Statistics and Performance Measures for Public Library Networked Services

Citation

Morris, A. (2001), "Statistics and Performance Measures for Public Library Networked Services", The Electronic Library, Vol. 19 No. 2, pp. 116-118. https://doi.org/10.1108/el.2001.19.2.116.3

This is a US‐focussed how‐to manual which helps the public librarian measure, track, improve and allocate funding for online and network‐based resources. The overall goals of the manual are to enable public librarians (in the USA) to:

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  Establish a core set of performance measures that will capture and describe patron use of online resources.

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  Collect and organise hard statistics based on the measures selected.

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  Assess services provided and identify potential areas of growth.

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  Understand how the library is being used by its patrons.

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  Develop a specific picture of their library network service and usage that can be communicated to staff, community and new funding streams.

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  Develop financial reports and cost‐benefit analysis to support budget increases and reallocate resources.

After the introduction, Chapter 2 describes 12 recommended statistics and includes a definition, an indication of who should collect them (library or database vendor, for example), survey period, procedures for collection, and analysis and use. Examples include “Number of virtual visits to networked library resources” and “Number of public access Internet workstation users”. Several log or tally recording forms are included to make data collection easier. Chapter 3 illustrates the potential uses of the recommended electronic resource and service statistics and how they can be divided and/or combined with traditional statistics to produce performance measures. Examples include “Average annual use per workstation” and “Percentage of virtual reference to total reference questions”. The next chapter presents an approach to conducting a user assessment of the library’s electronic resources and services using questionnaires and focus group interviews. Templates are given, although the presentation of the questionnaire is old fashioned. Nevertheless, some very useful advice is given, particularly for the administration of focus groups.

Chapter 5 reviews the basic issues and techniques involved in collecting and using statistics and measures of electronic resources. Covered here are the importance of embedding recommended measures in the library planning process, the importance and value of appropriate measures, level of effort required, staffing and scheduling issues, data collection methods, and data analysis and use. Chapter 6 covers further issues and highlights the need for continual reappraisal of measurements as new information technologies and software applications appear and patterns of use change. This is further expanded in the final chapter.

The appendices include useful information on statistics and measures needing further consideration, hints on analysing vendor statistics, and detailed lists of software for statistic collection and analysis.

This easy‐to‐read, concise, well‐presented manual is a welcome addition and should prove very useful to all public librarians, no matter where they live.