Using statistics for management
decisions
Hands-on case study!
WHY????????????????
The correct way!
…but harder
Internal AND external buy-in!
HOW?????????????
Best when combined
- Loans of books are down from 60 000 to 40
000
- Full-text downloads are up from 40 000 to 60
000
- BUT student numbers have halved!
- NO! student numbers have doubled!
Technical University of Atlantis
A brand new institution, the collection of
monographs has to be built up. An initial fund
of A$1,000,000 has been given, and now the
library has been asked to explain to the
Senate Library Committee how they are
going to divide this equitably amongst the
different departments…
Per head division
Add up all students, divide
money by total and
multiply result per
numbers in each
department!!!
QED!!
Faculty of
Engineering:
Mechanical
16000
Marine
80000
Civil
230000
Astronautics
10000
Quality
20000
Faculty of Applied
Sciences
Marine biology
230000
Environmental
Science
80000
Horticulture
20000
Biotechnology
Vulcanology
160000
10000
Problem!
The Faculty Librarian for Applied Sciences
looks at this and says “There’s no way we
can have A$230,000 for Marine Biology, but
only A$10000 for Vulcanology – you can’t
build a collection with only A$ 10000!!
Solution
Divide the budget
into two:
Use half for an
equal distribution
for departments,
and half per
student
Per dept
Per student
Total
Faculty of
Engineering:
Mechanical
50000
8000
58000
Marine
50000
40000
90000
Civil
50000
115000
165000
Astronautics
50000
5000
55000
Quality
50000
10000
60000
Marine biology
50000
115000
165000
Environmental Science
50000
40000
90000
Horticulture
50000
10000
60000
Biotechnology
50000
80000
130000
Vulcanology
50000
5000
55000
Faculty of Applied
Sciences
Everyone happy!
The Faculty Librarian for Engineering clears his
throat: This looks fair, but we have been told
that as a library we need to support research
– and we all know that my Faculty produces
most of the research! AND we know that the
material used by researchers and students
doing research is more expensive! But this
doesn’t show it!
Solution
Divide the budget into three:
Use one-third for an equal distribution for
departments, one-third per student, and one
third to be divided on the basis of research
output and postgraduate students
Result
Per dept
Per student
PG students
Research
output
Total
Faculty of Engineering:
Mechanical
33333
53333
4167
21667
112500
Marine
33333
26667
8333
21667
90000
Civil
33333
76667
0
21667
131666
Astronautics
33333
3333
8333
21667
66666
Quality
33333
6667
16667
21667
78333
Marine biology
33333
76667
66667
11667
188333
Environmental Science
33333
26667
16667
11667
88333
Horticulture
33333
6667
4167
11667
55833
Biotechnology
33333
53333
41667
11667
140000
Vulcanology
33333
3333
0
11667
48333
Faculty of Applied Sciences
Now everyone’s happy!
Head of Technical Services is still frowning:
We’ve taken into account the number of
students, research needs and even protected
smaller departments, but in my department
we know that the price of material varies
widely – Vulcanology pays four times as
much as Horticulture for their material! Surely
this must be taken into account?
Final solution?
Divide into quarters:
One quarter per department
One quarter for students
One quarter for research
One quarter for cost of items.
Final division!
Per dept
Per student
PG students
Research
output
Total
Faculty of Engineering:
Mechanical
Marine
Civil
Astronautics
Quality
25000
25000
25000
25000
25000
40000
20000
57500
2500
5000
3125
6250
0
6250
12500
16250
16250
16250
16250
16250
25000
15789
22368
42763
12500
109375
83289
121118
92763
71250
Faculty of Applied Sciences
Marine biology
Environmental Science
Horticulture
Biotechnology
Vulcanology
25000
25000
25000
25000
25000
57500
20000
5000
40000
2500
50000
12500
3125
31250
0
8750
8750
8750
8750
8750
17105
38158
13158
25000
38158
158355
104408
55033
130000
74408