Statistics and Evaluation Section
Annual Report
September 2004 - August 2005
SCOPE STATEMENT
The section aims to promote the use of measurement and evaluation in the management, operation and promotion of libraries and library services. It advocates the use of both quantitative and qualitative statistical and other methods and tools to achieve this.
It promotes the development and use of standardized measures and good practice. It
aims to co-operate with, to assist and to advise other IFLA sections in the use of
measurement and evaluation in their fields.
It takes an interest in international benchmark comparisons and supports
collaboration with international agencies such as UNESCO and ISO.
MEMBERSHIP
The Section has a membership of 76 (March 2005).
In 2004-05, the Standing Committee had 16 members (three corresponding).
They were:
Valerie Alonzo (Bureau of Libraries of the city of Paris, France),
Henrik Aslund (Royal Library of Sweden),
Colleen Cook (Texas A&M University, USA),
Brinley Franklin (University of Connecticut, USA),
Michael Heaney (University of Oxford, UK),
Sue Henczel (CAVAL, Australia),
Ludmila Kozlova (Russian State Library),
Elizabeth Lemau (University of Rennes, France),
Boris Lensky (Russian Book Chamber),
Pierre Meunier (Public Library of Montreal, Canada),
Erland Ra (Norwegian Archive, Library & Museum Authority, Norway),
Pierre-Yves Renard (Ministry of Education, France),
Roswitha Poll (University and Regional Library Muenster, Germany),
Pauline Rothstein (Ramapo College of New Jersey, USA),
Sherrie Schmidt (Arizona State University, USA)
Yakov Shraiberg (Russian National Library of Science and Technology)
Corresponding members: J. Eric Davies (LISU, UK), Ellen Hoffman (York University, Canada), Lic. Isabel Portales (Biblioteca Arca de Papel del Instituto Cubano del Libro, Cuba)
In August 2005 the following members left the committee:
Valerie Alonzo (Bureau of Libraries of the city of Paris, France),
Henrik Aslund (Royal Library of Sweden),
Ludmila Kozlova (Russian State Library),
Yakov Shraiberg (Russian National Library of Science and Technology)
The following members joined in August 2005:
Denis Cordazzo (En charge des statistiques des bibliothèques publiques, Ministère de la culture et de la communication, Paris);
Ms Michele Farrell (Senior Program Officer, Institute of Museum and Library Services, Washington, DC);
Ms Christina Jonsson-Adrial (Senior Executive Officer, BIBSAM, The Royal Library's Dept. of National Coordination and Development, Stockholm).
OFFICERS FOR 2003-05
Chair:
Michael Heaney
University of Oxford
Clarendon Building, Bodleian Library
OXFORD OX1 3BG
United Kingdom
michael.heaney@ouls.ox.ac.uk
Secretary/Treasurer:
Roswitha Poll
University and Regional Library Münster
Krummer Timpen 3-5
48143 MÜNSTER
Germany
pollr@uni-muenster.de
Information Coordinator:
Henrik Åslund
Lund University, Head Office
P.O. Box 134
SE-221 00 LUND
Sweden
henrik.aslund@lub.lu.se
At the meeting in August 2005 Michael Heaney and Roswitha Poll were re-elected Chair and Secretary respectively and Christina Jonsson Adrial was appointed Information Co-ordinator
MEETINGS
The Standing Committee of the Statistics Section met on August 13th and 19th during the Oslo conference. Standing Committee members and guests reported on their activities and discussed plans for future conferences. 12 members and 2 observers attended the first meeting; 12 members and 4 observers attended the second.
PROJECTS
Outcome measures: Work is continuing on the projected guidelines on outcome measures.
Global statistics: The committee was disappointed that IFLA did not react positively to its proposals in response to IFLA's request for robust global statistics in time for the WSIS meeting in Tunis. However, the committee have decided to address the issue at a more fundamental level and intends to initiate discussion with the Unesco Institute of Statistics and other relevant bodies with a view to developing a new approach to global library statistics. Initial contacts have been made with Unesco Institute of Statistics in Montreal and the committee aim to develop these, involving OECD and ISO as appropriate, in a three-year programme to re-invigorate global library statistics by the 2008 conference. Preliminary contacts have already been made, starting in 2004. (Strategic plan 2006-07 §6.3)
PUBLICATIONS
Two issues of the Section Newsletter were produced, one in December 2004 and one in July 2005.
CONFERENCE PROGRAMS
At the Oslo conference the Section participated in the Quality Issues in Libraries Discussion Group, on the theme: Website quality. About 150 people attended
The Open Program consisted of two sessions: (a) "Quality in the institutional environment", a four-hour programme together with University Libraries, for which there were over fifty answers to the call for papers (210 attenders); and (b) "Measures and standards in the electronic age", an extra two-hour programme together with Information Technology and University Libraries (225 attenders)
The papers in the session "Quality in the institutional environment" were:
- Excellence and quality in Andalusia University library system
CARMEN BAENA DÍAZ (University of Pablo de Olavide Library), MIGUEL DUARTE BARRIONUEVO and AURORA MÁRQUEZ PÉREZ (University of Cádiz Library), JOSÉ JUAN MORENO MARTÍNEZ (University or Almeria Library) and GREGORIO GARCÍA RECHE (University of Malaga Library, Spain)
- Developing an quality service strategy
BRIAN HARLAN (University of Southern California, Los Angeles, USA)
- Managing quality in a national library: the case of the National Central Library of Florence, Italy
ANTONIA IDA FONTANA and ALLESSANDRO SARDELLI (The National Central Library of Florence, Florence, Italy)
- Improving the quality of university libraries through citation mining and analysis using two new dissertation bibliometric assessment tools
JOHANNA TUÑÓN (Nova Southeastern University, Fort Lauderdale, USA) and BRUCE BRYDGES (Nova Southeastern University, North Miami Beach, USA)
- Evaluation of public libraries in Gyeonggi Province, Korea
CHUL-WAN KWAK (Kangnam University, Yongin, Korea)
- Quality of academic libraries - funding bodies, librarians and users perspective: a common project of Polish research libraries on comparable measures
LIDIA DERFERT-WOLF (University of Technology and Agriculture in Bydgoszcz, Bydgoszcz, Poland), MAREK M. GÓRSKI and MARZENA MARCINEK (Cracow University of Technology, Cracow, Poland)
- Human resource development: impacting on all four perspectives of the Balance Scorecard
GULCIN CRIBB (Bond University, Gold Coast, Australia)
AUTHOR
Michael Heaney
