7th Northumbria International Conference on Performance Measurement

1
Towards Global Benchmarks for Large Urban Public
Libraries

• 7th Northumbria International Conference on
  Performance Measurement
• Libraries and Information Services
• South Africa
• August 14, 2007

Monument to Multiculturalism, Toronto
2
Presentation Overview

• Background to the project
• Project Phases
• Criteria for statistics collection
• Proposed Annual Survey
• Reporting Survey Findings
• Practical Uses
• Way Forward Next Steps

3
Background

• Libraries traditionally collected statistics on
  performance
• IFLA project Metropolitan Libraries Section
  project
• New process approved Fall 2006

4
Background

• OBJECTIVES
• Establish definitions
• Establish process and timelines
• Establish a methodology

5
Background

• PHASE 1 REVIEW OF WORK DONE BY OTHER
  ORGANIZATIONS
• International Organization for Standardization
  (ISO)
• The Statistics and Evaluation section of IFLA
• UNESCO Institute for Statistics
• LIBECON ( research project funded by the EU)
• PHASE 2 REVIEW OF EXISTING SURVEY
• Existing broad areas of interest
• Incorporate ISO standard definitions
• Suggest alternatives

6
Criteria for Collecting Statistics

• Useful and relevant
• Common to all member libraries
• Standard terminology
• Comparable
• Broad similarities
• Complement existing data
• Encourage good practice
• Contribute to co-operation

7
Proposed Survey

• Categories of information
• Administration e.g. library name
• General information e.g. location
• Number of libraries
• Collections

8
Proposed Survey - contd

• Use and Users
• Access
• Funding
• Staff

9
Proposed Reporting

• Annual results reported to Metlib section on an
  annual basis
• Output Statistics
• Performance indicators and
• A graphic display of selected measures as
  appropriate.

10
Practical uses

• Developing benchmarks
• Setting targets for improvement
• Governance and advocacy
• All large urban libraries can participate
• Developing outcome based measures

11
Conclusion

• First step in a process
• All large Metlib libraries can participate
• Further information
• http//www.ifla.org/VII/s46/news/s46_stat2
  005.pdf
• eglass_at_torontopubliclibrary.ca