Library management incl. economics

Introduction

A five-year, strategic plan for the eLibrary was approved for implementation in June 2008. Consisting of eight pathways, Futura I was an ambitious plan to move the eLibrary forward from a start-up to a leader in medical information in the Gulf Region. Futura I included planning and expansion of services and resources for internal and external patrons, professional development for the staff and a management module.

Finding a permanent, practical method for measuring progress on the implementation of Futura I became an objective in itself due to the complexity of eight integrated pathways and the high volume of the associated data. Using Excel to track the assignment and progress of action items for eight pathways proved one-dimensional, overwhelming and impractical to manage. In 2010 it was decided to use the Balanced Score Card (BSC) as the tool to measure the progress of Futura I.

The Balanced Scorecard was developed by Kaplan and Norton in 1992.  The purpose of the Balanced Scorecard is to link performance measures to strategic vision, lending itself well to measure the outcomes of the eLibrary’s strategic plan. Looking at an entity from four perspectives: Financial, Customer, Internal Processes and Learning and Growth, the Balanced Scorecard takes all aspects of an operation into consideration

Objectives

This paper discusses the process and challenges of converting the eight integrated pathways of Futura I to the Balanced Scorecard framework.

Methods

First, the Balanced Scorecard model was adapted to an academic medical library environment, reversing the Financial and Customer perspectives from the commercial model, placing the Customer perspective on top. The eight pathways of Futura I were then mapped to the Balanced Scorecard. Collection development, circulation, web development and interlibrary loan were identified as “Internal processes”; Patron engagement, including liaison activities and information literacy, and Staff learning were aligned with the “Learning & Growth” perspective. Technology was split between the Internal processes and Learning and Growth perspectives. The budget aligned with the Financial perspective, and the Customer perspective was defined as internal and external stakeholders. The College Mission, already aligned with the eLibrary’s mission, was linked to the Balanced Scorecard model.

The strategy map, was challenging to presumably because the strategic plan was already well underway when the Balanced Scorecard was implemented, and also due to the complexity of the strategic plan itself.   

Balanced Scorecard targets and indicators were determined for all eight pathways, setting the stage for developing a dashboard of data. Setting targets, Performance Indicators and Key Performance Indicators proved to be a challenging, but rewarding process.  

Traditional Activity Based Costing was applied for cost analysis in the Financial perspective to assess the cost of certain services, such as Interlibrary Loan. Due to all the estimates in this model, time based Activity Based Costing was applied later.

Knowledge Management concepts were used in the Learning and Growth perspective. The process of developing an internal training program is underway, which is expected to include a professional development plan and a portfolio for each staff member.

Kaizen principles were used to analyze the workflow in the Internal Processes perspective.

Results

Using the Balanced Scorecard model has provided a visual presentation of Futura I, showing more clearly how the pathways contribute towards achieving the mission of both the department and the College.

The performance measures provide a more meaningful picture of the department’s operations, allowing all staff to reflect on their work in a new way.

A consistent and focused data set has revealed service levels, trends and workloads, useful for internal decision-making and for highlighting the eLibrary’s contributions to the College.

Specifically, circulation statistics revealed a higher checkout of headphones than print monographs and only 20% of the available print collection being circulated. This prompted a review of a relatively small, but aging print collection, replacing old editions, and making the eBook available when possible.  The interlibrary loan review revealed idle staff time and a borderline low fill rate. A review of the eLibrary’s instruction program revealed a need for a coherent approach to learning objectives and the assessment of student learning. The financial indicators provided a familiar picture of almost 94% of the resource budget devoted to electronic resources.

Discussion

Striking a balance between quantitative review and the quality of robust services and resources is ongoing in academic libraries. The Balanced Scorecard and its associated metrics provide a practical overview of the strategic plan and have streamlined the quantitative thought process to develop relevant, more granular metrics.

The Balanced Scorecard challenged the library administration to think in new ways to establish more meaningful metrics for services and resources than commonly used in libraries. The detailed metrics have served the eLibrary well when presenting data to the Library Advisory Committee and the College administration.

The dataset itself has proven to be subject to change as the organization evolves. Beyond indicators, measuring the impact of library services and programs has generated an assessment effort.

A blend of relevant quantitative data and outcome assessment is needed to truly show the contributions of the Library.

Conclusion

The Balanced Scorecard can be applied to an academic medical library setting. It proved a useful and practical model for presenting the eLibrary’s strategic plan. It also helped determine key statistical measures beyond the Result Indicators already in place. Both the Balanced Scorecard model and the associated detailed data have been well received by administration and given insight into the operating processes. The eLibrary will continue to develop the Balanced Scorecard model and will use the data set as a foundation for the next generation of Futura; Futura II, the eLibrary’s strategic plan 2012–2017.

