Keynote presentation delivered by Sheila Corrall of the University of Sheffield at the 2011 BLA conference held in Sheffield from 13-15 July.

1. Information
School
Making an impact: demonstrating value
Choosing Business Tools to
Demonstrate Library Value
Professor Sheila Corrall
Libraries & Information Society Research Group

2. Information
School Presentation outline
Introduction
• Definitions of value, methods of measurement
and current concerns for academic libraries
Balanced Scorecard
• Explanation of the concept, benefits of the tool,
an example and feedback from the library sector
Strategy Maps
• Explanation of the concept, its relationship with
the scorecard and examples of library mapping
References and further reading
• Case studies, articles, books and web resources

3. Information
School Defining value
Internal focus (Oakleaf, 2010)
• Use or utility
− traditional usage statistics (the more, the better)
• Return on investment or value for money
− perceived benefits divided by perceived costs
• Production of commodities
− quantity produced multiplied by price per unit
External focus
• Impact
− contribution to learning, teaching and research
• Competing alternatives or desired value
− perceived as better than alternatives (e.g. Google)

4. Information
School Aspects of value
Productivity
Return
Offset Savings
Grants and
Economic Direct
Allowances
VALUE Profit
Social Community
Personal
(Cram in Rooney-Brown, 2011)

5. Information
School Measuring performance
Quantitative Qualitative
methodologies methodologies
• Audits • Social auditing
− performance indicators − service outcomes
o questionnaires,
• Return on investment interviews
− cost-benefit analysis
• Ethnography
− consumer surplus
− narrative descriptions
− cost of time and effort o observation
− contingent valuation
Mixed methodologies
− input-output models
• Social return on
(Rooney-Brown, 2011)
investment

6. Information
School A culture of assessment
Defining a ‘Culture of Assessment’
‘A Culture of Assessment is an organizational
environment in which decisions are based on facts,
research, and analysis, and where services are planned
and delivered in ways that maximize positive outcomes
and impacts for stakeholders.
A Culture of Assessment exists in organizations where
staff care to know what results they produce and how
those results relate to customers’ expectations.
Organizational mission, values, structures, and systems
support behavior that is performance and learning
focused.’
(Lakos & Phipps, 2004)

7. Information
School Research agenda
(Oakleaf, 2010)
• How does the library contribute:
− to student enrolment?
− to student retention and graduation rates?
− to student success? (e.g. graduate destinations)
− to student achievement?
− to student learning?
− to the student experience?
− to faculty research productivity? (e.g. papers, patents)
− to faculty teaching? (e.g. tutorials, assignments)
− to overall institutional reputation or prestige? (e.g.
special collections, iconic buildings, league tables)

8. Learning Research General
Faculty Institutional
Student
Research Reputation
Enrollment
Productivity or Prestige
Student Faculty
Retention & Grants
Graduation
Student
Success
Areas of library impact
Student
Achievement on institutional missions
Student
Learning (Oakleaf, 2010)
Student
Experience • Is this a sensible balance?
Faculty • Does it reflect your values?
Teaching

9. Environment Assessment framework
Vision, Mission, Goals
Objectives,
Communication, $ goals, cues, Communication, $
budgeting
Other Academic
Communication, and Functional
Library interaction,
(Action) Units
How will we contributions
(Action)
know or mission Assessment:
is being Do selected measures
fulfilled? indicate goals are
being achieved?
Outcomes of
interest
Measures:
Direct, Surrogate,
Composite
(Fraser et al., 2002)

10. Information
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The Balanced
Business Scorecard
A strategic performance measurement framework,
providing a comprehensive view of business performance
and relating measurement to strategy, vision and mission
– invented by Kaplan & Norton (1992, 1996)

11. Information
School
Balanced business scorecard
• A strategic performance measurement system
enabling broader assessment of organisational
performance than traditional indicators
• Helps managers look beyond financial metrics
and physical assets to customer measures and
intellectual capital (e.g. innovation and learning)
• Combines 20-30 measures from 4 perspectives
to give a fast but comprehensive and balanced
view of how an organisation is performing
(Kaplan & Norton, 1992)

12. The balanced business scorecard
4 perspectives
on performance
• Financial or
shareholder
• Customer or
service
• Internal
process
• Innovation and
learning
(Kaplan & Norton,
1992, 1996)
© Paul Arveson 1998 http://www.balancedscorecard.org

13. Information
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Benefits of the balanced scorecard
• Not only provides a fast comprehensive view of
business performance, but also connects
measurement with strategy and vision
• In addition, the customer focus encourages
organisations to direct management attention
towards critical processes (rather than functions)
• The balanced approach has made the system
popular with organisations in the public sector
and with academic, national and public libraries

