Statistics Section

Annual Report
September 2001 - August 2002

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 now has a membership of 75. The Standing Committee has 19 members (one corresponding).

They are:

Officers

Meetings

The Standing Committee of the Statistics Section met on August 17th and 23rd during the Glasgow conference. Standing Committee members and guests reported on their activities and discussed plans for future conferences.

Roswitha Poll reported on the national benchmarking project in Germany conducted by Bertelsmann. The University of Muenster has produced a handbook in German on Balanced Scorecard. The Cost Accounting Handbook for Academic Libraries (final results presented at Copenhagen IFLA, 1997) has been translated into English and is being published by Saur. The German national statistics for 2002 are being collected using new statistics based on ISO 2789.

Marie-Dominique Heusse (University of Toulouse) reported that on a project for French national statistics for 2000 published two weeks ago. For the first time there was benchmarking of academic libraries by type and subject. Cecile Arnaud said that the French translation team is translating ISO 20983. She also reported that there is team working at the national level on collecting data on electronic resources. Valerie Alonso described a small project to collect statistics online for Paris city libraries and to post them online. In Paris there is a group working on gathering statistics of all types of libraries. There is a big change in administration of Paris public libraries. In the past the public libraries were administered by a central authority, now they will report to the boroughs.

Julia Blixrud reported briefly on the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) measurement and statistics program. The ARL statistics for large academic research libraries are published in paper form and also posted on the Web (http://www.arl.org). She described ARL's New Measures Initiatives, which include the LibQUAL+ pilot project to measure user perception of library service and the E-metrics project. The proceedings of the 4th International Northumbria Conference on Performance Measures have been published and are available from ARL. Beverly Lynch spoke about the NISO standard for library statistics (posted at http://www.niso.org) and urged librarians to review them and send comments. Joan Stein reported on ARL's Service Quality Academy, which provided a weeklong intensive training in quantitative and qualitative techniques.

Yakov Shraiberg (Russian National Public Library of Science and Technology) described his project collecting Russian Web sites; in the fall the lists will be available in English at the ILIAC Web site (http://www.iliac.org). The Russian National Library for Science and Technology is setting up a "Server for Intellectual Statistics" on which statistics from the library will be posted daily. The server also houses centralized statistics for Moscow public libraries and the union catalogs. Boris Lensky described the work of the Russian Book Chamber is collecting the book trade statistics and administering the legal deposit system. When the Book Chamber was founded 85 years ago in 1917, its first task was the control of the fulfillment of legal deposit of books and newspapers.

Bjorg Glesne reported that for the first time Norway gathered statistics according to the new ISO standard. They are trying to get useful statistics on electronic resources, but have encountered problems with statistics furnished by publishers. There is a movement to link performance standards with statistics. A new organization for the co-ordination and development of libraries in Norway is being created under the authority of the Ministry of Culture and Church Affairs, and will be fully operative from January 1, 2003. The major statistics-collecting bodies, RBT and the Norwegian Directorate for Public Libraries, will be incorporated in this organization.

Henrik Aslund reported that the National Library of Sweden collects statistics only for research libraries. They began using the new ISO standard a year later than Norway. They are developing a new electronic form for gathering statistics. The Swedish Library Association is conducting a three-year evaluation project in which 53 libraries are testing a handbook on performance indicators. The results will be published on the Web. The handbook is available in Swedish at the Web site of the Swedish Library Association.

Ralph Manning (National Library of Canada) reported that Canada has not compiled comprehensive national library statistics for the last 12 years. About five years ago the National Library of Canada tried to make up for this by setting up a system in which each province and territory collects public library statistics and the Association of Research Libraries collects university library statistics. There has been no mechanism to collect special library and school/children's library statistics. Three years ago there was a project to collect comprehensive statistics. Ralph is beginning a project to collect Web sites for provincial, etc., online this fall.

Ellen Hoffmann reported on the evaluation of the Canadian National Site Licensing Project, a license for 64 universities to over 700 e-journals. They are building a database on use data and have found that outcome measures are the most difficult to define. They are hiring a consultant to conduct interviews with researchers on information seeking for their research.

Pierre Meunier reported on the reorganization of the Montreal public libraries and on the progress of the working group devoted to developing, for Montreal, a minimum standard for libraries and performance measures.

Javier Garcia Alvarez reported that Andalucia is creating a network to connect all public libraries in the region. They are working to create a map of needs and resources in the 8 provinces and are conducting a survey of users in all libraries. They are also negotiating with a commercial provider to collect the quantitative measures and also some qualititative information.

Mike Heaney reported the UK library association CILIP is responding to an unfortunate government action to give efficiency scores to all local government services. As opposed to other government services, libraries are given only half a score: CILIP is protesting this. There have been several important LISU publications including a recent survey on school libraries and libraries for children. The higher education statistics collected by SCONUL for the first time this year include not only university library statistics, but also college library statistics. The SCONUL statistics can be filled out a spreadsheet available online and submitted online. The spreadsheet has a mechanism to identify errors as the data is being entered. SCONUL is investigating LibQUAL+. Oxford has been trying to apply an activitiy-based costing model (developed by a consultant) to library operations.

