Measuring Your Library's Value: How to Do a Cost-Benefit Analysis for Your Public Library - Softcover

Elliott, Donald S.; Hayden, Sterling W.; Holt, Glen E.; Edmonds Holt, Leslie

Softcover

ISBN 10: 083890923X ISBN 13: 9780838909232

Publisher: ALA Editions, 2006

Synopsis

Under pressure to quantify the benefits your library provides? Is a cost-benefit analysis right for your institution? With tax-funded organizations under microscopic scrutiny, library directors need to make a strong public case for the value their library provides.

Measuring Your Library's Value, designed to serve large to medium sized public libraries, gives librarians the tools to conduct a defensible and credible cost-benefit analysis (CBA). This hands-on reference covers the economic basics with librarian-friendly terms and examples, preparing library leaders to collaborate with economist-consultants. Library directors and trustees:

# Reflect whether a CBA is the way to go -- using checklists addressing the pros and cons
# Gain confidence to customize the process by viewing survey design elements step-by-step
# Learn how to calculate the value a community receives from library services
# Access proven examples for communicating what different community stakeholders need to hear

Authored by members of the team that developed, tested, and perfected this methodology for over a decade, Measuring Your Library's Value is based on research funded by IMLS and PLA. Now you can credibly measure the dollars and cents value your library provides to your community.

About this title

About the Author

Donald S. Elliott, Ph.D., is professor and graduate program director in the Department of Economics and Finance at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville where he makes economic concepts understandable and entertaining.

Glen E. Holt, Ph.D., editor of Public Libraries Quarterly, is a pioneer in providing statistically quantifiable benefits of library services.

Sterling W. Hayden, Ed.D.is vice president for fund development and evaluation at the Area Resources for Community and Health Services (ARCH) in St. Louis.

Leslie Edmonds Holt, Ph.D., currently a consultant, directed Youth Services at the St. Louis Public Library as the methodology was developed. The book grew out of her research on middle school patrons.

From Booklist

The authors have spent more than 10 years perfecting a methodology to measure the dollars-and-cents value of a library to a community. This guide shows how to use cost-benefit analysis (CBA) for quantifying the services a public library offers. The 10 chapters describe the fundamentals of CBA, how to determine whether to undertake a cost-benefit analysis, and how to initiate the project as well as how to sample library users and measure library costs and returns, and what to do with the results. Five appendixes provide examples of cardholder sampling, survey instruments, and more. The book will help librarians and trustees understand economic basics so they can communicate what leaders in the community need to know so the library can be valued and supported. Although it is aimed at a medium-sized library, any public library can learn from its strategies. Hogan, Patricia

Edition details

• Publisher: ALA Editions
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 083890923X
• ISBN 13: 9780838909232
• Binding: Perfect Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 181