Measuring Library Performance: Principles and Techniques

Citation

Moore, P. (2007), "Measuring Library Performance: Principles and Techniques", Program: electronic library and information systems, Vol. 41 No. 4, pp. 431-433. https://doi.org/10.1108/00330330710831648

The preface to this book states that: “Performance measurement is vital to management”. Performance measurement in the past focused on the bookstock, nowadays we are more concerned with our users – how we impact upon them and how we can satisfy their requirements. This book is an attempt to summarise this subject and “to highlight current issues and initiatives”. The author hopes that “it will be of interest to library practitioners, to those undertaking research in the field and to students of librarianship”.

There are 14 chapters, which all follow a similar pattern throughout the book and contain an Introduction; a Conclusion; Resources – which include websites, surveys, organisations which can provide further information and assistance, etc; and a comprehensive list of References, including some to items published in 2006. The layout of the book is clear with headings and sub‐headings, with the headings included in the Contents pages making it easy for the reader to locate sections of particular interest. A list of Acronyms and Abbreviations is included.

The first two chapters are titled Background and Theoretical considerations. The theory covers Positivism and Relativism and the research methods related to these approaches, including Action research, Evidence‐based and Narrative‐based practice. I am sure this chapter would provide a succinct introduction to the background and reasoning behind the various methods of performance evaluation for students and researchers.

Chapter Three covers user satisfaction and acknowledges that, although asking users about how satisfied they are with a service is an obvious way to judge performance, it is actually fraught with complications. Many “users” may not have a “well‐defined view of what a “good” service would look like”, and if an overall experience is positive, customers may be reluctant to criticise minor, yet important, failings; but if the overall experience is negative, customers could neglect positive aspects. Extremely useful to the practitioner, is the section on the American Association of Research Libraries (ARL) LibQUAL+ project, which provides data collection, analysis and presentation tools and is flexible enough for local variations.

The fourth chapter, Impact on Users, was of particular interest to me. In the heritage sector we have to demonstrate how our services (including not only the use of archives and libraries, but also any workshops and training sessions we may offer) have increased the knowledge and skills of our users. So this chapter, explaining what impact is and how to collect data and information to demonstrate how effective services are, was extremely helpful. I was a little disappointed that there was not more information on the Inspiring Learning for All (IlfA) framework, and that whilst readers are directed to the web site in the text it does not appear in the Resources section at the end of the chapter. Another minor criticism is that, on first receiving the book, I looked up “generic learning outcomes” (GLOs) in the index and did not find the term – however, I later found that on page 69 GLOs are explained. Chapter Five is on Social and Economic Impact covering social inclusion and diversity.

Chapters Six (Inputs), Seven (Processes) and Eight (Outputs) focus on the use of quantitative (statistical) data: for example, book and journal stock, electronic resources, efficiency of operation and throughputs, usage of library materials and library websites. Chapter Nine considers possibly the most important library resource – its staff. When measuring library performance staff appraisal is obviously relevant, here the process is outlined and schemes such as Investors in People as a standard for the management and development of staff is described. Chapter Ten deals with the infrastructure of the library – its building and its ICT facilities.

Chapters 11‐14 return to the service aspect and methods of measurement. Services for all (Chapter 11) looks at measuring how the needs of particular user groups are met, for example, age, ethnicity, gender, language etc. One section looks at accessibility for users with disabilities. Benchmarking is described in Chapter 12, The balanced scorecard in Chapter 13 and, finally, Standards in Chapter 14, including public and academic libraries and international, cross‐sectoral standards.

There follow three appendices, the first on Data collection methods is a clear and concise description of the various methods available and I found it extremely useful. It deals with:

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  sampling methods and response rates;

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  customer feedback analysis, e.g. feedback forms on websites, comment forms or cards;

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  questionnaires, including a very useful guide to the development of questionnaires and sample checklists;

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  interviews and how to conduct them;

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  focus group interviews;

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  diary studies;

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  observation (including mystery shopping);

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  Delphi technique which uses a panel of experts;

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  environmental scanning; and

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  experimenting with new systems or ways of doing things.

The second appendix, The analysis of data, explains how to analyse the quantitative and qualitative data collected. Finally, The presentation of results, describes the various methods of presenting the data collected, for example, tables, charts, histograms and reports.

I agreed to review this book because, in common with other librarians, I am expected to measure our performance, and to thereby meet our performance indicators. The preface states that “performance measurement is often an inexact science” and I would add that qualitative methods can be very subjective. However, this book goes a long way to making the process a lot clearer, even if it cannot make it easier.