For immediate release:
August 10, 2009

For more information, contact:
Martha Kyrillidou
Association of Research Libraries
202-296-2296
martha@arl.org

Library Performance Measurement in the UK and Ireland Published by ARL

Washington DC—The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) has published Library Performance Measurement in the UK and Ireland which describes the state of the art of performance measurement in the Society of College, National, and University Libraries (SCONUL) member libraries in the UK and Ireland.

This survey was a joint initiative between SCONUL and ARL, that since 2004 has sponsored a program to assist libraries with the assessment of services that they offer their users and the processes that support those services. It was based on an ARL SPEC survey published as SPEC Kit 303 Library Assessment in December 2007. The intention of this survey was to produce a similar publication focused on activities in UK and Irish academic institutions, and reflects a matching SCONUL desire to provide tools, techniques, and data for performance measurement and improvement through its Working Group on Performance Improvement.

The survey was distributed to the 180 members of SCONUL in September 2008. Seventy-seven libraries completed the survey, for a response rate of 43%. All of the libraries that responded indicated that they engaged in various performance measurement activities beyond the annual collection of data for SCONUL. The most used methods are statistics gathering (73 responses or 96%) and suggestion boxes (69 or 91%). These are followed by datamining (55 or 72%) and student learning outcomes evaluation (51 or 67%). Benchmarking and key performance indicators tie for fifth place (48 responses or 63%). Surveys of use of specific services, focus groups, locally designed user satisfaction surveys, and online user feedback (pop-up windows, etc.) complete the top 10 methods (47, 45, 44, and 32 responses, respectively).

This publication includes the complete survey results and documentation from respondents in the form of performance standards, survey Web sites, performance reports, and job descriptions.

ORDERING INFORMATION

Library Performance Measurement in the UK and Ireland 
• Tracey Stanley and Selena Killick • 2009 • ISBN 1-59407-839-4 • EAN 978-1-59407-839-2 • 190 pages 
• $45

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A PDF version is a available at http://www.arl.org/bm~doc/LibraryperformanceUKIreland.pdf.

The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) is a nonprofit organization of 123 research libraries in North America. 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, and shaping a future environment that leverages its interests with those of allied organizations. ARL is on the Web at http://www.arl.org/.