An Evaluation of the Benefits and Value of Libraries

Chandos Information Professionla Series

An Evaluation of the Benefits and Value of Libraries

Viveca Nyström

Linnéa Sjögren

Table of Contents

Cover image

Title page

Copyright

List of figures, tables and boxes

Foreword

Acknowledgements

About the authors

Introduction

Chapter 1: What is benefit assessment?

Performance analysis

Efficiency

Are we doing the right things?

Measuring

Chapter 2: Libraries and the surrounding world

Developing a stakeholder model

Scenario planning

The present situation

The future

Chapter 3: Goals, mission statements and methods

Goals

Mission statements

Choice of method

Benefit shown in a matrix and diagram

The goals are not financial

Chapter 4: Financial benefit assessment

Financial value

Process mapping

Cost analysis

Benefit analysis

Chapter 5: Cost-benefit analysis of one-time investments

Business case

Background and purpose

Description of the solution

Financial analysis

Calculation of the time for the investment to be paid back using payback period and ROI

Risk analysis

Schedule/project plan

Chapter 6: Customer surveys

Legitimacy

The library's image

Identity and profile

Users

Narrative method and storytelling

Storytelling and libraries

Customer survey 1

Customer survey 2

Results

Chapter 7: The persona method

The persona

How to create personas

Using personas

Chapter 8: The balanced scorecard

Concept and background

Working method

Examples of metrics

Pitfalls

Appendix 1: Cost-benefit analysis

Appendix 2: Gothenburg City Library users’ survey

Appendix 3: 2008 Attitudes and Knowledge Survey of Gothenburg City Library

Bibliography

Index

Copyright

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English language version first published by Chandos Publishing in 2012

ISBN: 978-1-84334-686-9 (print)

ISBN: 978-1-78063-293-3 (online)

Original Swedish language version published by BTJ Förlag

© BTJ Förlag, August 2008

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List of figures, tables and boxes

Figures

1.1. How resources are transformed during goal achievement 3

1.2. An organisation with no performance measurement 6

1.3. Example of a stakeholder model 14

1.4. The objectives of business intelligence 18

1.5. Surrounding-world trends that have an impact on an organisation 20

1.6. Trend graph 24

1.7. Scenario cross 25

5.1. Probability and consequences of risks 72

6.1. Identity, image and profile 79

8.1. Chain of cause and effect as a vertical vector 119

8.2. Graphic illustration of balanced scorecard 120

8.3. SWOT analysis 123

8.4. Examples of metrics for each of the different perspectives 124

Tables

3.1. Benefit matrix 43

4.1. Processes in a specialised library 50

4.2. Example of absorption costing 52

4.3. Maine State Library’s ‘Library Use Value Calculator’ 54

4.4. Calculation of net benefit 58

5.1. Calculation of payback using payback period and ROI 69

5.2. Assessment of non-monetary parameters 70

5.3. Risks and measures to address them 73

5.4. GANTT chart scheduling project activities 74

Boxes

7.1. Example of a proto-persona 109

7.2. Strategy for reaching a target group 112

7.3. A doctoral candidate’s story 113–15

Foreword

Effective evaluation is a crucial element of good service management, as applicable in the public as much as in the private sector. In an age of significant political, social and cultural turbulence, coupled with an increasingly challenging financial environment, it is more important than ever that the best, most relevant decisions are taken at all levels. This book takes a comprehensive and highly practical look at how a wide range of techniques can best be employed to ensure that libraries are providing what is really needed, and in the most cost-effective ways. Some of the approaches described here are already tried and tested, as for example the balanced scorecard; others, such as the use of the persona technique or storytelling, are relatively new, at least in the field of library and information services management.

The authors give us a refreshing critique of various key methodologies, based on their own and others’ experience in Sweden, a country long renowned for its library provision. This is a particular value of the authors’ work: it helps librarians as practitioners to get to grips with how best to monitor, assess, evaluate and develop or change their services, including their rationalisation as well as their renewal. As I wrote in my own book on Strategic Change Management (2007), ‘constant iteration and evaluation will enable the change manager and the organisation more generally to decide whether a project is still on track and should also help to identify why things are going wrong and what can be done to rectify the problem … The ability to recognise potential or actual failure and the need to change direction or even backtrack is an essential skill for the change manager, though iterative planning and evaluation processes will minimise the risk of significant error … This requires a re-evaluation of goals and in extreme circumstances, a change in organisational culture, organisational structure and the patterns of work, in order to take advantage of the new opportunities.’

