VALUING LIBRARY SERVICES
Pasamba, Nehemias A., MLS
Mission College, Thailand
ABSTRACT
With the downturn of American economy and the subsequent worldwide recession, libraries will
be one of the sectors whose budgets and staff will be decreased, if not abolished. But crisis
brings not only danger of reduction or death but also opportunity. This is the time when
librarians can assess their position and create some strategies for change in order to survive and
possibly come out strong. One of those strategies is the valuing of library services. This
procedure, although commonly done in public libraries in libraries competing for community
budgets in advanced countries are rarely done in Asian libraries. By putting monetary values to
the number of books and periodicals circulated, reference questions answered, internet
connection hours used, and a host of other services in a spreadsheet (to be demonstrated in the
seminar), and comparing it to the shrinking budgets, the stakeholders (librarians, as well as the
administrators) will be able to see the great value of library services. Once valued, the amount of
services can be benchmarked and increased through more strategies of intensive marketing. The
recommendations are: for all libraries to incorporate valuing in their annual budgets and
statistical reports; for national organizations to set the price for each service and benchmark the
libraries around the country; and for the CONSAL to set standards for the specific items, collect
data and make further recommendations to invigorate library and information services in the
region.
INTRODUCTION
With the downturn of the American economy the world is experiencing a recession that has
never been experienced since the Great Depression of the 1930’s. This will continue to affect all
sectors of society in one way or another, and for libraries, as one of the sectors which is
perceived to be “luxury” for less developed economies, the impact will be very great. The
library will be one of the first sectors whose budgets and staff will be cut.
On the day that I received the approval from CONSAL for this paper, I also received an email of
a newspaper clipping from a colleague in Cebu City, the oldest city in the Philippines, which I
quote:
CEBU CITY, Philippines - Cebu City will soon lose its only public
library, named after the national hero Jose Rizal.
The 69-year-old Rizal Memorial Library on Osmeña Boulevard will be
closed to give way to a government museum.
The structure, a pre-World War II heritage site with its neoclassical
architecture, was built in 1939 through fundraising efforts of
citizens and later, the Cebu provincial government, the original
owner of the property.
Rosario Chua, acting chief of Cebu City Public Library, said the
library does not only cater to students doing research for school
assignments. There are also foreigners and tourists who go to the
library to learn more about the history of Cebu.
One advantage is the library's central location on Osmeña Boulevard,
walking distance from Fuente Osmeña and easily reached by jeepney or
taxi. The library used to occupy two floors.
The Rizal library has books about Cebu's history and culture as well
as a collection of antiques donated by prominent Cebuano families,
Chua said. Some artwork by Cebuano painters are also displayed inside.
While the library lacks books, it does not mean that the library has
not served its purpose, said Chua, who has been working with the city
library for 27 years or since 1981.
"Some of our books have historical significance both local and
national. We have an Internet connection and are part of the
Philippine E-library, so we are also updated," Chua said.
The plan …is disheartening news for students, senior citizens,
visitors and other library patrons, who drop by the air-conditioned
ground floor to read books and newspapers for free or attend
occasional lectures and children read-along sessions of the Zonta
Club.
A group of citizens called the Friends of the Cebu City Public
Library has been meeting monthly and trying to gather book donations,
some from civic clubs in the United Status. The fate of the library
has been a recurring topic of discussion among worried club members. 1,2
Not surprisingly, this news was also in the CONSAL newsletter/webpage. 3
The city administrators have not realized the true value of the library. They must have thought
that an art museum could be more valuable. I have a hunch that this library closure is happening
because librarians may not have assessed the real value of the library and its services and
therefore has nothing to show to the city administrators.
Cuizon, Jully Venus. “City Library to Close,” Cebu Daily News (December 30, 2008).
Follow up emails and news confirm that city officials are beginning to think twice.
3
http://www.consal.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=179:city-library-to-close&catid=44:philippines&Itemid=143
1
2
I am therefore proposing that for libraries to avoid the threat of being closed, but instead, be able
to get bigger budget, that librarians perform valuing of library resources and present their
findings to their administrators as part of their library services marketing strategies.
Crises bring not only danger but also opportunity to overhaul or discard entirely the old system
that does not work or is not anymore compatible with the times. These years of crisis are the
opportune time when librarians can examine their present their position and create some
strategies for change.
