LibGuides: Library Value Toolkit V2: Measuring Value

Task Force Recommendations

What do we think you should keep in mind?

Recommendation 1: Consider both quantitative and qualitative data in your overall plan.

Recommendation 2: Use existing data (usage, web stats), informal methods (observation, discussions) and formal methods (surveys, interviews)

Recommendation 3: Think about what you need to know and what is important to your users and stakeholders.

Measuring Value

Measuring value is complex. Let's start with an overview. This section offers more general resources to assist with planning your evaluation activities.

What is 'measuring value'?
In a nutshell, this covers the Why? What? and How? driving the process of determining indicators to measure outcomes and impact.

For more specific strategies for collecting data and measuring value, check out the sub sections:

Usage Stats
ROI
Balanced Scorecard
Feedback & Surveys

Logic Model Worksheet
Measuring Your Impact: Using Evaluation for Library Advocacy
Slides from NN/LM Workshop, 2011. Covers a lot!
Questions of Life and Death: An Investigation into the Value of Health Library & Information Service
2012. Health Libraries Inc., and ALIA (Australian Library & Information Association. Surveyed service users and library & information professionals. Confirmed the contribution by library services and the value of employing librarians.

Evaluating Clinical Librarianship: A Systematic Review
Brettle, A. et. al. (2011) Health Information and Libraries Journal. 28 (1): 3-22.
The Framework was based on this paper.
eValued Toolkit
An evaluation toolkit for e-library developments aimed at higher education Libraries.
Includes tips and tools.From Birmingham CITY University.
Key Performance Indicators in Irish Hospital Libraries: Developing Outcome-Based Metrics to Support Advocacy and Service Delivery
Objective: To develop a set of generic outcome-based performance measures for Irish hospital libraries.

Conclusion: The indicators can be adopted at a local and potentially a national level, as both a tool for advocacy and to assess and improve service delivery at a macro level. To overcome the constraints posed by necessary simplifications, substantial further research is needed by hospital libraries to develop more sophisticated and meaningful measures of impact to further aid decision making at a micro level.
NNLM Tools for Evaluating programs & Services
from NN/LM National Network of Libraries of Medicine
Includes Calculators & Online Survey Tools
TIDSR: Toolkit for the Impact of Digitized Scholarly Resources
Covers Qualitative and Quantitative Methods, including Web 2.0 tools.
Tools & Resources for Evaluation & Data Collection
From NN/LM. Many more resources, including a guide to questionnaire development.

The eVALUEd Toolkit provides a 9 Stage Process to follow. For this section, see in particular 1 to 6.

Decide the purpose.
Identify stakeholders
Decide what to evaluate
Choose methods
Collect Data
Analyse Data

Logic Model

To plan your evaluation activities, use this planning tool to connect activities to outcomes.

From: Cooper, I.D. (2011). Is the informationist a new role? A logic model analysis. J Med Lib Assoc. 99(3).