Benchmarking Library, Information and Education Services: New Strategic Choices in Challenging Times provides the foundations of ongoing research in the development of collections and services. The book contributes to practical outputs of general benefit to the sector, including customers, clients or stakeholders, offering ideas for how to identify comparative strengths and weaknesses and improve or enhance present practices regardless of how well institutions currently perform. The centerpiece of the book is a description, report and analysis of a major international QB exercise that culminates in a set of good practice statements. The benefits of the QB methodology are applicable to individual institutions. Because of the current global turbulence, individuals, leaders and whole institutions are keen to learn more about what is happening and how they can develop sustainable solutions to both immediate challenges and longer-term scenarios. These include an analysis of third sector organizations, e-libraries, marketing information services, vocational training in higher education, the creative arts, and the role of partnerships in organizational openness. Discusses qualitative benchmarking and it's core tenets Helps readers understand the experiences of others and compare their own experiences to learn and adapt practices Presents tactics readers can use to identify their organization’s professional identity, value and purpose Provides an idea of what the future state of library, education and public services will look like
Provides update to current thinking about, and reasons for, service evaluation of libraries in the UK. Examines quantitative and qualitative methods including questionnaires, focus groups, suggestions boxes and interview techniques.Problems arising from survey outcomes are summarised and long-term evaluation and the relevance of benchmarking are discussed.Contains case studies covering survey work in public, academic and special libraries; charters and service level agreements; and examples of relevant research projects.New chapter on performance measurement in the electronic library.
Becoming a solo librarian may be a daunting prospect. From collections to cataloguing, classifying to copyright, whether the individual is a solo librarian, within a small team with limited help, or working in a larger library or information hub, the range of tasks involved will remain the same. Whilst being a solo librarian does have its fair share of challenges that can include juggling multiple tasks and time management, marketing and embracing the ever-changing technologies and upcoming social media channels, and effectively managing the feeling of being isolated, there are also many advantages. With the author having been through the education process and gained work experience, information professionals will have already picked up many transferrable skills and identified some key aspects when it comes to accessing, using, and running a library. By being intellectually curious, embracing ever-changing technologies, enjoying learning and knowledge creation, and working alongside non-library colleagues, it is likely that information professionals are organised, can manage their time effectively, enjoy helping others by sharing and promoting library and information services, and will stay engaged as a team of one. As a solo librarian herself and a book not being available on the topic, she has decided to write one – which covers the lessons learnt, and templates created in order to assist others) that find themselves in a similar role &/or a small team with limited help. This Internationally applicable and practical handbook will follow a yearly planner and shows a timeline of key activities that happen throughout, in this instance, an academic year and include the following examples: Acquisitions, cataloguing, updating library guidance (before academic year start - September) Student and Staff Inductions (September/October) Quarterly Business Review to review updates and library usage (Oct – Dec) Library cover over student/staff holiday period (Dec) Quarterly Business Review (Jan – Mar) Quality standard(s) re-accreditation (April) Research methods/study skills webinars (April) Library cover over student holiday period (April) Quarterly Business Review (April –June) Copyright Audit (May) Copyright Academic Rollover (June) Quarterly Business Review (July –Sept) Yearly e-Library review (July) Financial Review (July) Student Survey Results (July) Library cover over student holiday period (August/September) Appendices will include a condensed version of ‘Lucy the Librarian top tips for successful solo librarianship’ (Note: Chapter 4 of the publication will expand on key elements and provide contextual examples) as well as providing templates and guidance notes that will be made available to download and used to aid those working in information, knowledge, libraries and related disciplines, whether based within the UK or around the world. The idea behind this practical handbook, therefore, is to provide guidance and templates to cover: Understanding the roles and responsibilities of a solo librarian Identifying library user needs, Benchmarking, Forming a clear structure – for Physical and Online Libraries, Acquisitions and financial management, Classification and cataloguing, Archives and records management, Copyright (incl. Referencing and Plagiarism), Intellectual Property, and Licensing, Communications and promotion, Where to access further Information, Advice, and Guidance, and more.
