Home | Performance Measures and 
Evaluative Tools (Summary)
Full Text: Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3 | Page 4

FUTURE AGENDA

There are a number of problems in this field which need to be addressed:

• To have maximum impact standards need to be understood and applied at national level.

• The cost of data collection and analysis is higher than some libraries feel they can afford.

• The topics are considered “difficult” and are not widely understood.

• Good practice is slow to travel and catch on [between countries and e.g. from the academic library to the public library sector].

• Measuring activity in networked environments is particularly difficult, yet this will be absolutely key to future use of both statistics and performance measures.

• Structures for dealing with these issues can be weak at national level. At international level they are very weak.

In many places there is little awareness of best practice in this field. European research efforts are disparate and tend to be short-lived (e.g. the EC EQUINOX initiative to develop electronic library performance measures was funded for two years only – by contrast the USA has funded longitudinal research). To make a real difference it will be necessary not only to publicise best practice better but to develop tools and methodologies which can be applied internationally on a voluntary basis. 

LINKS

Introduction
This section aims to represent good practice and includes material which is:

Accessible linguistically and via the web
Established and usable [not small scale pilots].
At the same time we have included:
Some projects which we consider to have strong potential to be influential.
Material in languages other than English if the service/activity has significant potential.

We have emphasised European material but included important material whatever its origin. For example, Joe Ryan’s library statistics site is American but excellent for library statistical information and measures. It includes links, an extensive bibliography and sources in academic, museum, and school library statistics as well as a number of links to European library statistics sources.

Europe

LIBECON
The site for European library statistics for all library sectors, including public libraries.
www.libecon.org

EQUINOX 
EQUINOX was a project funded under the Telematics for Libraries Programme of the European Commission. This project addresses the need of all libraries to develop and use methods for measuring performance in the new networked, electronic environment, alongside traditional performance measurement, and to operate these methods within a framework of quality management. The Project devised a set of performance indicators for electronic library services. 
http://equinox.dcu.ie/

CAMILE Concerted Action on Management Information for Libraries in Europe 
CAMILE was a concerted action supported by the Telematics for Libraries sector of the Telematics Applications Programme of the European Commission. CAMILE was designed to disseminate and promote the common results of four EC supported projects DECIDE, DECIMAL, EQLIPSE and MINSTREL. Each of these research projects aimed to develop models and tools to support decision-making in libraries throughout Europe and provide unique insights into the issues and challenges which librarians in Europe have to meet in the current environment.
http://www.staff.dmu.ac.uk/ 

ISTAR
Standardised questionnaires to evaluate training and awareness services provided by public libraries.
http://www.istar.org/

Denmark
Danish National Library Authority 
This site makes available [up to date, free of charge, without registration and without cookies] a summary of the national public library statistics The Site is presented in English. A model for all.
http://www.bs.dk/index.ihtml

Estonia
Estonia has been gathering library statistics since 1970, but the LibEcon project provided new guidelines for developing and standardising, and the facility for comparison with other European countries was found to be especially useful.
http://www.nlib.ee/inglise/lib/libstat.html

Estonian Public Library statistics analyses are published every year.
http://nlib.ee/rkogud/rstat.html

The development of ancillary activities, such as statistical benchmarking, demonstrates a growing awareness of gaining more value from the statistical archives. A workshop was held in Estonia 14-16th July to discuss the use of statistical performance indicators and benchmarks. A fully working prototype financial benchmarking tool has been developed
for individual libraries in Estonia which can be adapted for use in other countries. http://www.libecon.org/millenniumstudy/default.asp

Finland
Statistics of Public Libraries in Finland.
Database in three languages (Finnish, Swedish and English) maintained by the Ministry of Education. Statistics currently available: 1999, 2000 and 2001. http://tilastot.kirjastot.fi/

Germany
German Library Statistics
There is a nationwide scheme for measuring the performance of all types of German libraries, the. This statistical scheme is relatively old and has been criticised as being ineffective and old fashioned, but no other nationwide alternative has been accepted.
http://www.bibliotheksstatistik.de/

Bertelsmann Foundation
In 1999, the Foundation established a public libraries benchmarking exercise. It will soon be enlarged to include research libraries. 
http://www.bix-bibliotheksindex.de/

Bertelsmann Stiftung Bix
Benchmarking [metric and process]
http://www.stiftung.bertelsmann.de/

Norway
Norwegian Statens Bibliotekstilsyn 
Public library statistics are in more detail than in the Danish example. No English summary. 
http://samson.bibtils.no/

Spain
Programa de Análisis de Bibliotecas (PAB).
The Bertelsmann Foundation in Spain is co-ordinating and financing this Library Analysis Programme on library management and performance measurement. The aim of the project is to develop an evaluation methodology to facilitate decisions about the services.
http://www.fundacionbertelsmann.es/pab/

Travesía, Subdirectorate General of Library Co-ordination
This site makes available a summary of the national public library statistics compiled in the paper "Las bibliotecas públicas en España, una realidad abierta" http://travesia.mcu.es/estadisticas1.asp

Home | Performance Measures and 
Evaluative Tools (Summary)
Full Text: Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3 | Page 4