Dr. Jennifer Weil Arns, Associate Professor,Dr. Robert V. Williams, Distinguished Professor

Emeritus,Ms. Karen Miller, Doctoral Student

School of Library and Information Science University of South Carolina

A Research Project Funded by IMLS

Assessing the Economic Value of Public Library

Collections and Services:A Timely Review and

Meta-Analysis

Source: http://espin086.wordpress.com/tag/supply-and-demand/

ValueProblem

Initial Approach: Traditional Metaphors

St Louis Public Library (Holt, et al) Carried out in 1994 and refined and replicated in 1999 and 2001-2003. Ten years of studies led to a manual for medium and smaller-sized libraries.

South Carolina (carried out by the University of South Carolina as a service to the South Carolina State Library; 2003, 2011)

Cost and benefit estimates were based on a business model and standardized Public Library Survey income and expenditure data. Examined both direct and indirect benefits.

State of Florida (Griffths, et al, 2004). Using a variety of estimation techniques, the report built on earlier work by Fraser, Nelson and McCure (2001,2002).

Recent Response: Cost-Benefit Studies

http://www.libsci.sc.edu/MetaWeb/researchteam.html

US Institute of Museum and Library Services Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program.

Grant #: RE-04-08-0047: Assessing the Economic Value of Public Library Collections and Services: A Review of the Literature and Meta-Analysis (META) - a multi year research project designed to provide insight into these questions and a more robust model of the economic value of public libraries.

Principle Investigator: Jennifer Weil Arns

The information I’m going to share with you today represents the preliminary result of a nationally funded study conducted primarily by a small group of dedicated researchers who, perhaps unwisely, decided to tackle this problem, first reviewing the literature on this topic and then conducting an experiment .

Primary Researchers

Research questions:

1) Is there consistent and mounting evidence that public libraries contribute to the economic prosperity of the communities they serve

2) What steps might be taken in order to strengthen this assertion.

Approach and Methodology

Meta-Analysis

Meta-analysis is the statistical procedure for combining data from multiple studies. When the treatment effect (or effect size) is consistent from one study to the next, meta-analysis can be used to identify this common effect. When the effect varies from one study to the next, meta-analysis may be used to identify the reason for the variation. Clinicians and applied researchers in medicine, education, psychology, criminal justice, and a host of other fields use meta-analysis to determine which interventions work, and which ones work best. Meta analysis is also widely used in basic research to evaluate the evidence in areas as diverse as sociology, social psychology, sex differences, finance and economics, political science, marketing, ecology and genetics, among others.

Source: http://www.meta-analysis.com/pages/why_do.html

An initial corpus of 143 value related studies was identified using Dialog file 438 Library Literature and Information Science; and the results of this search were analyzed and extended using University of South Carolina search services provided by Wilson Web (HW Wilson), CSA Illumina, and EBSCO. Internet searches were also conducted using the Google advanced search feature (search terms “libr* valu*) and random searches to locate referenced citations.

Phase 1: The User’s Perspective

Cost/Benefit Analysis

StudyDate of Study

Date of Data CBA

Inflation Adjusted

CBA

Inflation Adjusted CBA (2011 Dollars)

Public Library Benefits Valuation Study - Birmingham

Public Library, Ala 2000 1999 $2.00 $1.20 $2.70Charlotte Mecklenburg Library 2010 2008-2009 $3.14 $1.46 $3.29St. Louis Public Library, MOa 2000 1999 $3.75 $2.25 $5.06

San Francisco Public Librarya 2007 2005-2006 $4.74 $2.39 $5.37

Baltimore County Public Library, MDa 2000 1999 $4.50 $2.70 $6.08

King County Library System, WAa 2000 1999 $7.50 $4.50 $10.13Phoenix Public Library, AZ 2000 1999 $10.00 $6.00 $13.50

a Mean ROI Mean $6.59

Table 1: Contingent Valuation, Direct Benefits Study Summary

Consumer Price Index Source: Al l Urban Consumers , Al l Items, U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics . Ava i lable at ftp://ftp.bls .gov/pub/specia l .requests/cpi/cpia i .txt

StudyDate of Study

Date of Data CBA

Inflation Adjusted

CBA

Inflation Adjusted CBA (2011 Dollars)

Eagle Valley Library District, CO 2007 2006 $4.28 $2.12 $4.78Mesa County Public Library District, CO 2007 2006 $4.57 $2.27 $5.10Rangeview Library District, CO 2007 2006 $4.81 $2.39 $5.37Denver Public Library, CO 2007 2006 $4.96 $2.46 $5.53

