Common Statistics Programs and Projects in Canadian Academic

Libraries

Sylvie BelzileUniversité de SherbrookeStatistiques de bibliothèques au 21e siècle: conférence satellite de l’IFLAMontréal, 18-19 août 2008

Paper Summary

Presentation of CARL/ABRC and the CREPUQ Sub-Committee on Libraries

General statistics publications New indicators Comparative tables of cost/use of consortial

electronic resources LibQual+ Survey in consortia Conclusion

Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL)

27 large university libraries plus the Library and Archives Canada, Canada Institute for Scientific and Technical Information and the Library of Parliament.

Mission: increase capacity of individual members libraries to provide effective support and encouragement to advanced study and research at the national, regional and local levels

Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL)

Committee on Effectiveness Measure and Statistics mandate:

– To develop and maintain the CARL Statistics Program– To review current efforts in the area of performance

indicators, benchmarking and effective resource allocation as they apply to research libraries

– To raise awareness of CARL members of development relating to these matters

Annual statistics published since 1969

CREPUQ Sub-Committee on Libraries

All 18 Québec university libraries (6 are also members of CARL/ABRC)

Mandate: to promote the concerted development of library collections and services in support of the teaching and research missions of Québec universities

CREPUQ Sub-Committe on Libraries

Working group on performance and decision making indicators mandate:– To develop and maintain the annual statistics

program– To periodically revise the common questionnaires– To identify new relevant performance indicators

Annual statistics published since 1979-1980

General Statistics Publications

Annual data on collections, library personnel, budget and services:

– Library personnel: number of librarians and other professionals, technical and support staff

– Library expenditures (materials, operating, staffing)– Facilities and library space– Collection size– Transactions: loans, ILL, in house use– Reference questions, information literacy training sessions

Harmonization of questionnaires (CARL, CREPUQ, ARL, ACRL)

Sample of CREPUQ Questionnaire

CREPUQ Statistics Publication (Some Particularities)

CREPUQ: – Ratios (per FTE, professors) are available for

major indicators – Comparative tables and graphics on libraries

trends over the last 15 years

Extract of a Table of the 2006-2007 Statistics of CREPUQ

Monographs and Serials Expenditures (1990-2005) in CREPUQ Libraries

CARL Statistics Publications (Some Particularities)

CARL: – Includes an analysis (commentaries) of major trends in

Canadian Research Libraries– Section on emerging services:

1998-99: Access to the OPAC through the library online system, circulation renewal via telephone, off-campus document delivery by fax

2005-06: Presence of Information Commons, digitization projects, electronic reference services, loan of electronic equipment

– Section on salaries

Number of CARL Libraries that Lend Electronic Equipment (2000 to 2006)

New Indicators

Electronic resources: number and expenditure– CARL: already supplied in the General statistics

publication, data not available for some libraries– CREPUQ: supplementary questionnaires on trial

New Indicators

Challenges:– Définitions: ex. electronic serials titles in

aggregator packages are to be counted separately (CARL) or included with reference works (CREPUQ)

– The library budget structure does not allow the level of detail requested (ex. recurrent vs non recurrent expenditures)

– To ascertain the number of unique serial titles: the SFX knowledge base will be used by CREPUQ

New Indicators to Be Developped

Use of networked electronic resources and services– Supplementary ARL questionnaire as a model:

(number of sessions (logins) to databases or services, number of full-text articles retrieved etc.)

– To be developped for CARL and CREPUQ

Comparative Tables of Cost vs Use (CREPUQ)

Analysis completed by the Working Group on the Virtual Library Collection Development:

– For electronic resources acquired in consortia by CREPUQ and CRKN (Canadian Research Knowledge Network)

– Counter compliant data received from publisher/vendor– 4th year in 2007-2008 (23 products)– Evaluation of cost effectiveness of each product for a library

Cost/Use Analysis for Emerald Insight (2005-2006)- CREPUQ

Use of Emerald Insight (2005-2006)- CREPUQ

Use of Emerald Insight Database by FTE (2005-2006)- CREPUQ

Cost of Use of Emerald Insight Database (2005-2006)- CREPUQ

2007 LibQual+ Survey

Complement common quantitative data Coordinated by CARL/ABRC Consortia of 54 Canadian academic,

research and governement libraries (11 CREPUQ libraries)

A success: will be repeated in 3 years

Conclusion

Importance of benchmarking and sharing best practices

To stay relevant statistics should reflect new activities, collections and transactions in libraries

Cooperation at the national and regional levels should continue to develop and test new performance indicators

On behalf of CARL and CREPUQ Sub-Committee on Libraries

thank you for your attention

Sylvie.Belzile@USherbrooke.ca

www.carl-abrc.ca

www.crepuq.qc.ca