Plans for IFLA 2003 and 2004

BERLIN, 2003

The Statistics section will join with Library Theory and Research to sponsor the 5th Northumbria Conference as an IFLA preconference satellite meeting in Durham City, UK. Information on the preconference is available from Sandra Parker at the University of Northumbria at Newcastle (Sandra.parker@unn.ac.uk). The Management and Marketing Section has asked the Statistics Section to co-sponsor a post-conference satellite meeting in Vienna, 10-12 August, on "Leadership and Risk Taking in Library Management: Performance Measurement and Statistics in Library Management." Wanda Dole reported that the National Libraries Section has asked the Statistics Section to join in presenting a program on Benchmarking in Berlin. Each Section will invite two speakers. National Libraries speakers will include a presentation on a benchmarking project of national libraries that will be completed in early 2003; possible Statistics speakers include Petra Klug of Bertlesmann. The Statistics Section's Open Session will have the topic "Cost Analysis Data"; Roswitha Poll will take responsibility for this.

BUENOS AIRES, 2004

The Section will collaborate with the Public Libraries Section to present a program on using statistics for advocacy for public libraries. Possible subtopics include the ISO standard, sharing of experiences, the effect of changing demographics, and justifying the work of public libraries. Standing Committee members Valerie Alonzo (Bureau of Libraries, City of Paris), Pierre Meunier (Montreal Public Libraries) and Javier Alvarez (Library of Andalucia) will work with members of the Public Library Section to plan this program.

Current Projects

1. Newsletter. Two issues of the Section Newsletter were published in paper and electronic form last year. The electronic version is posted on the Statistics page at the IFLA Web site, IFLANET http://www.ifla.org/VII/s22/ss.htm#5
2. Redefinition of the scope and name of the Section. A working group was created to implement Strategic Plan Action Item 5.1. (redefine scope of the Section). Mike Heaney (Oxford University) convened the group which suggested that the name be changed to "Statistics and Evaluation Section" and Scope enlarged to include measurement and evaluation. Heaney shared the revisions with the Sections of Management and Marketing, Library Theory and Research, University Libraries and Acquisitions and Collection Development. None of these Sections raised objections to the revisions. The revisions have been sent to the IFLA Professional Committee for approval.
3. Brochure. The brochure will be revised and translated into all the official languages this year. Section member Ellen Hoffman is revising the English version to reflect changes in the Scope and name of the Section.
4. Identification of qualititative measures. A working group was created to implement Strategic Plan Action Item 2.1. (identify qualititative measures). Roswitha Poll (University of Muenster), the convener of the group, reported that the group will work by e-mail and post developments on the Web page of her library (http://www.uni-muenster.de/ULB/outcome/index.html) with a link from Section's Web page on IFLANET.
5. Melita Ambrozic (National Library of Slovenia) prepared a Webography of statistics Web sites that is posted on the Statistics page at IFLANET (http://www.ifla.org/VII/s22/statlinks.htm)

Conference programs

NORTHUMBRIA LITE WORKSHOP, 22 AUGUST 2002

Together with the Library Theory and Research Section, Statistics joined with the editorial board of the Northumbria conference to present a one-day workshop ("Northumbria Lite") on outcomes measures. The presentations from the workshop will be published in Performance Measures and Metrics. More than 50 delegates attended the workshop.

Relationships with other Bodies

The Section cooperates with other IFLA groups interested in the use of statistics and performance measures as tools for management and change in libraries. These IFLA groups include the following Sections: Management and Marketing, Library Theory and Research, University Libraries, National Libraries and Acquisitions and Collection Development. The Statistics Section also works with other library organizations and bodies such as the Northumbria Conference on Performance Measures, LISU, and ARL. The Section has sponsored the Performance Measures in Public Libraries Discussion Group, which concluded its tenure at the 2002 Glasgow Conference.

Other Events

PRECONFERENCE SATELLITE MEETING, 13-15 AUGUST 2002

Statistics Section members Cecile Arnaud (University of Paris 10), Ellen Hoffman (York University) and Wanda Dole reported on the preconference "Statistics in Practice" (Loughborough, 13-15 August).

A description of the conference is available at LISU (Library and Information Statistics Unit) Web site: http://www.lisu.ac.uk. The abstracts and PowerPoint presentations are posted at http://www.lboro.ac.uk/departments/dis/lisu/ifla-follow.html. LISU will publish the proceedings. The Statistics Section and the Library Theory and Research Section were the IFLA sponsors for the event. Thirty-eight (38) delegates from 13 countries attended. The preconference was the result of a 1999-2000 IFLA project for the sections of Statistics and Management and Marketing. Patricia Layzell Ward conducted a survey on training about statistics and management and marketing offered in schools of library and information science. The survey confirmed Statistics Section members' perception that there is little or no training in statistics and the practical application of statistics

Wanda V. Dole
October 2002