Dr. Roswitha Poll Münster Benchmarking with performance indicators and Balanced Scorecard

Quality in libraries User-orientation Accessibility (building, collection, services) Accuracy and reliability Speed and currency Competence and helpfulness of staff Effectiveness and efficieny of processes

Quality in libraries: stakeholders Users (actual and potential) Funding institutions (university, community) Policy makers General public Library staff Library managers

Quality assessment in libraries Performance indicators measure the effectiveness and cost-efficiency of library services: quantitative, objective User satisfaction surveys measure the perceived quality, the users‘ impression of library services: qualitative, subjective Outcome assessment tries to show the benefits, the value for individual users and society

Collections of performance indicators for libraries ISO 11620, 2nd ed. (2008), Information and documentation – Library performance indicators (45 indicators) ISO TR (2008), Information and documentation – Performance indicators for national libraries (30 indicators) Poll, R. and te Boekhorst, P., 2nd ed. (2007), Measuring quality, performance measurement in libraries, Saur, München (IFLA Publications 127) (40 indicators)

Criteria for performance indicators informative = helpful for identifying problems and possible actions to be taken reliable = producing the same results when used under the same circumstances valid = measuring what they are intended to measure appropriate = compatible with the library's procedures and working environment practical = easy to use and understand, applicable with a reasonable amount of effort comparable = allowing comparison of results between libraries of similar mission, structure and clientele

What indicators measure Usage of library services - Library visits per capita - Number of content units downloaded per capita The quality of the collection - Document use rate (collection use rate) - Availability of required titles The quality of processes - Shelving accuracy - Speed of interlibrary lending Cost-efficieny - Cost per database session - Cost per loan

How to get the data? Institutional statistics Library statistics Automated library system Manual data collection Number of visits Number of user places Number of students Number of academic staff Number of active users ILL requests Number of working-places used User satisfaction survey Use rate of working-places User satisfaction Market penetration

Indicators for joint projects The set of indicators should… Cover all traditional and new services Consider each individual library Allow comparison Show the importance and benefit of libraries Include only a very few indicators Involve no additional workload (data taken from the normal library statistics) ???

Projects that only recommend indicators ) all types of libraries 3-years project Swedish Quality Handbook (2005) all types of libraries 3-years project The Norwegian indicators, 4th revision (2007) academic and public libraries bibliotek/indikatorer-for-fag-og-folkebibliotek

Projects that make a set of indicators compulsory BIX –Library Index German public and academic libraries public libraries 1999 ff., academic libraries 2002 ff. over 260 libraries (not all continuously) The Benchmarking system of the Netherlands University Libraries all university libraries and the national library 1999 ff. HELMS (UK Higher Education Library Management Statistics) academic libraries 1997/98 ff.

Balanced Scorecard Kaplan, R.S./Norton, D.P.: Kaplan, R.S./Norton, D.P.: The Balanced Scorecard: Translating Strategy into Action. Boston 1996

Balanced Scorecard: 4 perspectives Original 1. Finances 2. Customers 3. Internal processes 4. Learning and growth Libraries 1. Resources, infrastructure 2. Use 3. Efficiency 4. Potentials and development (Learning and growth)

Balanced Scorecard: How to proceed 1. Starting with the vision (mission), the strategy is developed: What are the main tasks and goals? 2. The goals are structured in the perspectives 3. Within the four perspectives, “critical success factors” are defined: What is most important for reaching the goals? 4. Based on the critical success factors, “key performance indicators” are selected.

Balanced Scorecard: Example Vision: The library is the main meeting and communication centre in the community or university Perspective: Customers (users) Goal: To attract the population to the library premises Critical success factors: opening times, adequate space and equipment for working in the library Key performance indicators: - m 2 of user area per 1,000 capita - number of workplaces per 1,000 capita - opening times compared to user demand

Balanced Scorecard: The 4th perspective Potentials and development, Learning and growth intangible assets of an organisation internal skills and capabilities effective information management overall climate in an organisation

Balanced Scorecard: Why? All important perspectives for quality are considered. Each perspective with its goals is evaluated by adequate performance indicators. There is a limited number of performance indicators (up to 20). The indicators are related in a systematic way and influence each other. The BSC is an instrument for an integrated view of the institution’s quality and for continuous assessment of how far targets have been reached.

Global statistics project: Performance indicators Global statistics: Only a limited number of data Socio-demographic data from UIS to be added - size of population - number of students - literacy in a country 76 indicators were calculated in the project Of these, 23 were defined as core indicators Can the Balanced Scorecard be used for the “global statistics”?

Balanced Scorecard Resources and infrastructure Public libraries 1. Average number of public libraries per 1,000 inhabitants 2. Weighted average opening hours 3. Percentage of libraries offering an internet access for users 4. Percentage of libraries offering websites 5. Average number of volumes in public libraries per 1,000 inhabitants 6. Average number of volumes per 1,000 literate inhabitants 7. Average number of employees in public libraries Academic libraries 1. Weighted average opening hours 2. Average number of volumes in libraries per student 3. Average number of workplaces per 1,000 students 4.Average number of electronic serials (subscriptions) 5. Average number of employees in libraries

Balanced Scorecard Usage Public libraries 1. Number of registered users per 1,000 inhabitants 2. Number of registered users per 1,000 literate inhabitants 3. Average number of loans per 1000 inhabitants 4. Average number of loans per 1,000 literate inhabitants 5. Number of visits per 1,000 inhabitants 6. Number of visits per 1,000 literate inhabitants Academic libraries 1. Number of registered users as a percentage of number of students 2. Average number of loans per student 3. Number of visits per student 4. Number of attendances at training sessions per student 5. Average number of content units downloaded per registered user

Balanced Scorecard Efficiency/Finances Public libraries 1. Expenditure on literature and information per capita 2. Ratio of expenditure on literature and information to staff costs 3. Cost per visit 4. Cost per registered user Academic libraries 1. Expenditure on literature and information per capita 2. Ratio of expenditure on literature and information to staff costs 3. Cost per visit 4. Cost per registered user

Balanced Scorecard Potentials and development (Learning and growth) Indicators that have been used E-services expenditure for the E-collection staff in E-services Staff development and motivation time and money spent on staff training ! availability and fluctuation rate of staff Raising resources library means received by special grants or income generated percentage of institutional means allocated to the library No indicators in “global statistics”

New perspective „Impact on population“? Average number of volumes per 1,000 literate inhabitants Number of registered users per 1,000 literate inhabitants Average number of loans per 1,000 literate inhabitants Number of visits per 1,000 literate inhabitants High numbers of public libraries, collections and services, and high library use may have influenced the percentage of literate inhabitants in a country High numbers of public libraries, collections and services, and high library use may have influenced the percentage of literate inhabitants in a country

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