Charlotte Mecklenburg Library, NCa 2010 2008-2009 $5.32 $2.48 $5.57Douglas County Libraries, CO 2007 2006 $5.02 $2.49 $5.60Montrose Library District, CO 2007 2006 $5.33 $2.64 $5.95Pennsylvania Public Libraries 2006 2006 $5.50 $2.73 $6.14Florida Public Libraries 2004 2003-2004 $6.54 $3.51 $7.89Florida Public Libraries 2010 2008 $8.32 $3.86 $8.69Fort Morgan Public Library, CO 2007 2006 $8.80 $4.37 $9.82

Cortez Public Library, Cob 2007 2006 $31.07 $15.41 $34.67a Mean ROI b The Cortez Public Library has unusually high levels of users outside of funding unit. Mean $8.76Consumer Price Index Source: Al l Urban Consumers , Al l Items, U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics . Ava i lable at ftp://ftp.bls .gov/pub/specia l .requests/cpi/cpia i .txt

Table 2: Contingent Valuation, Direct and Indirect Benefits Study Summary

For the purposes of analysis, the “treatment” of interest was considered to be an action: the expenditure of public funds. The intensity of the treatment was thought to be reflected in the size of the expenditure, and the effect of interest was initially defined as the benefits derived from these investments, all of which would be described in dollars.

Phase 2: The Institutional Perspective

Cost/Benefit Analysis

Public Health Public Libraries

Type of study Drug trial Public library survey

Participants Patients Individual libraries

Treatment Drugs Public money

Effect Drug response Expenditure

Metric of interest Improvement Net benefit

Data Collection

IMLS Public Library Survey data were used for analysis. The full file includes elements that pertain to each of the over 9,000 public library systems located in the U.S., U.S. Territories, and the District of Columbia. The smaller State Summary file aggregates these data.

These sources were attractive for several reasons:

The variables were accompanied with operational definitions, the units of analysis were uniform, and the data were for the most amenable to analysis.

The Institutional Perspective

The Institutional Perspective

Preliminary Results 2009 State Summary File: Descriptive Statistics

Table 3: Phase 2 Descriptive Statistics

2009 Direct Return

2009 Indirect Return 2009 Total Return

2011 Inflation Adjusted Total Return

Total $4.15 $1.54 $5.69 $5.97

Mean $4.43 $1.55 $5.97 $6.26

Median $4.34 $1.51 $5.89 $6.17

Min $1.77 $1.32 $3.20 $3.35

Max $6.52 $1.97 $8.14 $8.53

The Institutional Perspective

Regional Analysis

RegionDirect Return

2008Direct Return

2009Indirect

Return 2008Indirect

Return 2009Total Return

2008Total Return

2009 % Increase 2008 to 2009

New England $3.90 $4.52 $1.72 $1.73 $5.62 $6.25 11.2%Mid East $3.20 $3.71 $1.60 $1.60 $4.80 $5.31 10.6%Great Lakes $3.68 $4.23 $1.50 $1.49 $5.18 $5.72 10.4%Plains $4.13 $4.63 $1.51 $1.51 $5.64 $6.14 8.9%Southeast $3.36 $4.09 $1.40 $1.47 $4.76 $5.57 17.0%Southwest $3.66 $4.17 $1.41 $1.46 $5.07 $5.63 11.0%Rocky Mountains $4.13 $4.99 $1.52 $1.58 $5.65 $6.57 16.3%Far West $3.31 $4.01 $1.50 $1.54 $4.81 $5.55 15.4%Total $3.51 $4.15 $1.51 $1.54 $5.02 $5.69 13.3%

Regional Analysis

The Institutional Perspective

Preliminary Results: Phase 2 Regional Meta-Analysis

The Institutional Perspective

The results of the preliminary meta-analysis we performed using the updated USC formula and the IMLS state summary file data suggest that we can be 95% confident that the mean total value is between $5.69 and $5.91

When the results described above are taken into consideration, the answer to our first research question appears to be yes – the analyses performed for this project suggest mounting and moderately consistent evidence that public libraries contribute to the economic prosperity of the communities they serve and that these benefits may be expected to range around $5.00 to $6.00 for every dollar spent.

Research Question 1. Is there consistent and mounting evidence that public libraries contribute to the economic prosperity of the communities they serve

Further meta-analysis

Better use of survey data.

Further examination of the intangible outcomes and benefits that are typically not taken into account in these cost benefit estimates.

Three pathways to added value

Research Question 2:What steps can be taken in order to strengthen this assertion?