IMPORTANCE OF VALUING
Sometime in the 1980’s, ADRA, a humanitarian agency in Hongkong received a bag of 2,917
coins as donation. The money passed from one hand to another and was almost forgotten for
eight years because the total face value was very small, about $25. When ADRA needed seed
money to start humanitarian projects in response to the crisis in mainland China, the director
remembered the coins. He asked for appraisal from several coin collectors and found out that the
real intrinsic value of the coins was $22,000 dollars!4
It is only when we discover the real value that something becomes important.
Librarians are always asked to provide statistics of usage but are not asked to put values on those
figures. If the librarians and the administrators for whom the librarians are working would know
the data, they might be shocked to find the large amount of income that the library is saving and
providing for the users.
If search engines and website advertisers like Google (60%) and Yahoo (20%) earn their
billions of dollars in “pay per click”, libraries should count their income or savings in “pay per
use.”
Valuing library services has rarely been done in Asian libraries, if at all. It is done mostly in the
American public libraries where the libraries have to compete for taxpayer’s money for their
existence. In Asian libraries, especially academic libraries, the budget is attached to the
academic budget and therefore, not in imminent danger of extermination, unless the college or
university itself is closed. Public libraries are in more dangerous situation because they have to
compete with other public expenditures for the budget, and, as a result, most public libraries are
gasping for breath or are simply dead.
4
Scott Christiansen, “Pennies from Heaven,” Adventist Review, http://www.adventistreview.org/20011512/story1.html
FINDING THE VALUE OF LIBRARY SERVICES
According to McDonald (2002)5 there are three ways in order to find the value of library
services, namely: measuring money saved or productivity gains in using librarians, cost-benefit
analysis and total quality management.
In this paper, I decided to concentrate on the simpler method, which is measuring the money
saved by using the more widely adapted value calculators.
I searched “valuing library services” (VLS) from search engines and found at 535 hits at
Yahoo!. It has about as many hits as “measuring library performance” (MLP) with 497, one of
which is the ICOL seminar in Penang in 2005. 6
The literature for “measuring library performance” concentrates on data like the size of
collection, the capacity of the building , the competency of the library staff and the general
capability of the library to serve its clients rather than the amount of services delivered, and is
therefore a different, although a related topic. MLP is like describing the size and stock of the
store/supermarket while VLS is a report on the sales performance. (In boxing and in many other
activities, it is the delivery of punches and final TKO that is more important than size, perceived
strength and bragging rights.)
The main idea about the valuing of library services is to know how much the library users are
saving when they go to the library instead of getting the same amount of services and
information from commercial establishments like the bookstores, newsstands, internet café,
video rental sales and rental, movie houses, etc. In this time of financial crisis the old maxim
that “money saved is money earned” is more relevant and this “money saved” is what we will be
accounting for.
5
Donald, Rosalyn. “Valuing Library Services” 2002. http://www.insitepro.com/donald2.htm
6
http://www.lib.usm.my/elmu-equip/conference/ICOL2005.htm
On the next page is a simple table for valuing library services from four most widely used Value
Calculators from the following library groups:
The Massachusetts Library Association (MLA)7
The National Network of Libraries of Medicine (NNLM)8 This value calculator is
also used by libraries under the Library Research Services group of libraries9 and is
adapted from the MLA’s value calculator. It was also adapted with modifications by
the Midcontinental Regional Medical Library10 for health science libraries.
3. The University of Hawaii-Manoa (UH-M)11 also based their calculator from the
MLA but has a more modest value for e-journals accessed ($10 against $35 from
NNLM).
4. Maine State Library (MSL)12
1.
2.
In the last column (5), I put the lowest and the realistic value for Asian libraries. One example is
the price of computer use which, in all of the Value Calculators mentioned is valued at $12. In
Thailand and Philippines, the normal rate of computer use is around 60 cents per hour and wi-fi
connection at about 30 cents per hour. The hourly rate of reference staff time is likewise
adjusted to local salaries, and should be adjusted further to match with the countries’ local salary.
In order to adopt this value calculator for Asian libraries, it can be expanded to include specific
services and local library materials in order to arrive at more accurate values. The value of book
borrowing is based on the average cost of books borrowed. The average value can be computed
by checking for the price of the ten or twenty books or periodicals (the more the better). 13
7
http://www.mlanet.org/members/advocacy/index.html
8
http://nnlm.gov/mcr/evaluation/calculator.html
9
http://www.lrs.org/public/roi/
10
http://www.mcmla.org/
11
http://library.manoa.hawaii.edu/about/calculator/UHcalexplanation.html
12
http://www.maine.gov/msl/services/calexplantion.htm
13
Further information on how the values can be computed is discussed lengthily by Ross Duncan in “Best Bang for
the Buck: The Economic Benefits of Sunshine Coast Libraries Queensland,” Australiasian Public Libraries and
Information Services, 1 December 2008.
