Avenues of Advocacy: Using Standards to Make a Difference Carla J. Funk Executive Director Medical Library Association

What are standards? A set of parameters we use to determine what is acceptable Realistic, consistent guidelines used to measure accomplishments and assist us in obtaining our goals Rules set up and established by authority for the measure of quantity, quality, value, etc.

What is benchmarking? Benchmarking is a total quality tool used to measure and compare one library’s resources and performance against another’s. Muir. Library Benchmarking Explained

MLA Benchmarking Network Administrative Financial Measures, by Number of Physicians in the Hospital (pr04c) 44KB Number of Institutionsl Full Time Equivalent (FTE) Employees (pr05) 153KB Number of Outpatient Visits Annually (pr06) 45KB Number of Staffed Beds (pr07) 139KB Number of Patient Admissions Annually (pr08) 44KB Total Hospital Operating Expenses (pr09) 44KB Number of Total Library FTEs (ad10) 44KB Total Annual Operating Expenses for the Library (ad36) 44KB (Administrative financial measures include expenditures for: salaries and wages, professional development and travel, monographs, print serials, AV resources, electronic information resources, delivery services, computer or network equipment, other; total expenditures; amount of support from medical staff; amount of fee-based service income; income from other sources of funding; total income.) Number of Physicians in the Hospital (pr04c) Number of Institutionsl Full Time Equivalent (FTE) Employees (pr05) Number of Outpatient Visits Annually (pr06) Number of Staffed Beds (pr07) Number of Patient Admissions Annually (pr08) Total Hospital Operating Expenses (pr09) Number of Total Library FTEs (ad10) Total Annual Operating Expenses for the Library (ad36)

Advocacy within the institution Additional library resources to support an enhanced institutional program Additional collection development funds granted based on comparison with competitors

Advocacy outside the institution Get association standards adopted by other organizations who have authority Get association standards adopted by governmental agencies

Tips on using these tools effectively Benchmark against those institutions that your administration look on as competitors, role models, etc. Know your audience and how your standards fit in with their mission and goals Make comparable comparisons Make your message simple and to the point

The Bottom Line Help your members understand why their communities, institutions, or companies value their services and provide them the tools to demonstrate how the services can be enhanced to help meet their organizations’ goals.

What Associations Can Do  Develop standards for their members’ libraries  Develop or provide access to benchmarking tools and other data relevant to their members’ libraries  Promote library standards to other organizations that affect library funding and access to resources  Provide training on how to use these tools for advocacy purposes

Association Resources  MLA standards statement and benchmarking network  ARL LibQUAL+™  ALA standards documents  Standards from state library agencies and state library associations  Statistics from governmental agencies and associations

Avenues of Advocacy: Using Standards to Make a Difference