Achieving Big City Dreams at Small Town Libraries (ACRL 2015)
Using the ACRL Value of Academic Libraries Research Review @ Your Library
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Transcript of Using the ACRL Value of Academic Libraries Research Review @ Your Library
FALL 2010ELIZABETH LEONARD
Using the ACRL Value of Academic Libraries Research
Review @ Your Library
Anne Ciliberti, Elizabeth Leonard, Luis Rodriguez, & Mark Thompson
Sponsored by the VALE-NJ Assessment Committee
Introductions
Anne Ciliberti, Director, William Paterson University Library
Elizabeth Leonard, Director, Online Campus Library, Berkeley College
Mark Thompson, Director, Middlesex County College Library
Luis Rodriguez, Director, Kean University Library
Agenda
Overview, ACRL “Value of Academic Libraries: A Comprehensive Research Review and Report” report (Sept. 2010)
How to operationalize in our own libraries?
Overview
www.acrl.ala.org/value
Why?
Request for Proposal (RFP)
Assumption: “the relevance of academic libraries is under question.” Google Current Economic Climate
Need to demonstrate their value
Are we still seen as the “heart of the university”?
“I began my professional career in the late 1960s, at the tail end of what must have been a ‘golden era,’ when we rarely, if ever, said ‘no’ to any request for new content or services. That era is long behind us. So, too, are the days when arguing that the library deserves more financial support because it is a public good and because the costs of maintaining its collections and services are rising.” (Kaufman 227)
“It used to be that the way you put together a library budget was to look at like institutions and then argue for a little more. Now my provost is saying to me: ‘If I give you x dollars, what is the return on investment to the University?’” [T. Scott Plutchak, Librarian, University of Alabama at Birmingham, as quoted in Luther 3]
If we are seen no longer as the “heart of the university,” what is it that we need to do to show our value to the institution?
RFP, continued
Result must identify measurable surrogates that demonstrate the library’s impact on institutional goals
Include best practices
Explain how the report findings should inform data collection decisions of academic libraries going forward
Other Measurement of Value Projects
Association of Research Libraries and the Institute of Museum and Library Services are partnering on a study to enrich, expand, test, and implement methodologies measuring the return on investment (ROI) in academic libraries.
(“Lib-Value Project” n.p.)
Report Overview/ToC
Parts of Presentation
Elizabeth Leonard: In which ways can libraries measure value?
Mark Thompson: What are the next steps advocated in the report?
Anne Ciliberti: What can we do next?
Value of Academic Libraries, defined
“…this report focuses on library value within the context of overarching institutions. It does not attempt to address methods for assessing library value within a library context. Therefore, this report does not emphasize measures of internal library processes, such as inputs and outputs. Nor does it focus on satisfaction or and service quality approaches. These measures are of great utility to librarians who seek to manage library services and resources, but they may not resonate with institutional decision makers as well as outcomes-based, mission-focused approaches.” (Oakleaf 25)
Value Summation
not input or outputs
not how it defines its own value
how it adds to institutional goals
Value of Academic Libraries
Value= institutional, not library, goals. The value of an academic library is communicated by how it supports institutional goals Increasing retention/graduation rates Increasing student achievement Increasing faculty research output
Different Types of Value Measurements
1. Use2. Return on Investment (ROI)3. Production of a commodity4. Library impact5. Competing alternatives
#1, Use
Traditional measures Circulation statistics Door clicks
Useful for internal managementNot compelling to external stakeholders/
institutional decision makersMust be tied to institutional outcomes to have
real impact
#2, ROI
Defined:
Perceived costs: price, time, effort
Difficult to use in academic settings
(Oakleaf 20)
Luther, 2008
(Luther 8)
Grant income obtained using library materials/library budget= ROI on grant money on library
#3, Production of a Commodity
Challenges: finding “market price”
Purchase/exchange value What would people be willing
to pay for the service? Ability to pay Use own money or someone
else’s? Students tend to undervalue
immaterial goods (e.g. library services and information)
Fail to account for externalities
(Kelly, McNicoll, and McLellan 13)
value= quantity of commodity produced x price per unit of commodity
#4, Library Impact
Deals more with externalitiesDirect measurement is challenging
Observe use and what is being produced as a result Librarians tend to avoid
Measure surrogates of impact Student success Retention
Seen as in keeping with institutional mission and purpose
#5, Competing Alternatives
Choose library over other options (e.g. Google) Good v. Good enough Develop relationships with users to ensure they
continue to choose libraries rather than alternatives
Which are most important?
