College Librarians Look at Better Ways to Measure the Value of Their Services

April 1, 2011 - 9:04am — Bibliophile Adv...

Report from ACRL 2011 in the Chronicle of Higher Ed
By Jennifer Howard
"How do you take the measure of academic libraries and librarians? At the Association of College and Research Libraries conference, which began here Wednesday, presenters took up the problem of how libraries can demonstrate their value to their institutions—and whether conventional attempts to measure return on investment, or "ROI," are any use in that campaign.

Like most of academe, libraries have been feeling increased pressure to justify themselves quantitatively. The bold title of James G. Neal's paper—"Stop the Madness: The Insanity of ROI and the Need for New Qualitative Measures of Academic Library Success"—indicated where its author stands on the issue. ..." Read the rest here