IFLA Section on Statistics

Annual Report 2000

Scope Statement

Membership

Officers

• Chair, Wanda Dole
• Secretary/Treasurer , Marie-Dominique Heusse
• Information Co-coordinator, Wanda Dole

Structure

Program Session, August 15

Fred Heath, Colleen Cook, and Bruce Thompson (Texas A&M University, U.S.) spoke on "A New Culture of Assessment: Preliminary Report on the ARL SERVQUAL Survey." This was the first public presentation of the results of a pilot project testing the feasibility of using the survey instrument SERVQUAL to measure user satisfaction in 12 ARL libraries. SERVQUAL is an instrument originally developed for the for-profit sector and based on the gap theory of quality. The results of this pilot project will be included in the presentations at an international conference on the Culture of Assessment sponsored by ARL in Washington D.C. in October 2000 and at the 4th Northumbria Conference in August, 2001.

Noam Kaminer (Ex Libris Ltd., Israel) reported on a survey he and David Amitai (Ex Libris) conducted on "Library Management Systems and the statistical Requirements of Library and Information Managers." They surveyed 270 Ex Libris users from diverse libraries and cultural backgrounds regarding the statistics reports that an integrated library system should supply. The users ranked as most valuable the reports related to circulation, database use, and system performance.

John Sumsion (U.K.) substituted for Roswitha Poll who was scheduled to report on the work of the international group of experts charged with surveying the current implementation of ISO 2789: 1991 (the standard for library and publishing statistics), preparing recommendations for additions covering electronic resources, and revising the standard reported on recent meetings. The full text of the presentations, except for Sumsion's, are available at the IFLA Web site http://www.ifla.org.

For the second time, the Section handed out evaluation forms at the open program. Sixteen of the ca. 50 delegates attending the program completed evaluation forms. Evaluations were generally positive. Suggested topics for future programs included SERVQUAL, new measures for library statistics (e.g., measurement of digital libraries/electronic resources), performance measures/indicators, basic survey techniques for nonstatisticians, interpretation of statistics, and practical applications of library statistics.

Browsing Session, August 14

Melita Ambrozic prepared a paper on "Library Statistics and Library Performance Measurements in Slovenia the Case for Academic Libraries" which will be published in the Newsletter of the Statistics Section. In her paper, she related that the most recent publication of Slovenian academic library statistics was 1997. More recent statistics have not yet been published. Slovenia has the same data collection problems as other countries in transition.

Niels Pors (Royal School of Librarianship, Denmark) discussed the Danish library statistics.

Marie-Dominique Heusse reported that for the past two years in France all academic library statistics have been collected electronically and may be viewed at http://www.abes.fr/esgbu.htm. They are also available in an interactive database at http://www.sup.adc.education.fr/bib.

Bjorg Glesne reported that Statistics Norway is collecting the statistics for academic, special and research libraries in Norway. The statistics are collected manually or electronically. Since most of the academic libraries share the same integrated library system, more and more of the statistics can be extracted from the system. Electronic collection has speeded up the publication cycle. The statistics are published in both paper and electronic form (see Web site for Statistics Norway, http://www.ssb.no or RBT http://www.rbt.no). The electronic form can be downloaded to a spreadsheet.

Javier Alvarez Garcia reported that in Spain there is a network of university libraries. Fifty-four universities publish annual statistics in paper and on the Web. They follow ISO standards 2789 and 11620 (both of which have been translated into Spanish). A consortium of university libraries is responsible for collecting the data.

The Royal Library in cooperation with Statistics Sweden produces the Swedish research library statistics. As a result of a reform several years ago, more than half of the total budget for collection of statistics was taken away from Statistics Sweden and the money dispensed to various state authorities. The contract for compiling the statistics is awarded by bid; so far, Statistics Sweden has won the bid. This year the statistics were gathered on the Web and will be available in pdf format http://www.scb.se/sm/KU13SM0001.pdf. Sweden follows ISO standard 2789 (which is being translated into Swedish).

Toby Bainton, Secretary of SCONUL (Standing Conference of National and University Libraries, UK) described the gathering and processing of academic library statistics in the UK. SCONUL pays LISU (Library and Information Statistics Unit, Loughborough University) to process the statistics. SCONUL is trying to reduce the work for its member libraries. SCONUL cooperates with the Association of University Computer Centers, so that the two bodies do not duplicate collection. SCONUL collects the information on the WEB and has a 93% response rate. Bainton reported that SCONUL, like other library organizations is facing the questions of how to count electronic and how to mount statistics on the WEB. SCONUL recently released a new publication, a subset of the full academic statistics intended for university administrators.

Barbara Perry described the ARL (Association of Research Libraries) annual statistics, which track the leading indicators for 122 of the largest academic and research libraries in North America. The statistics are collected and displayed on the Web http://www.arl.org.

Wanda Dole reported on the ACRL (Association of College and Research Libraries) statistics which, since 1998, have tracked statistics for academic libraries of all sizes and types. ACRL uses a survey instrument adapted from the ARL statistics form. The full results are available for purchase in print form and via the Web. The data is available free in summary form at a Web site available through ACRL's homepage http://www.ala.org/acrl/.

Workshop on "Using Statistics to Market Your Library" Sponsored jointly by Statistics and the Section on Management and Marketing, August 13.

