IFLA Section on Statistics

Annual Report 2001

Mission

Membership

They are:

Valerie Alonzo (Bureau of Libraries of the city of Paris, France),
Melita Ambrozic (National and University Library of Slovenia),
Javier Alvarez Garcia (Public Library of Granada, Spain),
Cecile Arnaud (University of Paris 10, Nanterre, France),
Henrik Aslund (Royal Library of Sweden),
Wanda Dole (Washburn University, USA),
Bjorg Glesne (Statistics Norway),
Michael Heaney (University of Oxford, UK),
Ellen Hoffmann (York University, Canada),
Marie-Dominique Heusse (University of Toulouse, France),
Ludmila Kozlova (Russian State Library),
Keith Curry Lance (Library Research Service, Colorado State Library and University of Denver, USA),
Boris Lensky (Russian Book Chamber),
Pierre Meunier (Library of Montreal, Canada),
Pierre-Yves Renard (Ministry of Education, France),
Roswitha Poll (University and Regional Library Muenster, Germany),
Pauline Rothstein (Ramapo College of New Jersey, USA),
Yakov Shraiberg (Russian National Library of Science and Technology).

Officers

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

• Chair, Wanda Dole
• Secretary/Treasurer, Cecile Arnaud
• Information Coordinator, Yakov Shraiberg

Structure

PROGRAM SESSION, 21 AUGUST 2001, BOSTON

Andre Zemskov, Director of the Russian National Library for Science and Technology, delivered a paper prepared by Yakov Shraiberg, Deputy Director of that library. The paper offered a statistical analysis of the development of WWW-servers in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). The content and location of the servers were analyzed.

Roswitha Poll, Chief Librarian of the University and Regional Library of Muenster, described a project, sponsored by the German Research Council, to measure service quality using the Balanced Scorecard method. Performance indicators across four equally significant perspectives – users, finances, internal processes and potential (innovation) --- are combined to produce a "balanced" evaluation of the library.

The full text of the papers is posted on IFLANET (www.ifla.org).

Since 1999, the Statistics Section has handed out evaluation forms at its programs. Forty-three of the 110 delegates attending the Boston program completed evaluation forms Most (88%) of the attendees rated the program as excellent or good. They cited the following strengths: range of topics and national perspectives, knowledgeable speakers, leading-edge projects, and professional presentations. The weaknesses included: academic/research library orientation, papers not related to general topic of statistics, audience reluctance to participate in the question and answer session. Suggestions for future programs included: follow-up on Balanced Scorecard, public library statistics, benchmarking projects, statistics and performance measures for e-libraries, and evidence of improvement in library management as a result of using library statistics.

BROWSING SESSION, 20 AUGUST 2001

Approximately 40 delegates attended the on-line browsing session at Simmons College. Jakob Harnesk organized the session to explore the attempts of various countries to use the Web to collect and/or present their national library statistics. Presenters from 10 countries demonstrated Web sites for national statistics and explained the development and use of the sites. The URLs for the Web sites are posted www.arl.org/stats/north/harnesk.html .

The Statistics Section sponsors the Discussion Group. Statistics member Keith Lance Curry and Christie Koontz (GeoLib program, Florida State University) convened the meeting of approximately 40 delegates. Christie Koontz asked attendees to provide her with brief written statements of the status of the development and use of performance measures by public libraries in their countries.

Keith Curry Lance made a presentation about the Counting on Results project, a two-year Research and Demonstration Project funded by a National Leadership from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services. This project developed customized Pendragon Forms software for Palm organizers to facilitate data collection on observed user activities in the library as well as standardized user outcome survey questionnaires for selected Planning for Results service responses (in both Web and postcard format). For the PowerPoint file see http://www.lrs.org.

John Yorkovich (Digital Technologies Marketing Manager for 3M) demonstrated the Palm-based Digital Library Assistant, a handheld device designed to facilitate collection management, including collection of data on in-library use of materials. See http://www.3m.com/market/security/library/digitalID/compenent2.jhtml.

Christie Koontz presented her research on use of GIS analysis to inform siting and marketing decisions by public libraries. See http://www.geolib.org.

Attendees reported on performance measures developments for public libraries in their countries:

Singapore: Web-based surveys are being utilized to assess both customer satisfaction and needs.