Objective

The objective was to develop an assessment matrix which correlates evidence and measures of library services with the expectations of academic and professional accrediting review boards concerning library services and resources, and to explore the use of this accreditation evidence to document the value and impact of library services and resources for library promotion and development activities.

 Methods

The first step was to identify relevant institutional accreditation agencies and compile their expectations/standards for library services.  As a library which serves colleges of medicine, nursing, pharmacy, public health, veterinary medicine as well as agriculture and life sciences, relevant accrediting agencies will include: Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS—United States regional group) (1), the Liaison Committee for Medical Education (LCME)(2), Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE)(3) and the National League for Nursing Accrediting Commission, Inc. (NLNAC), the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE) (4) and the Association of American Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP),the  Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Management Education (CAHME) and the American Veterinary Medical Association Council on Education (AVMA/COE) (5). 

The next step was to inventory the evidence available and the relevant library resources and services dimensions it documents.  Evidence-based practice information includes LibQUAL+™, OCLC Collection Analysis software, Association of College and Research Libraries’ rankings, Association of Academic Health Sciences Libraries’ annual statistics, core collection development lists from relevant professional associations and numerous local evaluation datasets.  This was used to create a matrix of accreditation standards and the evidences that document compliance and accomplishments.  From this matrix a list of standard library metrics and measurement tools was developed to insure regular reporting and compilation of this data.

Results

An assessment matrix of accreditation standards and the evidences of library practice that document compliance and accomplishments was created.  A listing of evidence and data that could be used in the promotion of library services and resources was compiled.

Discussion

The United States Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS), which accredits colleges, universities and in this particular case, a health science center, focused on three main areas of standards concerning libraries: learning/information resources and services (collections, physical facilities and services); instruction (use of the library and information resources); qualified staff (education and experience of all staff).  These particular expectations were the most comprehensive.  The more focused accreditation expectations for each of the professional schools (medicine, nursing, pharmacy, public health, veterinary medicine) were met through the metrics developed for the SACS accreditation, with minor adjustments for assessment of particular subject areas of the collections.  Accreditation agencies for some of the particular disciplines expected a report which benchmarked the local collection against a suggested list of resources.  Common expectations across United States health professions accrediting agencies, beyond the statistical data points on collections, facilities services and hours of operation, were that faculty, staff and students had input into library decisions (collections and policies) and that the library instruction program was integrally connected to the professional school curriculum.    

The following is a compilation of the most often requested metrics that were used to satisfy United States accrediting agencies.  In the area of learning/information resources, the case to be made was that the collection size and scope was reasonable for the variety of programs being served, that it had reasonable growth and was well supported.  The metrics used to document those attributes were:

• Collection growth over the past few years by classification ranges
• Physical volume counts for monographs and serials
• Total number of in scope electronic books accessible
• Total number of in scope electronic journals accessible
• Total number of in scope databases accessible
• Print serials currently purchased
• Electronic serials currently purchased
• Expenditure details for each of the above collection material types

Relevancy of the collections to client needs was documented through collection growth statistics by classification mapped to subject areas, through circulation statistics, online use data for all electronic resources, interlibrary loan trends and by LibQUAL+™ survey responses.

In the area of learning/information services, the case to be built was an inventory of physical locations and the seating, group study rooms and other resources available, service points and hours of operation, services provided onsite and hours staffed, services available online and hours of availability, as well as data on use of these services.  Satisfaction with services was primarily evaluated and documented by LibQUAL+™ survey results.  Statistics on use of in-person and online reference services also documented their relevance to clients.

The documentation of instructional efforts was accomplished through the following data:

• Number of library sponsored in-person education sessions
• Number of live online synchronous education sessions
• Credit courses taught by librarians
• In-person or online education sessions provided within a curriculum
• Number of online tutorials or self-paced educational programs
• Total attendance in all education sessions
• Use of reserve materials
• Visits to the library’s website
• Visits to the library’s subject guide pages
• Use of online tutorials and self-paced educational programs

The recent emphasis on learning outcomes is adding another dimension to these efforts to measure and document our worth in the instructional arena. 

The quality of staff was documented through data on advanced degrees, librarian faculty ranks achieved, staff development programs, budgets for staff development and training, and information about the library support staff career ladder expectations and the library faculty promotion and tenure guidelines.

Conclusion

An assessment matrix of accreditation agencies and the library data and other evidences used to document compliance with their standards was developed.  The experience of compiling and presenting this evidence for accrediting agencies led to an enhanced recognition on the part of the professional schools’ administrators of the value and contributions made by the library in the educational enterprise.  This data has become one of the primary tools used to promote and advertise the successes in library resources and services.