From: Anthony Watkinson <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Mon, 23 Apr 2012 19:02:13 +0100

If you also look at the site of CIBER Research you will find that some of
the research reports and peer-reviewed publications from this research group
comes within this framework. The big emphasis has been on use of e-journals
online but there is serious work on the use of e-books and some also on the
value of academic libraries. The site is at:  www.ciber-research.eu

Anthony Watkinson


> From: Frederick Friend<[log in to unmask]>
> Date: Thu, 19 Apr 2012 12:57:08 +0100
>
> Ann has raised a very interesting topic which goes to the heart of how we
> measure the value of libraries. It could be said that a library's value
does
> not lie in the number of uses of items in its collection, but unfortunately
> descriptions of value without numbers attached to the descriptions do not
> cut much ice with those providing the money to support libraries. And yet
> arriving at reliable and comparable usage statistics is an impossible task,
> for the reason Bryan Skib outlines, i.e. that so many variable factors enter
> the calculation. Any number has to be accompanied by an explanation of the
> factors used to calculate the number. Change one factor - such as the
> percentage of older material - and the number becomes meaningless in talking
> to policy-makers.
>
> What can be valuable are year-on-year comparisons starting from a reliable
> baseline, and used in a context which takes account of the profile of a
> particular library. So for example, it would be possible to compare the
> usage of digital items in a particular library over time, building in a
> growth factor for the size of the collection. However, it would be very
> unreliable to compare that statistic with a figure for the usage of paper
> items over the same period, given the fundamentally different factors which
> differentiate electronic usage from paper usage. A focused statistic could
> help a library in making a case for support of the library for particular
> resources, but the more general the statistic and the greater the attempt to
> make comparisons between libraries, the more open to challenge any statistic
> will be.
>
> Good luck to all library statisticians!
>
> Fred Friend
> Honorary Director Scholarly Communication UCL