United Kingdom: The Library and Information Unit at Loughborough University is involved in a variety of projects related to performance measurement in public libraries. See http://www.lboro.ac.uk/department/dils/lisu/lisuhp.html.

Belgium: The Agency for Public Libraries, Flanders, reports a new legal mandate that public libraries be part of the cultural policy of Belgian communities. The full implications of this mandate are not yet known; it is very new. Public libraries are interested in benchmarking themselves against libraries in demographically similar communities.

Japan: Minimum standards have been set for public libraries, but they are very vague. Librarians need something more practical. Funding is short at the national level. Absolute standards are very difficult for many local governments to meet.

Canada: Quebec has minimum standards for personnel and resources. A group of public libraries serving 100,000 and over is involved in a performance measurement project.

Slovenia: The Ministry of Culture prescribes indicators used to assess public libraries annually. New performance indicators, due in six months, will be both qualitative and quantitative.

Norway: While there are no performance measures for public libraries, such measures are being developed for academic libraries in Norway. Public libraries are interested in statistics on their support of life-long learning and distance education.

South Africa: Provincial library services have developed performance measures, but they are difficult for libraries to implement and attain.

Malaysia: Public libraries are certified for two years at a time based on their compliance with national standards based on the ISO standards

As the ALA representative to the IFLA Section on Statistics, I attended the Section’s Standing Committee meetings, browsing session, and program as well as meetings of the Coordinating Board for the Division to which the Statistics Section reports (Division VI, Management and Technology) at the IFLA Conference in Boston. I also attended the 4th Northumbria Conference on Performance Measures, a pre-conference held in Pittsburgh and sponsored by Statistics. Statistics Section meetings and events are summarized below.

From 1999 to 2001, I served as chair and information coordinator of the Section, chair of Division VI, and a member of the Professional Board (PB). At the Boston IFLA I was elected to a second term as chair of Statistics, chair of Division VI, and representative to the new Professional Committee (PC), the body that replaces the Professional Board. The ALCTS Library Materials Price Index Committee and the LAMA Measurement, Assessment and Evaluation Section sponsor my representation

Current Projects

1. The latest Section Newsletter has been published in paper and electronic form. For the near future, IFLA prefers that newsletters continue to be published in paper form. The newsletters are a tangible product that can be sent to association and institutional members.
2. The Statistics Section brochure is now available in all the IFLA languages except German. The Section asked Roswitha Poll to help arrange a German version. Roswitha Poll reported that the brochure in German would be ready for the IFLA Conference in Berlin. The latest issue of IFLA Journal (vol. 27, no. 4, 2001), edited by former Statistics Section chair John Sumsion, is devoted to statistics. The issue includes articles by Sumsion and Section member Roswitha Poll.
3. Yakov Shraiberg and Mike Heaney (University of Oxford, UK) will assist Melita Ambrozic (National and University Library of Slovenia), who has been working on a project to identify the URLs for Web sites of national statistics for posting on the Statistics Section Web page.

PLANS FOR IFLA 2002

Preconference. As a 1999 IFLA project for the sections of Statistics and Management and Marketing, Patricia Layzell Ward conducted a survey on training in statistics and management and marketing offered in schools of library and information science. The survey confirmed Statistics Section members’ perception that little or no training is offered in statistics and the practical application of statistics. To fill the need for training, the Section will join with the Library and Information Statistics Unit (LISU) of Loughborough University in offering a pre-IFLA satellite meeting in Loughborough next year. The theme will be "Statistics in Practice—Measuring and Managing"; the meeting will provide practical training and allow librarians from a variety of libraries and countries to present examples of best practices. The target audience is middle managers and/or librarians with new responsibilities for dealing with statistics. Possible training topics include the use and interpretation of performance measures, gathering and interpreting statistics, and practical applications of statistics in library management. The organizers are especially interested in finding speakers who have used statistics and have made a change in library management based on statistics. Tentative dates are 13-15 August 2002.

