Subscribe for Free |   View PDF  |  Send to a Friend |   Library Connect News  |   | 

search this site search web

Librarians Speak Up:
How is your library determining its value?

Gerardo Marraud, University Library Director, Universidad de Vigo, Galicia, Spain

If value is our capacity to satisfy users' needs, our library tries to measure it as follows. First: monitoring if the information resources provided are used because the most valuable library is one that's used. Second: measuring users' satisfaction with the systems and facilities we offer that deliver access to information resources.

www.uvigo.es/biblioteca/index.gl.htm

Terry Bucknell, Electronic Resources Manager, Sydney Jones Library, University of Liverpool, UK

We have demonstrated to our institution that the number of e-journal articles our users have downloaded has increased. For every £100 spent on e-journal subscriptions across our entire e-journals portfolio, the number of downloads has steadily risen from 40 in 2000-2001 to 126 in 2006-2007.

www.liv.ac.uk/library

Michael Stringer, Science, Technology & Medicine Reference Team Leader, The British Library, London, UK

We recently calculated that the British Library costs each UK taxpayer just £3.48 a year, roughly the same as a latte and blueberry muffin from the coffee shop nearby. Similarly, an estimate of our economic impact suggested that every £1 spent on the national library yields £4.40 of benefit for the economy.

www.bl.uk

Vladimir Pislyakov, Assistant Director for Electronic Resources Management, Higher School of Economics Library, Moscow, Russia

The value of our library consists of two components: potential and actual. Potential value is the resources we offer our patrons. Actual value is how often these resources are currently used. Ensuring that resources get into students’ hands and are used reflects our own value as librarians.

http://library.hse.ru

Shinya Kato, Head of General Affairs Division, Tohoku University Library, Sendai, Japan

Usage is a basic indicator of library performance. The more library usage increases, the more the value of the library increases. Especially for expensive electronic journals and databases, usage is one of the most important factors in determining their value. We frequently analyze usage statistics to assess the value of e-resources we provide.

www.library.tohoku.ac.jp/top/index-e.html

Jill Vassilakos-Long, Government Documents Librarian, California State University at San Bernardino, USA

Most measures of value employ statistics, and by the standard ones (e.g., database use, number of bibliographic instruction sessions) we are successful. We're valued by our community, both by students (measured through surveys of campus services) and by our teaching faculty colleagues who include us in campus planning efforts to increase student success.

www.lib.csusb.edu

Margaret Ferguson, Head of Collection Services, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand

The library's role is to add value by contributing directly to the university's overall strategic direction. We work towards balancing the provision of essential collections and "open access" content with connecting users to physical and virtual resources. Last year the library invested in citation and analysis tools to ensure researchers can explore, refine and interpret findings.

www.victoria.ac.nz/library

Gayatri Divakaruni, Technical Officer for Information Management Area, Indian Institute of Chemical Technology, Hyderabad, India

We determine our value according to resources we provide. We offer access to fulltext electronic and print scholarly publications, and we offer assistance with bibliometric and citation analyses. When introducing new resources, we conduct end-user trainings because high usage is a huge factor in assessing the value of resources we provide.

www.csir.res.in