14. Mission Translating a
Why we exist
Core Values mission into
What we believe in
Vision
desired
What we want to be outcomes
Strategy
How we plan to get there
Balanced Scorecard (Kaplan &
How we will know that we have arrived Norton,
Strategic Initiatives 2001: 73)
What we need to do
Personal Objectives
What I need to do
Strategic Outcomes
Satisfied Delighted Effective Motivated and Prepared
Stakeholders Customers Processes Workforce

15. The Mission
Funder Perspective Customer Perspective
‘If we succeed, how will ‘To achieve our vision, how
we look to our taxpayers must we look to our
(or donors)?’ customers?’
Internal Perspective
Balanced ‘To satisfy our customers and
financial donors, which business
scorecard processes must we excel at?’
for the
public Learning and Growth Perspective (Kaplan &
Norton,
‘To achieve our vision, how must our
sector organization learn and improve?’ 2004: 8)

16. Information literacy scorecard
Shareholder/financial perspective Customer/service perspective
How do we look to our funders? How do we look to our clients?
Goals Measures Goals Measures
Economy • Unit costs (e.g. marking Quality • Satisfaction rating
student bibliographies) (e.g. evaluations by
Growth • Income generated (e.g. students of teaching)
IL courses delivered to Penetration • Participation levels
local businesses and (e.g. % taught units
professionals) where IL embedded)
Internal/process perspective Innovation/learning perspective
What must we excel at? Can we continue to improve?
Goals Measures Goals Measures
Reliability • Percentage downtime New modes • Online products (e.g.
Efficiency • Trainee hours per custom VLE tutorials)
member of teaching staff Expertise • Qualifications gained
(e.g. PGCert in HE)

17. Information
School
Critical success factors
Lessons learned from BSC implementation
1. Define and communicate clearly the library mission.
2. Ensure strong leadership and management support.
3. Measure the right things, not everything.
4. Aggressively communicate the performance results to
the library’s constituency.
5. Align incentives creatively to the BSC metrics and find
new ways of motivating staff.
6. Make change based on BSC analysis, and demonstrate
that change is data driven.
(Lloyd, 2006)

18. Information
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Strategy Mapping
A strategy development and strategic management system
that uses Kaplan & Norton’s (1992) four perspectives to
define goals and show their cause-and effect relationships
in an easy-to-read one-page summary that can be
communicated throughout the organisation
.

19. Information
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Strategy maps
• Concept introduced by Kaplan & Norton (2000) as a
framework for developing and implementing strategies
based on the Balanced Scoredcard perspectives
• Strategy maps use the BSC framework to define
objectives related to the four perspectives and then
display their important cause-and-effect relationships
• They enable managers to capture their plans in an easy-
to-read one-page graphical summary and to connect
vision, strategy and resources at all organisation levels
• A key feature of the model is its emphasis on
communicating the strategy to the whole workforce

20. Mission ‘The balanced scorecard
Why we exist
is a step in a continuum
Values
What’s important to us that describes
what value is and
Vision
What we want to be how it is created’
Strategy
Our Game Plan
Strategy Map (Kaplan &
Translate the Strategy
Norton,
Balanced Scorecard 2004: 33)
Measure and Focus
Targets and Initiatives
What we need to do
Personal Objectives
What I need to do
Strategic Outcomes
Satisfied Delighted Efficient and Effective Motivated and Prepared
Shareholders Customers Processes Workforce

21. Library strategy map contents
‘Library strategic plan on a page’
• Vision and/or Mission (Purpose) statement
• Strategic (Key) Themes and Objectives grouped
under the four balanced scorecard perspectives
− Customer Value Proposition or Customer/User Needs
− Financial Sustainability or Funders’ Requirements
− Internal Process or Improving Effectiveness
− Learning and Growth or Potential (Staff Development)
• American examples have 12-13 objectives,
British examples have 30-31 objectives

22. Library strategy map guidelines
‘Visual framework for a library’s strategy’
Organizational
A good strategy map will link together Readiness
• the overall customer value proposition, Perspective
• the desired productivity goals for internal processes
• the capabilities required from the library itself (staff skills,
information technology and leadership),
• the characteristics of a physical collection and electronic
database provision,
• the budget and other financial resources required to
deliver the library’s vision Information Resources Perspective
(Matthews, 2008: 58)

23. Strategy map template with intellectual capital items (Kaplan & Norton, 2004: 55)

24. Information
School
Examples of Library
Strategy Maps
Leeds University Library
McMaster University Library
University of Virginia Library
University of Warwick Library