The study presents detailed data on the interlibrary loan operations of approximately 50 colleges and universities with data broken out for different types of higher education institutions and by other variables, such as for public and private institutions, and by college enrollment level. The report gives detailed data on turnaround times for various kinds of interlibrary loan borrowing and lending requests, use of technology and services, impact of distance learning and MOOCs on interlibrary loan, copyright and open access issues, the administrative jurisdiction of the interlibrary loan department, departmental cost structure, personnel benchmarks, trends in departmental budgets and other issues in interlibrary loan management.
This 254 page report presents data from a survey of the cataloging practices of approximately 80 North American academic libraries. In more than 630 tables of data and related commentary from participating librarians and our analysts, the report gives a broad overview of academic library cataloging practices related to outsourcing, selection and deployment of personnel, salaries, the state of continuing education in cataloging, and much more. Survey participants also discuss how they define the catalogers¿ range of responsibilities, how they train their catalogers, how they assess cataloging quality, whether they use cataloging quotas or other measures to spur productivity, what software and other cataloging technology they use and why, and how they make outsourcing decisions and more. Data is broken out by size and type of college and for public and private colleges. Just a few of the reports many findings are presented below: ¿More than 70% of the libraries in the sample say that their catalogers have salary levels that are comparable to those of public service librarians at their institutions. ¿About 27.3% of the survey participants routinely use paraprofessional staff for original cataloging. Public colleges were more than three times more likely than private colleges to use paraprofessionals for original cataloging, and larger colleges were more than twice as likely as smaller ones to do so. ¿41.56% of the libraries in the sample outsource authority control, obtaining new and updated authority records. ¿About 15.6% of the libraries in the sample outsource the cataloging of e-journals; close to 28% of research universities do so. ¿20.78% of libraries in the sample use MarcEdit or other MARC editor to preview records and globally edit to local standards prior to loading. ¿29.7% of the libraries in the sample have technical services areas that track turnaround time from Acquisitions receipt to Cataloging to shelf-ready distribution. ¿About 24.7% of the libraries in the sample use paraprofessional support staff for master bibliographic record enrichment in OCLC. Most of those doing so were public colleges and offered beyond the B.A. degree. ¿Authority control experience was considered a very important criterion for hiring by only 8.11% of survey participants, while a bit more than 35% considered it important. 21.62% considered authority control experience not so important as a hiring criterion.
This practical book is written from the point of view of the practitioner, rather than the researcher. It presents current and recent work in the subject area in a way relevant to practitioners, researchers and students. The book includes practical examples of survey and research work and discusses honestly the practical difficulties involved. Aimed at an international audience, examples of good practice are drawn from a number of countries across the world. An up to date review/summary of activity in the subject area Provides international comparisons of library and information service evaluation activity Provides practical/real life research and survey data useful to practitioners and academics which they can apply in their own situations
Assessing impact is increasingly critical to the survival of services: managers now require comprehensive information about effectiveness, especially in relation to users. Outlining a rigorously tested approach to library evaluation and offering practical tools and highly relevant examples, this book enables LIS managers to get to grips with the slippery concept of service impact and to address their own impact questions in their planning. The 2nd edition is fully updated to include international approaches to qualitative library evaluation, new international research, and current debates on the evolving nature of evaluation, as well as reflections on the importance of involving stakeholders and of evaluation to guide advocacy. Key topics include: • The demand for evidence • Getting to grips with impact • The research base of this work • Putting the impact into planning • Getting things clear: objectives • Success criteria and impact indicators: how you know you are making a difference • Making things happen: activities and process indicators • Thinking about evidence • Gathering and interpreting evidence • Taking stock, setting targets and development planning • Doing national or international evaluation • Where do we go from here? Readership: Practising library and information service managers and policy makers in the field. LIS policy shapers and managers in public, education (schools, further and higher education), health and special libraries and information services working in any country or internationally and people engaged in professional education in the field such as lecturers or students.
Every academic library strives to make improvements - in its services, its effectiveness, and its contributions to overall university success. Every librarian wants to improve library quality, but few are knowledgeable or enthusiastic about the means and mechanisms of quality improvement. This book assists librarians to make sense of data collection, assessment, and comparative evaluation as stepping stones to transformative quality improvement. Creating value lies in a library’s ability to understand, communicate and measure what matters to users, and what can be measured can be managed to successful outcomes. Complex and fragmented subject matter is synthesized into clear and logical presentation Focuses on current research and best practices International in scope
