Assessing the impact of libraries – the role of ISO 16439

Purpose Library impact and how to evaluate it has been debated for a number of years. While the activity – the busy-ness – of the library is now routinely measured and described, the difference the library makes is less tangible and harder to measure. Libraries in all sectors and worldwide are grappling with this issue. Design/methodology/approach The first international standard concerning library impact, ISO 16439 Information and documentation — Methods and procedures for assessing the impact of libraries, was published in 2014 after several years in development. Findings The standard describes a range of methods for assessing library impact which have been used across the world in a variety of libraries in all sectors. Originality/value This paper summarises the key methods described in the standard, and gives references for further reading

Information Science student IT experience and attitude toward computers: results of a five-year longitudinal study

Information Science student IT experience and attitude toward computers: results of a five-year longitudinal stud

Improving perceptions of value to teaching and research staff: the next challenge for academic libraries

This article investigates the value, and perceptions of value, of academic libraries to teaching and research staff by examining working relationships between libraries and academic departments in universities. Eight case studies were undertaken in the US, the UK and Scandinavia. Primary findings were analysed and triangulated with a series of short surveys to ascertain whether they resonated with other librarians’ experiences. The article offers examples of good practice in the area of partnership building for academic libraries to improve their value to, or perceptions of value by, teaching and research staff, as well as raise their profile and better market their services to this category of users. Those examples may be of interest to fellow library practitioners and researchers interested in exploring further library-faculty interaction and collaboration

Trends in journal prices: an analysis of selected journals, 2000-2006

This paper presents summary results from an analysis of the institutional subscription prices for journals in biomedical and social sciences, for a selection of eleven publishers. Overall price, price per page and price per point of impact factor have been examined between 2000 and 2006. Considerable variation was found between publishers both in their overall levels of price and in the rates of increase observed over the period. There is some evidence that not-for- profit publishers may, on average, offer better value for money in terms of price per page and price per point of impact factor, but this is far from conclusive

The impact of the Balanced Scorecard in libraries: from performance measurement to strategic management

A literature review of the development of the Balanced Scorecard in libraries was used to develop a series of hypotheses on the main characteristics of its implementation, use and outcomes. These were tested via an electronic questionnaire sent to a sample of 49 academic, public and national libraries worldwide known to be using the Balanced Scorecard, with 15 respondents. The results show that the key driver for most was to improve library management; considerable support was needed in developing the framework; selecting the Key Performance Indicators was the most challenging implementation issue; and most felt they had benefited from using the Balanced Scorecard

Assessing the impact of reading for blind and partially sighted adults

RNIB (Royal National Institute of Blind People) has amassed a body of qualitative evidence on the value and impact of reading for blind and partially sighted people, but this was lacking in quantitative support, and could not be compared with the developing evidence base relating to the impact of reading on the wider population. RNIB commissioned LISU and The Reading Agency to undertake independent research to address these issues, the key findings of which are outlined in this report

The impact of Resource Discovery Services (RDS) on usage of electronic content in UK academic libraries: selected results from a UKSG-funded project

Resource Discovery Services (RDS), also called Web-scale Discovery Services, have attracted considerable attention in recent years. This article aims to provide an environmental scan of the adoption of RDS in UK higher education libraries and provide an analysis of RDS resource usage data to gauge whether RDS have an impact on the overall usage of e-journals and e-books. Findings show that there appears to be a positive impact in most cases, although the extent of this impact varies across libraries and publishers. There is undeniably a degree of complexity in the usage analysis owing to the multi-dimensional nature of the environment

What do UK academics cite? An analysis of references cited in UK scholarly outputs

This study used a bibliometric method to find quantitative evidence of publication and citing patterns within UK academia. The publications of a random sample of UK research—active academics for each of the years 2003 and 2008—were collected and analysed to gather data regarding referencing practices, along with any identifiable trends between the 2 years. References were categorised by type of material to show the proportions of each type used. Comparisons between the 2 years showed that the use of journal articles had increased. There was also an increase in the average number of publications per author. A large number of authors had no publications in the target year

The influence of journal publisher characteristics on open access policy trends

Examines SHERPA/RoMEO publisher Open Access (OA) policy information for 100 publishers over a thirteen year period (2004-2016) to consider whether their size, type or country (UK or US) affected the development of their OA policy over time. A publisher’s RoMEO colour code, whether they offered a Gold OA option, and the mean number of restrictions as to when, how and where papers may be self-archived, were all mapped. Kruskal Wallis tests were run to assess whether the differences between their 2004 and 2016 positions were statistically significant. Finds that the growth of Green and Gold OA policy approaches has not been evenly distributed amongst publishers with some significant differences amongst publishers of different size, types and country (UK and US). Large commercial publishers are more likely to be allocated a RoMEO colour code, but at the same time place a high volume of restrictions as to where and how authors might self-archive. Small publishers are less likely to have a RoMEO green colour code, but the volume of restrictions they place on self-archiving are minimal. University presses appear not to be engaging with either OA agenda to any considerable degree. UK and US publishers’ OA policies appear to be influenced by the national OA policy environment which, considering the global nature of the scholarly journals market, was more pronounced than might have been anticipated

Impact of library discovery technologies: a report for UKSG

The primary objective of this research commissioned by UKSG, with JISC support, was to provide an evaluation of the impact of library discovery technologies on the usage of academic content. [Continues.