TABLE ONE – COMPARISON OF LIBRARY SERVICES CALCULATORS
Item
Values Explained
(1)MLA
Book Borrowed
Average cost of hardcover for
adults
Paperback Book
Borrowed
Book Borrowed
Average cost of paperback for
adults
Hardcover and paperback
Children Book Borrowed
Local Books
Magazine Borrowed
E-Journals accessed
Video Purchased
Video Borrowed
Audio Books Borrowed
Book on Tape
Magazine/Newspaper
Use in Library
Interlibrary Loan
Meeting Room Use per
Hour
Auditorium Use per
Hour
Program/Class Attended
- Adult
Computer Use, e.g.,
Internet and MS Word
per hour
Reference Questions
Mediated searches
Estimated Retail Value
(3)UH (2)NNLM M
(4)MSL
$125.00
$60.00 $27.00
Average cost to purchase a
popular periodical issue
Per title
$35.00
$35.00
$7.00
$12.50
$20.00
$20.00
$10.00
$3.50
$3.50
$10.00
$22.00
$22.00
$3.87
$30.00
$30.00
$10.00
Average cost to purchase a
popular video
$3.87
$150.00
Average cost to purchase an
audio book
Introductory Rental Price at
Booksontape
Average monthly cost of a
popular periodical/newspapers
issue
Average national cost for loans
$2.00
$25.00
Estimate
$50.00
Estimate
$250.00
Estimate
$15.00
Sample hourly rate at a copy
center
Estimated cost per question
$12.00
$7.00
$27.00
$7.00
$12.50
Average cost of hardcover for
children
(5)Asian
$4.00
$9.95
$9.95
$50.00
$20.00 $1.00
$30.00 $30.00
$1.00
$25.00
$50.00 $50.00
$50.00
$250.00
$250.00
$30.00
$10.00
$10.00
$12.00
$45.00
$75.00
$12.00 $12.00
$7.00 $15.00
$28.00
$12.00
$7.00
$28.00
When the revised values for Asian libraries is used for (our) library Mission College LIRC which
has about 45,000 books and 120 current periodical titles serving a little less than 1000 students,
(classified by JSTOR as “Very Small”) this is the result:
TABLE II – VALUE OF LIBRARY SERVICES AT MISSION COLLEGE
Item
Books Borrowed
Local Books
Magazines Borrowed
Local Magazines Borrowed
E-Journals accessed
Video Borrowed
Magazine/Newspaper Use in Library
Meeting Room Use per Hour
Program/Class Attended - Adult
Computer Use, e.g., Internet and
keyboarding per hour
Wi-fi connection (per hour)
Reference Questions
Mediated searches
Number Value/Unit MC 2007-2008
21452
$12.50
$268,150.00
1866
$10.00
$18,660.00
210
$3.50
$735.00
80
$1.00
$80.00
16627
$10.00
$166,270.00
217
$3.87
$839.79
15000
$1.00
$15,000.00
421
$50.00
$21,050.00
450
$2.00
$900.00
36000
18000
85
18
Total Value in USD
$0.60
$0.30
$7.00
$28.00
$21,600.00
$5,400.00
$595.00
$504.00
$519,783.79
Total Value of Services in Local Currency (Baht)
Other Incomes (Fees, Fines, Duplicating, etc)
Total Incomes
Annual Budget and Expenses (-)
฿18,192,432.65
฿1,072,902.00
฿19,265,334.65
฿9,091,527.00
Net Gain (Loss -)
฿10,173,807.65
Return On Investment (Gain/Expenses)
$2.11 or
111.90%
The return on investment (ROI) for our library is 111.90% of the current budget which means
that for every dollar that our college has spent, the library users was able to save $2.11 which
belong to the bottom of the list of top performing international libraries.14
One particular service where much savings occurred was in the area of e-journal articles
downloaded from the academic database. Whenever our library users cannot find a particular
journal article in the database, they pay as much as $25 when they download articles from other
14
http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Best+bang+for+the+buck:+the+economic+benefits+of+Sunshine+Coast...a0190747225 (See Appendix I)
databases and commercial providers. But with the amount of articles worth $166, 270 that our
users accessed from the database for which our college paid $5000, the ROI for that investment
alone is 33.25 times the original investment.
AFTER VALUING LIBRARY SERVICES
After the value of library service is d, the will boost the morale of the library staff just like
discovering that the 10-cent coin is actually worth $300. They will realize the enormous value
of their work.
