library’s collection or an electronic

resource located outside the library

How Add Value to Information?

Organizing– Grouping– Classifying– Relating– Formatting– Displaying

Analyzing– Separating– Evaluating– Validating– Comparing– Interpreting– Synthesizing

Adding Value (Continued)

Judgmental– Presenting Options– Presenting advantages

& disadvantages

Attributes of a MARC record

Ease of Use

Noise Reduction

Quality

Provides a structure

Authority control

Consistency checks

Attributes of a MARC record

Adaptability

Time Savings

Cost Savings

Flexibility in data display

Import MARC records

Variety of sources

Value of a Library’s Collection

Cost of $50 to purchase and catalog each title

times Number of titles in collection, e.g., 50,000

= Value of the library’s collection or

$2,500,000

Value of a Library’s Catalog

Total cost of cataloging =[(Cost of shared cataloging * % shared) +

staff costs for shared cataloging] +

Cost of original cataloging (% needing original cat. * staff costs to do original cat.)

Example

Adding 1,100 titles

[$1.75 *(95.5% * 1,100) or $1,838 +

($20/title * 1,050) or $21,000 = $22,838

+

original cataloging (50 titles * $50 per title)

or $2,500

Total Cost of Cataloging = $25,338

or $23.03 per title record

Collection ROI

Collection value = $2,500,000 Annual circulation = 150,000

ROI Analysis

(150,000 * $23.03/record) / $2,500,000

or Collection ROI = 14 cents per circulation

If circ. goes up, Collection ROI also goes up

Enhanced MARC Records

Cost per record = $1, 40% match 10% increase in collection utilization 50,000 titles * 40% = 20,000 titles

ROI Analysis

$2,500,000 collection value * 10% = $250,000

$250,000 / 20,000 enhanced records

value = $12.50 per enhanced MARC record

Authority Records

50,000 authority records 10% increase in collection utilization

ROI Analysis

$2,500,000 collection value * 10% or

$250,000 / 50,000 authority records or

value = $5.00 per record

Additional Indexes

Collection value = $2,500,000 10% increase in collection utilization

ROI Analysis

$2,500,000 * 10% or

Value of additional index = $250,000

Value of Location & StatusInformation for a Firm

Value for a professional = $120/hour Time spent making a trip to the

library = 15 min.

Online access means reduced trips

# trips per day reduced x value of prof. = value of increased productive time of prof.

50 trips/day x 15 min x $2/min = $1,500

Location & Status Information

Save $1,500 / day or $390,000 / year

ROI Analysis

$390,000 / 50,000 volumes or value of

location & status information =

$7.80 per volume

Location & Status Information

Annual circulation of 50,000 items Manual circ. system experiences a 3% loss

or 1,500 items per year Automated circ. System has 1/2 of 1% losses

or 250 items per year

ROI Analysis

1,250 items not lost x $50 = $62,500

$62,500/50,000 = $1.25 per item

Value for an Individual

The library’s bibliographic records typically have little direct value for an individual.

Difficult to assign value for these records even if used by an individual.

Improving the Catalog

Clean up your database

Use authority control records

Review frequency of subject headings

Add enhanced MARC records

Dirty Database Test

Febuary

Guatamala

Misssion

Goverment

Fransisco

Grammer

Recieve

Wensday

Seperate

Conditons

Source: Jeffrey Beall, American Libraries

ENHANCED MARC Records

Source: Peis & Fernandez-Molina, ITAL, Sept, 1998

Communication

Measuring the value of information

or the value of library services

is a “hollow” activity

unless effective communication

with decision makers is taking place