An Evaluation of the Benefits and Value of Libraries looks – very necessarily – at both the hard and the soft aspects of evaluation. On the one hand, there are discussions of the importance of data and information gathering and the use of techniques such as cost-benefit analysis – an essential tool for the modern-day library manager. On the other hand, a metrics-based approach can only take the librarian so far: qualitative approaches are a fundamental element of the best evaluations, perhaps especially in service industries. As Nyström and Sjögren argue convincingly, the softer techniques described in this book can significantly enhance the quality of evaluation and its long-term beneficial effect. This is because approaches such as the use of the persona technique put the user at the heart of the process.

For so long, professionals have tended to think they ‘know best’ when it comes to service provision; but these novel methodologies really help library staff to get to grips with what is really wanted and needed. But, as the authors point out, something has to be done with the results, and their practical adoption of the balanced scorecard – backed up with examples from their own experience – will allow librarians working in all types of environment to structure the results of evaluation processes. This book is a significant and timely addition to the literature. It is well researched and well written and the choice and use of real-life examples and case studies is particularly apt. There is much of value to both the general practitioner and the specialist researcher.

Professor David Baker: Deputy Chair of the Joint Information Systems Committee in the UK; he has led a number of large international technology-based projects in the library and information science sector, in relation both to digital and hybrid library development and to content creation for teaching and learning.

Acknowledgements

It has been possible to compile the results, thinking and discussions on quality efforts into this book, and to translate it from Swedish into English, thanks to a scholarship from the Svea Bredal Foundation, which was awarded by the City of Gothenburg’s Culture Committee.

About the authors

Viveca Nyström is a library consultant and was formerly the manager of a special library in Gothenburg, Sweden. She is also the co-author of a book on records management which is an academic text for archives students in Sweden.

Linnéa Sjögren is an e-channels librarian at Chalmers University of Technology Library, Gothenburg, Sweden. She was formerly digital services librarian at City Library of Gothenburg, Sweden, and was also the project manager of ‘Ask the Library’ in Sweden. Linnéa is also a teacher and speaker on Web 2.0-education and reading devices.

Introduction

Studies of two libraries, Gothenburg City Library and Traktörens Förvaltningsbibliotek (the library of the city administration), form the basis of this book on how to conduct benefit assessments of library services. Gothenburg City Library is Sweden’s second-largest public library, while Traktörens Förvaltningsbibliotek is a small, specialised library that provides a service for politicians and civil servants in the city of Gothenburg, Sweden’s second-largest city. Gothenburg has a population of approximately half a million and the city’s public libraries have 447,735 registered users.

It is our hope that this book will be of use in conducting evaluations of various types of libraries. Some sections may also be of interest for the evaluation of other non-profit activities within the public sector.

The first three chapters are intended as a general introduction to performance analysis and benefit assessment. The material is applicable to all types of libraries that are looking for inspiration as they attempt to formulate their goals and provide descriptions of their organisation and service for their stakeholders.

Chapter 4, Financial Benefit Assessment, is based on a benefit assessment of Traktörens Förvaltningsbibliotek that was conducted in 2006. A specialised library can calculate financial benefit based on market prices and opportunity costs.

In Chapter 5, Cost-benefit Analysis of One-time Investments, Gothenburg City Library’s purchase of an automated book return machine provides an example of how a cost-benefit analysis can be conducted for specific investments. Based on our experience when lecturing on the topic, we feel that guidance is needed in this area in the form of case studies. A template is provided in Appendix 1 for those who are interested in formulating a business case based on a cost-benefit analysis as described in the chapter.

Chapter 6, Customer Surveys, presents the results of a customer survey conducted at Gothenburg City Library in 2007. The survey was done in preparation for writing this book, the purpose being to learn more about how library visitors felt about the benefits of library services. Based on the results of the survey, storytelling is discussed as a method of evaluation. The survey questionnaire is provided in Appendix 2.

In 2008 another customer survey was conducted for Gothenburg City Library, in which non-users were asked for their opinions about the library. The survey was not part of this book project, but in many ways it supplements the overall picture of library services. The results of the survey were also considered when writing the chapter on customer surveys and the survey report is reproduced in Appendix 3.

For the English edition of the book we have supplemented the content with information on scenario planning and on the persona method. We became aware of these two methods towards the