But the librarians should not rest on their laurels and say, “See, this is how much money we are
making (actually saving)!” Instead, they should try to avoid this lethargy and complacency, and
make them look for strategies to increase the amount of library services through intensive
marketing and acquisition of more computers, newer books and more interesting periodicals. The
library can even be the initiator of further economic activity by providing information about
activities like “Where to Find Employment” for those who had lost their jobs or “How to Put
Up A Business that Will Earn Millions” for people who cannot find employment.
The library management can provide the administrators of the parent institution (school,
college or university, city, company) with the data and make the data as basis for additional
(or reduced) budgets.
RECOMMENDATIONS:
1. That all librarians incorporate valuing of services in their annual budgets and reports of
statistics of usage.
2. That the library software programmers include in their program a feature that
automatically computes library transactions. This will make it easier for the librarians to
make accurate accounting of the value of the services just as they automatically compute
the overdue fines. They can base the automatic computation on the MARC data of the
price of the library material (Tag 020c).
3. That the library organizations, accrediting association and other authorities in each
country set a uniform and specific amount for library services. For example, the price of
computer use and internet connection is constantly going downwards and the value for
these services should be periodically adjusted.
4. That the CONSAL set a uniform criterion for each service, gather data of ROI from
libraries under its auspices, publish the results and recognize or award the top performing
libraries in Asia based on their ROI.
REFERENCES:
Donald, Rosalyn. “Valuing Library Services” 2002. http://www.insitepro.com/donald2.htm
Duncan, Ross. “Best Bang for the Buck: The Economic Benefits of Sunshine Coast Libraries
Queensland,” Australiasian Public Libraries and Information Services, 1 December
2008.
Holt, Glen E. and Elliot, Donald. “Measuring Outcomes: Applying Cost-Benefit Analysis to
Middle-Sized and Smaller Public Libraries,” Library Trends (Winter 2003), Vol 51 Issue
3 pp.424-441.
Nehemias A. Pasamba, AB, MLS, hails from Atimonan Quezon, Philippines. He graduated with
Master of Library Science from the University of the Philippines – Diliman in 1987. He has
worked as a teacher and librarian from 1977 to 1996 in Naga View Adventist College (Naga
City, Philippines). From 1996 to 2001 he was the graduate school librarian and, later, the chief
librarian of the Adventist University of the Philippines where he pioneered in the establishment
of the Library and Information Science courses and the computerization of the library. He is
currently working in Mission College, Thailand as an acquisitions and media librarian. As a
member of the accrediting team of the Adventist Accrediting Association (AAA), he has visited
numerous libraries in the Philippines, Indonesia, and Bangladesh.
Mr. Nehemias A. Pasamba, AB, MLS
Acquisitions and Media Librarian
Mission College,
PO Box 4, Muaklek, Saraburi, Thailand 18180
Cell phone +66877922567
Email: pasamban@yahoo.com; npasamba@gmail.com
Appendix I
Summary of results of international studies on return on
investment (ROI) of public libraries. Compiled from Worth their
weight: an assessment of the evolving field of library valuation
and What's it Worth to yon? A return on investment study of selected
Colorado public libraries15
Study
ROI *
Fort Morgan Public Library, Colorado
Taxpayer return on investment
in Florida public libraries
Tax Payer Return on Investment in
Pennsylvania public libraries
Montrose Library District, Colorado
Douglas County Libraries, Colorado
Denver Public Library, Colorado
Rangeview Library District, Colorado
Placing economic value on the
services of the Middle Country
Public Library in Suffolk County,
New York
Mesa Count Public Library District,
Colorado
Economic impact of public libraries
in South Carolina
Eagle Valley Library District,
Colorado
The economic value of the Port
Jefferson Free Library in Suffolk
County, New York
Placing an economic value on the
services of public libraries in
Suffolk County, New York
Economic benefits of public
libraries: value for money, Ohio
Placing economic value on the
services of the Northport-East
Northport Public Library in
Suffolk County, New York
Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh:
community impact and benefits
Placing economic value on the
services of the MasticMoriches-Shirley Community
Library in Suffolk County, New York
$8.80
15
$6.54
$5.50
$5.33
$5.02
$4.96
$4.81
$4.59
$4.57
$4.48
$4.28
$4.14
$3.93
$3.81
$3.30
$3.00
$2.97
http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Best+bang+for+the+buck:+the+economic+benefits+of+Sunshine+Coast...a0190747225