Statistics Section member John Sumsion spoke on "The Potential for Library Statistics to Improve the Marketing of Your Library." He gave a full display of market-based statistics broken down by segments and use groups and types of use.

Theirry Giappiconi (Fresne Public Library, France) spoke on "From Outputs to Outcomes to IMPACT." He provided examples of how outputs and outcomes can be utilized by public policy makers. He suggested that librarians select an objective tied to the library's mission, gather statistics about it, reach an outcome and measure the outputs.

Evelyn Daniel (USA) presented a paper prepared by Yan Liu (University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI, USA) on "Library Statistics in China and the U.S." The paper described the similarities and differences in collection and use of library statistics in the two countries.

Lim Siew Kim (National Library Board of Singapore) gave a presentation on the history of the Singapore Library and its mission, goals and objectives. She illustrated the use of statistics in communicating with the public and funding agencies.

Christie Koontz discussed the utility of GIS (Geographic Information System) software for communicating what the library does and who its users are in a graphical database.

The audience of 50-70 represented a broad spectrum of experiences and expectations.

Current Projects

1. Performance Measures Manual. Secretary/Treasurer Marie-Dominique Heusse (University of Toulouse, France) reported that the French translation of the manual prepared by the IFLA University Libraries Section (Measuring Quality: International Guidelines for Performance Measures in Academic Libraries, IFLA Publication 76:K.G. Saur, 1996) has been completed.
2. Statistics Section brochures. Francisco Javier Alvarez Garcia (Granada Public Library, Spain) distributed copies of the recently completed Spanish versions of the new brochures. Copies of the brochures in English, French, Russian and Spanish were available at the IFLA booth during the conference; additional copies will be sent to IFLA Headquarters.
3. Patricia Layzell Ward (member of Management and Marketing) is conducting a survey on the teaching of statistics and marketing and quality management in schools of library and information science. The survey is a joint project of the Sections of Statistics and Management and Marketing and will be completed in 2000. The Section on Management and Marketing will include the results regarding the teaching of marketing and quality management in its pre-Boston IFLA satellite meeting.

PLANS FOR FUTURE CONFERNCES

Plans for IFLA 2001 in Boston include a program and a browsing session on Web-based statistics. A tentative topic for the Boston program is "Statistics for the Knowledge Age: New Measurements and Assessments." Tentative structure for the two and one-half hour program includes presentations of 15-20 minutes each by three speakers and a question-answer period. Speakers will be encouraged to use good, clear visual aids. Possible speakers include Julia Blixrud and Martha Kyrillidou of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) Statistics and Measurement Program on ARL's New Measures Initiatives, the attempt to develop new measurements in five critical areas.

IFLA 2002. The Section would like to hold a pre-conference satellite meeting at the University of Strathcylde in Glasgow. The meeting would include the results of Patricia Layzell Ward's survey on the teaching of statistics in schools of LIS and discussion of continuing education in statistics for practicing librarians.

Member Activities

Barbara Perry (World Bank/IMF, USA) reported that there is a new director in charge of NCLIS (U.S. National Center for Library and Information Science) statistical survey. NCLIS has a new Web site.

Marie-Dominique Heusse reported that the French Ministry of University Libraries is working on the collection and treatment of statistics. Academic library statistics are now available on-line. Cecile Arnaud (University of Paris, Nanterre) has been working on the French translation of ISO standard 2789. She was also responsible for translation of papers for the Jerusalem IFLA conference.

Melita Ambrozic (National and University Library, Slovenia) reported that the National Library of Slovenia is responsible for statistics from all types of libraries but is not being funded at the level necessary for the large-scale collection of statistics. The public library statistics are the best product; the special library statistics are problematic.

Francisco Javier Alvarez Garcia reported that in Spain the autonomous government has written a common survey instrument to be used by public libraries for gathering statistics. Javier worked on the Spanish translation of papers for the Jerusalem IFLA.

Ludmila Kozlova (Russian State Library) said that in Russia young people are leaving the library profession because of the low salaries. Statistics Section members from other countries reported the same difficulty with recruiting and retaining staff.

Bjorg Glesne (Statistics Norway) reported that in Norway separate bodies collect public and academic library statistics. The academic library statistics are collected by the National Office for Research Documentation Academic and Special Libraries (RBT). RBT has established an advisory committee for library statistics, meeting twice a year; the committee is examining the questionnaire, among other things. They are now waiting for the finalization of the ISO standards for adjustment. RBT was asked by the Ministry of Culture of Norway to develop some quality measures and the committee has been consulted in this matter as well. All academic libraries share the same integrated library system; they have been working to improve the quality of statistical data coming from the system.

Ellen Hoffman (York University, Canada) reported a great deal of flux and a feeling that things are changing so quickly that librarians are just taking snapshot views. They are doing small group snapshot evaluations, such as the SERVQUAL project. In Canada there is a committee that will work on demonstrating the value of the services for which the libraries are receiving funding. York University was one of the participants in the ARL pilot study of the SERVQUAL instrument that was the topic of one of the papers at the Statistics Section's program. Ellen pointed out several challenges with the SERVQUAL instrument: initially it caused the hardware to crash and the on-line format of survey seemed to encourage, or at least facilitate, the writing of negative comments.