25. Leeds University Library Strategy Map 2006-07

26. Strategy Map
Mission: advance teaching, learning and research at McMaster by teaching students to be successful, ethical information
seekers, facilitating access to information resources, providing welcoming spaces for intellectual discovery and promoting
the innovative adoption of emerging learning technologies
Create world-class Strive for
Customer
Improve discovery of
teaching & exemplary service
and access to
learning that is responsive
scholarly resources
environments to user needs
Internal Processes
Marketing and Services Operational Effectiveness
Communications Enhance the Library’s
Promote the Library’s Integrate the Library commitment to strategic
role in the discovery, into the University’s planning
dissemination, and teaching, learning,
preservation of Track efficiency and
and research mission
knowledge effectiveness of Library
programs and services
Develop highly-
Nurture a healthy,
Learning &
trained, Grow an Encourage
Growth
collaborative, and
technologically- evidence-based innovation and
dynamic
fluent superlative culture risk taking
organization
staff
Increase alternate sources of
Finances
Align the Library’s budget revenue e.g. fundraising,
with the University’s mission grants and revenue
generation

27. Facilitate world-class research, teaching and learning through leadership in the creation, access, use, and preservation of
information and knowledge for scholars at the University of Virginia
Customer Perspective Financial Perspective
Maintain funding
Customer Needs:
Welcoming Focus on
Easy access to spaces that Services and Increase levels to responsibly
resources &
superb promote programs that add financial base steward the
services with
information and productivity and value to for unrestricted University’s
high ratio of
resources collaboration scholarship funds knowledge
value to cost
resources
Internal Processes
Marketing & Communications Library Services Operational Efficiency
Develop effective digital
services Prioritize strategic
Promote
programs and
Library as
adjust budget and
intellectual
Align administrative, technical, staffing accordingly
crossroads
and public service priorities
Strategic Skills / Workforce Infrastructure Culture
Promote culture of assessment
Learning Implement space and and accountability
Recruit, develop, and retain technology upgrades to support
And
productive, highly qualified staff cutting-edge services and
Growth Develop “community” model of
initiatives leadership and organization

28. University of Warwick Library Strategy Map 2009/10

29. Strategy maps and balanced scorecards
Measurement and communication
‘Strategy maps and Balanced Scorecards
constitute the measurement technology for
managing in a knowledge-based economy.
‘By translating their strategy into the
logical architecture of a strategy map and
Balanced Scorecard, organizations create a
common understandable point of reference
for all their units and employees.’
(Kaplan & Norton, 2001: 11)

30. Information
School
References and
Recommended Reading
Library case studies, journal articles, books and
web resources

31. Information
School
Library case studies
Cribb, G. & Hogan, C. (2003) ‘Balanced scorecard: linking
strategic planning to measurement and communication’,
24th Annual IATUL Conference, 2-5 June, Ankara, Turkey.
http://epublications.bond.edu.au/library_pubs/8/
Lloyd, S. (2006) ‘Building library success using the
Balanced Scorecard’, Library Quarterly, 76 (3), 352-361.
Pienaar, H. & Penzhorn, C. (2000) ‘Using the Balanced
Scorecard to facilitate strategic management of an
academic information service’, Libri, 50 (3), 202-209.
www.librijournal.org/pdf/2000-3pp202-209.pdf
Poll, R. (2001) ‘Performance, processes and costs:
managing service quality with the Balanced Scorecard’,
Library Trends, 49 (4), 709-717. www.ideals.illinois.edu/

32. Information
School References/readings
Fraser, B.T. et al. (2002) ‘Toward a framework for assessing library and
institutional outcomes’, portal: Libraries and the Academy, 2 (4),
505-528.
Kaplan, R.S. & Norton, D.P. (2004) ‘Measuring the strategic readiness
of intangible assets’, Harvard Business Review, 82 (2), 52-63.
– covers the extension of the Learning and Growth perspective to
intellectual capital and its incorporation in strategy maps.
Kaplan, R.S. & Norton, D.P. (2008) ‘Mastering the management
system’, Harvard Business Review, 86 (1), 62-77.
– includes a very useful resource list for strategic planning.
Lakos, A. & Phipps, S. (2004) ‘Creating a culture of assessment: a
catalyst for organizational change’, portal: Libraries and the Academy,
4 (3), 345-361.
Rooney-Brown, C. (2011) ‘Methods for demonstrating the value of
public libraries in the UK: a literature review’, Library and Information
Research, 35 (109), 3-39.

33. Good
books
Brophy (2006) Kaplan & Norton
Dugan et al. (2009)
(2004)
Markless & Oakleaf (2010)
Streatfield (2006) Matthews (2008)

34. Provides links to
• Bibliographies
• Reports
• White papers
• Marketing tools
• Value calculators

35. Any Questions? Information
School
Email Sheila Corrall
s.m.corrall@sheffield.ac.uk
InformationInformation School / The University of Sheffield 2010 of Sheffield www.shef.ac.uk/is
©
School, The University