Quantifying the value of our libraries. Are our systems ready?

Overview Library quality Revolution Tools for impact Areas to trace impact Evidence data Questions to be considered Challenges and limitations Future research

Library quality revolution Negative Input output outcome Impact Value ROI Positive Staff Information Time IT Financial Physical facilities Processes policies Training Collections Systems Space Check-out statistics Attendance register Journals viewed/printed Head counts Percentage of students throughput Assignments results Article citation Survey reports Teaching Leaning Research Cost serving Time saving Income generation

Library offerings Space for learning and research Access to books and journals Visits to repositories Service of Qualified librarians Literature searches Information skills instruction

Areas to trace impact or value Students performance Research output Money saved for the university Lecturers’ time saved Throughput rate Research chairs Research ratings (NRF) Institutional income (ROI) Research grants (e.g. NRF) Government subsidy (e.g. DHET) Attract prospective students and researchers

Evidence data Assignments and/or test results Number of citations and bibliographies Sources used in grant proposals Sources cited in theses and dissertations Gate counts Usage statistics Number of searches conducted E-journals viewed, downloaded and printed Response from surveys

Value of a library on student performance Correlation of library use and & academic success Assessing student library visits/checkouts/journals viewed/printed vs. tests or assignments results Students who use the library are more likely to perform better than those who don’t The library plays a role in the students throughput also saving money for the institution

Value of a library on information literacy Correlation of library information skilling & information literacy competence Comparison of citations, plagiarism, type of sources used and scientific peer reviewed journal non-academically sound sources Students who attend information literacy training programs are more likely to produce quality assignments than those who don’t . The library plays a role in the student’s life-long learning.

Value of a library on a university’s research output Correlation between sources cited in a university’s research outputs and the print and electronic library collection ( interview of the authors) Citation analysis and interview Sources cited in books, articles, theses and dissertations produced by a university are available in the library and the authors have indicated that they have used the library. Therefore the library has an impact on the production of research outputs.

The financial value of a library The library saves the university a lot of money by the sharing of resources. Comparison of library expenditure with spending directly to the student or academic staff. ? The amount of money that a university would have paid if they were to provide each and every student or lecturer with a copy of a book vs. the amount of money that is saved by circulating one book to more than one user

Time value of the library Value of knowledge and expertise of an information librarian The time that the lecturer would have spent searching for information on databases vs. the time that is saved after the training and help from the subject librarian The library saves the lecturers time, so they can dedicate more time to their students and lectures

Questions to be considered What is the tangible and demonstratable evidence of library value? Will the institutional leadership regard this evidence as value for the Institution? Does the demonstrated impacts serve the vision, mission and strategic objectives of the institution ? Can the students and lectures produce research without the existence of a library?

Challenges and limitations Difficulty in tracing cited sources back to the library Multiple data sources Multiple research methods Our systems have their limitations for the gathering of data and analytical processes Citation analysis requires lot of time and effort.

Are our systems ready?

We need to trace every footstep of our clients in the library Are our systems ready? A system that can combine all the data into a single repository and be able to give us all the data we require for impact analysis We need to trace every footstep of our clients in the library Who is using our library when, how, for what purpose and what happen thereafter. We need to think out of the box

Thank you