Workshop.Wanda Dole and Jakob Harnesk (BTJ, Sweden) reported on the Northumbria Performance Measures Conference, an IFLA satellite meeting sponsored by the Statistics Section and held in Pittsburgh, August 12^th – 16^th 2001. A description of the conference is available at www.arl.org/stats/north. The editorial board of the Northumbria conference has proposed joining with the Statistics Section to offer a one-day workshop ("Northumbria Lite") on the performance measures at the Glasgow IFLA in 2002. Roswitha Poll (University and Regional Library, Muenster, Germany) suggested that the workshop focus on outcome measures. Wanda Dole and Sandra Parker of the Northumbria editorial board will act as co-chairs for the planning of the event

MEMBER AND GUEST ACTIVITIES

Marie-Dominique Heusse (University of Toulouse, France) reported that that 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 published. Roswitha Poll announced that manual is now available in 7 languages.

Bjorg Glesne (Statistics Norway) reported that Norway is using a new form for gathering statistics based on the ISO standard. They are trying to get more information on electronic use and on user education.

Melita Ambrozic reported that 1) the Slovene National Library has produced a Web page with library statistics on academic, special and public libraries; 2) enlarged the program of education and training of Slovene librarians; and 3) the LIS department at Llubljana University has started courses on statistics (for the regular students). She described the challenges she encountered in her work gathering the URLs of Web pages on national statistics.

Ludmila Kozlova (Russian State Library) reported that Russian librarians are translating LIBECON forms into Russian so that they may analyze them for possible use in gathering Russian library statistics.

Henrik Aslund (Royal Library of Sweden) reported that in Sweden the research library statistics are available in printed and Web versions. ISO 11620:1998 (Library Performance Indicators) is being translated into Swedish. He is involved in the ISO working group. The Swedish Library Association is going to publish a handbook on performance measurement. The association is inviting Swedish libraries to use the handbook and to benchmark among themselves.

Pierre-Yves Renard (Ministry of Education, France) reported that academic library statistics in France are being gathered using Web forms and disseminated using an online application. Several monitoring tools are developed at the central level based on a common database.

J. Eric Davies (LISU) reported that LISU regularly publishes a range of public library statistics the U.K. and works with SCONUL to produce the university library statistics. They are moving toward Web based collection and presentation of statistics and have put up a 4-year span of statistics at present. LISU conducted a special study of visually impaired library users. The study asked how the visually impaired use libraries. It will be a source of performance measures and marketing information. LISU is also looking at data from museums and archives with a view to creating a platform for managers.

Mike Heaney reported on his work in the University of Oxford, including the impact of the integration of library services and reorganized University government, which grouped libraries with museums.

Anja Smit (University Library Nijmegen, Netherlands) reported that in the Netherlands the university library statistics and performance indicators for 1999 and 2000 have been gathered and posted on the Web.

Julia Blixrud (Association of Research Libraries, ARL) reported briefly on the ARL measurement and statistics program which she later described in detail in her presentation at the August 21^st Statistic Section program. Sherrie Schmidt (Arizona State University), co-chair of one of the ARL New Measures Initiatives, reported on the work of the E-metrics group.

Keith Curry Lance (Library Research Service, USA) reported that the Library Research Service has spent the last decade gathering information on school libraries. He is completing an Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) grant project called "counting your results." The project is aimed at developing tools for outcomes-based surveys. They have developed forms and are presently sending them out. For further information, see the Web site www.lrs.org

Roswitha Poll reported on the work of the task force ISO 2789, the standard for library statistics, which she is chairing. There is also an ISO group working on performance measures; it is doing a technical report on the standards for the digital library. The German National Statistics are now based on the ISO work and will be brought up on the Web.

Pierre Meunier (Library of Montreal, Canada) reported that the National Library of Canada is hosting a November meeting to revise the process for gathering core library statistics on the national level. Statistics for public libraries in Quebec, as for other provinces, have been collected for more than 30 years, but there is a new working group charged with redefining the statistics to be gathered and developing measures for electronic services. In 2001 The Montreal Public Library will introduce performance measures based on ISO standards (ISO 16200 and ISO 2789).

Ellen Hoffmann (York University, Canada) reported that the Canadian Association of Research Libraries will undertake surveys of numeric databases, ILL, and facilities and that the Canadian National Site Licensing Project is beginning an evaluation program.

Cecile Arnaud briefly reported that, as a member of the Subcommittee at TC 46/CN8 at AFNOR/ISO, she took part in the amendment and translation into French of ISO 2789.

Wanda V. Dole
Chair, Section on Statistics
University Librarian
Washburn University, Topeka, Kansas, USA
E-mail: zzwdole@washburn.edu