Viewing Library Metrics from Different Perspectives: Inputs, Outputs, and Outcomes

Citation

Calvert, P. (2010), "Viewing Library Metrics from Different Perspectives: Inputs, Outputs, and Outcomes", The Electronic Library, Vol. 28 No. 6, pp. 895-895. https://doi.org/10.1108/02640471011093598

This is a book that almost every information manager must read, though the main audience is clearly academic librarians. Performance measurement has been much discussed for twenty years, and there has been a great deal of research and experimentation, but for many managers it still remains difficult to convert the theories into practice. Peter Hernon has been a leader in the field for much of that time, both as a researcher, and unusually for an academic, a writer trying to make the results of the research approachable for practitioners. In that he has had close allies in Robert Dugan and Danuta Nitecki, plus (not involved with this book) Ellen Altman and John Whitman.

The authors have used four “perspectives” as the core of the book. This is based upon an original idea of Dugan and Hernon, now developed further for this work. This format is in line with the argument that there is no “one size fits all” approach to library performance measures and metrics, it always depends upon the context, primarily the purpose of the metric and who is going to use it or be given it.

First, the library perspective. Here the traditional input and output measures have a significant place. Also considered are newer measures that attempt to provide cross‐organisational comparisons, such as LibQUAL+. In the last decade it is become necessary to develop entirely new metrics that assess the impact of electronic resources, and here the writers include references to numerous sets and standards such as Counter and MINES.

Second, the customer perspective. The emphasis in this chapter is on producing excellence in customer service. The questions are what is excellence in this context, and can it be measured? The authors say the key measure is what the customers' expect. Third, the institutional perspective. Here the point is not to try and measure on behalf of the institution, but to contribute to institutional metrics. Fourth and finally, the stakeholder perspective. In some ways perhaps this should come first, because if you are not meeting the expectations of key stakeholder groups then you are going to fail sooner or later. The authors emphasise that metrics for this group must be simple and transparent.

This solid core alone would constitute a good book, but add to the chapters that define assessment and evaluation, deal with benchmarking processes, discuss metrics for marketing purposes and metrics in management information systems, and it becomes a great book. The last chapter has the unusual title “The joy of metrics”. There is a very full bibliography, good enough for all researchers. Very full appendices summarise the text and illustrate the metrics. I highly recommend his book.