1. Measuring & evaluating return on
investment
Roxanne Missingham
University Librarian

2. • Libraries support research and education
which in themselves are difficult to assign
precise economic value.
• (Broadbent and Lofgren 1991 p 96)
2

3. Value
• “The contingent valuation technique has
been used for twenty years or so to
estimate passive use values.”
• (NOAA Panel 1993)
3

4. Return on investment and contingent
valuation
• Willingness-to-pay (WTP) in order to
secure the provision of a public good
• Willing to accept for loss of quality of life
- willingness-to-accept (WTA)
4

5. • Many studies including…
• British Library:
The total value each year of the British Library is £363m
- £59m comes directly from users of the services and
£304m comes from wider society
• Public libraries in South Carolina
– Direct economic impact of all public library
expenditures = $80 million
– Public libraries bring almost $5 million (from federal
and private sources) that the state would not
otherwise have
5

6. • Florida Public Libraries
– The total direct economic impact of Florida’s public
libraries on the state economy is $6 billion a year
• St. Louis Public Library study
– Baltimore County Public Library returned $3-$6 in
benefit per tax dollar. Birmingham Public Library
returned $1.30-$2.70, King County Library System
returned $5-$10 and Phoenix Public Library returned
over $10. St. Louis Public Library returned $2.50-$5
in benefits per tax dollar.
• Public library studies – NSW and Victoria
6

7. Our major investments: collections
• Focused study on value of collections to
researchers at Group of 8 Universities
• Costs of collection building – purchase,
processing, storage and retrieval
• $4.26 per volume per year CLIR report 1
• 80% of the circulation is driven by just 6%
of the collection 2
7

8. Web survey
•administered at
The Australian National University
The University of Adelaide
The University of Queensland
Validation
•outcomes confirmed through focus groups at
Monash University
The University of Melbourne
The University of New South Wales
The University of Sydney
8

9. Jo
u rn
al
a rt i
cle
s(
ac
ad
e m
ic,
sc
ho
lar
Ab ly,
st te
ra ch
cts n ica
, in l, .
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
0
de ..
xe
s an
d
What is used?
bib Bo
Co
lio ok
nf gr s
er ap
en hi
Ph Go ce es
ys ve pr
ic a rn oc
la m ee
ud en di
io tp ng
-v ub s
isu lic
al Te at
m ch io
ns
ed ni
ia ca
St (C lp
an Ds ap
da ,D er
rd VD s
sa s,
nd et
sp c.)
ec
ific
at
ion
s
Ot
he
r
Pa
te
n ts
B1: Use of print or physical information resources
Never
Frequently
Sometimes
9

10. Jo
urn
Da al a
t a rt ic
ba l
se es (
s ( ac
e. a
g. de
ab mi
str c, s
ac ch
Da ts
ta , in olar
se de ly,
ts xe t. ..
(e
1,000
1,200
0
200
400
600
800
.g Co sa
. n nf nd
um er b.
er enc ..
ic e
Go dat pro Boo
ve a, ce k
rn su ed s
m rve ing
en
t p ys, e s
St Te ubli t c. )
an ch ca
da Aud nica tion
rd io l s
s a -vi pa
nd su pe
sp al m rs
ec e
ific dia
at
ion
s
Pa
te
nt
s
Ot
he
r
B2: Use of electronic information resources
Never
Frequently
Sometimes
10

11. C1: Time devoted to use of information
resources
500
450
400
350
300
a.Print
AxisTitle
250
200 b.Electronic
150
100
50
0
Less 1-5 6-10 11-15 16-20 21-40 Over 40
than1 hours hours hours hours hours hours
hour
11

12. Personal collections
12

13. 13

14. Relevance: quality not quantity
14

15. Jo
u rn
al
a
rt
icl
es
Ab (a ca
st de
ra
ct mic
s,
in , sch
O de o
ve xe lar
ra s, ly
ll an , te
ra d
ng
e bi chn
bl ic
of io a .
in
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
0
gr .
Da fo ap
ta rm hi
se Co a es
ts nf t io
(e G er n r B
.g ov en e oo
. n e c so k
um rn e p ur s
er me roc ces
ic nt ee
da pu d
t a bl ing
, s ic s
u a
St Te rve tion
an c y s
da Au hni s, et
rd dio ca l c. )
s a -v pa
nd isu pe
sp al m rs
ec
Ease of access
ifi edi
ca a
t io
ns
Pa
te
nt
s
O
th
er
my needs
adequately
meet my needs
Not applicable
Meets my needs
Sometimes fails to
Often fails to meet
Meets my needs well
15

16. Different funding scenarios for
information resources
16

17. 17

18. 18

19. 19

20. 20

21. Disciplines
21

22. Findings
22

23. 23

24. Where to next?
24

25. 25

26. UK Scholarly Reading and the Value of
Library Resources 2011 (Tenopir)
• The library is more often the provider of scholarly articles as the
number of personal journal subscriptions declines. More than half
the respondents do not have a personal subscription.
• Over half of article readings are from articles that are at least 18
months old, and 17% of readings are from articles that are ten years
old or older.
• The library’s subscriptions are the primary source of article readings,
94% of which are obtained from the library’s e-journal collections.
• If the library were unavailable, value to academic work would be lost
as 17% of the information obtained from the library would not be
obtained from another source.
26

27. • The library is not the main source of book readings; instead,
academics are more likely to purchase books or receive them from a
publisher.
• Of the 448 hours per year spent on scholarly reading, the average
academic staff member spends 187 hours reading library-provided
material, confirming the value of the library’s collections.
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28. Responding to these changing needs
• Value for money for resources
• Engagement with users
• Realignment
28