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

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

3. 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

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

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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.

9. 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.

10. 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

11. 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

12. 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?

13. 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.

14. Are our systems ready?

15. 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

16. Thank you