An overview of the LibValue project and related ideas are eloquently summarized by Carol Tenopir, LibValue principal investigator, in “Building Evidence of the Value and Impact of Library and Information Services: Methods, Metrics and ROI,” published in Evidence Based Library and Information Practice (EBLIP vol. 8, no. 2).
Tenopir writes, “It should be clear that value of the library to its constituents can be demonstrated in many ways…Multiple methods should be used to measure value, including quantitative, qualitative, and a mixture of both…Quantitative data can show ROI and trends, while qualitative data can tell a story or put a personal face on data.”
The LibValue project is developing a set of tested methodologies and tools to help academic librarians measure which products and services provide the most value to the university community and best support the university’s mission and goals. The LibValue team is composed of researchers and librarians at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville; the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Syracuse University; and ARL. For more information about the project, see the LibValue website.
The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) is a nonprofit organization of 125 research libraries in the US and Canada. Its mission is to influence the changing environment of scholarly communication and the public policies that affect research libraries and the diverse communities they serve. ARL pursues this mission by advancing the goals of its member research libraries, providing leadership in public and information policy to the scholarly and higher education communities, fostering the exchange of ideas and expertise, facilitating the emergence of new roles for research libraries, and shaping a future environment that leverages its interests with those of allied organizations. ARL is on the web at https://www.arl.org/.