Value is entirely dependent on stakeholders’ concept of value
Stakeholders tend to choose financial value (ROI) and Impact Value (#2, #4) The “business of higher education” – money is the bottom
line
Develop studies using both ROI and Impact Value ROI: How do libraries…
…manage resources …bring money into the institution
Impact: What does the library enable users to do?
Challenges and Opportunities
Shift from value of products (e.g., collections) to services (e.g., librarian expertise and teaching)
Value on Investment 1) What did the user get out of the library service? 2) What did the user accomplish as a result? (Saracevic
and Kantor 540)
Value Thoughts
Are all values equal?
Should we treat them as such?
OK, then Next Steps
•If you accept these premises; and agree with the core findings of research;
•Then take steps to assess your library’s value within your institutional perspectives….
•See report, pp. 102-140.
(Oakleaf 103)
Next Steps According to the Report
1. Get Started2. Define Outcomes3. Use Assessment Management Systems4. Gather New Data5. Use Existing Data6. Engage in Higher Education Assessment
Efforts 7. Create Library Assessment Plans 8. Mobilize Library Administration9. Engage in Professional Development10. Leverage Association Connections
Gather Data
Gather data for either: ROI assessment OR Outcomes-Focus: research, learning, & service
contributions.
“Librarians can develop systems that will allow data collection on individual user library behavior.” “identify students who have had substantial library exposure
and compare to those who have not.” (Oakleaf 97)
Three Levels of Effort
Level 1 = Uncover your campus-wide strategic goals [see overall institutional goals, p.29], such as recruit and retain students; support teaching and learning....
Level 2= Review the potential surrogates for each goal and select.
Example: see Figure 4, p.54Level 3 = Select possible areas of
correlation (library measures) with each of these surrogates. Example: see p.105.
Example
Level 1: Goal:Student Learning
Level 2:Possible surrogates
Must be selected foryour institutionEXAMPLE:1. Learning assessments2. Faculty judgments
(Oakleaf 41)
Surrogate #1: Learning Assessments
Level 3: Brainstormand then choosespecific linkages,correlations, orrelationships thatcan be measured.
Surrogate #2:Faculty Judgments
The top set of correlations factor toward the Outcomes values calculations;and the bottom set factor toward the ROI calculations.
Success with the Process?
What are the possible implications of this process? It assumes that we need to work more directly with
faculty. To engage them in how library resources and services
have impacted their teaching. It assumes that any library services or activities must
directly impact student learning efforts. Course activities, such as students asking questions on
WebCT; as they request library materials; or as they conduct library research and use library resources.
A Call to Action?
All assessment is local
What does this Report say to us
…as individuals?
…as the VALE collective?
Is there interest in doing something more?
Option One
Share ideas, plans, assessment results?
Informal quarterly think-tank forums?
Option Two
Explore some of the VALUE assumptions among
NJ CAOs? Conduct (replicate?) a study of
how our administrators view/define/describe
“library value”?
• Deborah Grimes, 1993
• Beverly Lynch, 2007
• Leigh Estabrook, 2007
• Barbara Fister, 2010
Option Three
Conduct a VALE-wide study of academic
library impact?
• Dickenson’s 2005 Colorado Academic
Library Impact Study: How Academic
Libraries Help Faculty Teach and Students
Learn?
Option Four
Design a new study that combines CAO views, with those of faculty and students, such as “Teaching, Learning and Research in New Jersey: The Role and Value of Academic Libraries as Expressed by Chief Academic Officers, Faculty and Students”?
Discussion
Bibliography comprehensive Report written as toolkit
What do you think of the report’s central findings? Institutional leaders define value Communicate the value of academic libraries by how they
support institutional goals Relate library activities to report surrogates
Should all institutional priorities be equal? (retention v. student learning)
What happens when externals change (senior leadership)?
Are the steps to determining impact realistic?
Conclusion
What has worked for you?
What’s next for you?
What’s next for us?
Thank you!
www.acrl.ala.org/value
To get your own copy of the report, visit: