Measuring the value of the British Library

1. Measuring the value of the British Library Slovenian Library Association Librarians and Libraries: Added Value to the Environment 6th October 2009 Ann Clarke Strategic Planning Manager, The British Library

2. The British Library holds unsurpassed collections and offers a great range of services based on them The largest document supply service in the world. Secure e-delivery and ‘just in time’ digitisation enables desktop delivery within 2 hours National library of the UK Over 250 years of collecting. Beneficiary of legal deposit, and £18m annual acquisitions budget • Serves researchers, businesses, libraries, learners and the general public • 3 main funding streams: • DCMS grant-in-aid (£107m) • Annual trading income (£24m) • Voluntary income (£8m) Collection includes over 100m items Our Purpose - Advancing the world’s knowledge Collection fills over 650 lin km of shelving and grows at 11 km per year 1.25 Tb of digital material through voluntary deposit 2 main sites in London and 1 in Yorkshire. Nearly 2,000 staff

3. What do we know about the value of the British Library? • We have an incredible range of information resources and we know that they add value (culturally, socially, economically) • And we have very considerable staff expertise and we know that this adds value • But just how much value does the British Library add? • How do we go about demonstrating our value, and communicating that value in a meaningful way?

4. Contents • Inputs and Outputs • Anecdotes and case studies • Outcomes • Broad approach

5. Traditionally we have measured value through measures of input and output • Inputs • We created over 15 million digital images • We created over 400,000 catalogue records • We preserved 69,000 collection items • Outputs • We delivered 65% of items electronically • We received over 77 million page hits on our web site • We received over 500,000 visits to reading rooms Source: British Library Annual Report and Accounts 2008/09

6. Whom do we define as our stakeholders? How do we create value for our stakeholders? Whom do we define as our customer? How do we create value for our customer? Customer Stakeholder How do we add value for our customers while controlling costs? Financial Strategy Employee Learning & Growth Internal processes To satisfy customers while meeting budgetary constraints, at which business processes must we excel? How do we enable ourselves to grow and change, meeting ongoing demands? We refined our input and output measures as we developed a Corporate Balanced Scorecard Source: Balanced Scorecard Step-by-step Maximising Performance and Maintaining Results, Paul R Niven. Balanced Scorecard Step-by-Step for Government and Nonprofit Agencies, Paul R Niven

7. Most of the metrics in our Corporate Balanced Scorecard are operational metrics – here are some examples Stakeholder Customer Strengthen relations with stakeholders Increase public support for BL Increase users’ positive outcomes Increase volume of use Improve user experience Impact of BL on user research Satisfaction ratings from reading room users Annual survey to show awareness of BL and support Face-to-face interactions with key stakeholders No of items supplied remotely Financial Increase contribution Increase efficiency Effectively manage resources Total operating expenditure (against plan) Trading contribution Unit cost of operating reading rooms Internal Processes Use effective processes to develop the collection Use effective processes to manage the collection Use effective processes to deliver/enhance services (incl. new services) Use effective processes to deliver projects /programmes % items processed against total items received % Doc Supply standard service requests responded to within 48 hours % of key projects/programmes failing to meet budgets and timescales UK voluntary deposit e-publications received Employee Learning & Growth Strengthen values Develop relevant skills Sickness absence Training programme evaluations

8. We are now working on the development of some strategic metrics Vision, Purpose, Values Desired future Differentiating activities Strategic Priorities What we must measure in order to implement our strategy Scorecard Objectives and Metrics

9. Our 7 strategic priorities provide the place to start • SP1 Provide researchers with a critical mass of digital content by extending our collection of UK digital publications • SP2 Connect researchers with content in our collection and other resources in innovative ways • SP3 Transform our service for researchers who need access to our unrivalled newspaper collections by implementing our newspaper strategy • SP4 Support research by developing innovative products and services • SP5 Secure our e-collection for future researchers by building robust systems to underpin our digital library. • SP6 Preserve our physical collection for future researchers by taking an holistic view of storage, security and preservation needs. • SP7 Develop our staff to ensure they have the skills they need to deliver the strategy http://www.bl.uk/aboutus/stratpolprog/strategy0811/

10. Contents • Inputs and Outputs • Anecdotes and case studies • Outcomes • Broad approach

11. We have much anecdotal evidence to demonstrate the value of the British Library “invaluable in helping me to get information on the size of the global market for diving equipment, as well as listings of retailers and distributors. Patent advice was also offered to look at similar patent applications and possible pitfalls in the patent process” Matthew LewisFounder & MD Funkyfins “I used the British Library’s patent collection for searching when I was developing my products…I found the staff to be very helpful in pointing me in the right direction” Mandy HabermanEntrepreneur and British Female Inventor of the Year 2000 “The Library’s staff are a great help for the new inventor… The Library inspires confidence and empowers the lone entrepreneur” Mark SheahanInvention of the Year Award 2001/2, Grand Prix at Inpex 2003

12. … TO OUTCOMES • How much value, in monetary terms, does the Library add to the nation as a whole? • What benefit does the Library bring relative to the funding it receives? • What would be the economic impact if the Library ceased to exist? FROM ANECDOTES … ‘ Contemporary publishing depends upon the research and scholarship of the past. Both publishers and authors rely on the British Library’s unrivalled collections …’ We decided to obtain a composite measure to reflect the total value of the British Library to the UK economy FROM INPUTS AND OUTPUTS … 550,000 items received through legal deposit 8,300,000 items supplied remotely & consulted in Reading Rooms

13. Contents • Inputs and Outputs • Anecdotes and case studies • Outcomes • Broad approach

14. We undertook a quantitative assessment of the value generated by the Library to the UK economy • An independent assessment of the value of the British Library to the UK economy • Contingent valuation survey methodology was used • Enables value to be measured in cases where not all services have market prices • Typically asks: ‘How much would people be willing to pay (or willing to accept) to maintain the existence of (or be compensated for the loss of) a service?’

15. How much do you invest, in terms of time and money, to make use of the Library? What would be the most you would be willing to pay through taxes to maintain the BL? How much would you be prepared to sell your reader pass for, assuming you could not then replace it? We derived estimates of the value of the Library through five main types of question Investment in access Willingness to pay Price elasticity How much would your usage change if the price went up by 50%? Willingness to accept Cost of alternatives How much would you have to pay to use alternatives to the Library, if such alternatives could be found?

16. Our aim was to place a monetary value on the British Library • Objective was to derive total value of the Library – use value, option value and existence value • But not all the Library’s services could be valued. We focused on • Reading room access to collections (over 200 users surveyed) • Remote document supply and bibliographic services (100 users) • Public exhibitions and events (benchmark survey) • Indirect value of existence and option to use the Library to wider society (over 2000 members of the public) • We did not include • Emerging products and services • Products and services generating low value • Overseas users (wanted value to UK citizen)

17. Different techniques were applied to derive values for these different components of the study • Selected most realistic value – in blue • Scaled up to represent total population • Aggregated the 4 values • This gave value generated by BL √ Numbers for remote users withheld for reasons of commercial interest

18. The study showed that the British Library generates value around 4.4 times the level of its public funding Total value relative to Grant-in-Aid • For every £1 of public funding the British Library receives each year, £4.40 is generated for the economy • If public funding of the Library were to end, the UK would lose £280m per annum • Excludes value generated for non-UK registered users which is considerable £363m Benefit cost ratio 4.4:1 £83m Total Public funding(1) Note (1) £83m was base Grant in Aid in 2003/04

19. A significant part of our value is indirect value to the wider UK society • Of the £363m of value generated by the Library each year: • £59m comes directly from users of the services we tested • £304m comes from wider society • In other words, a key part of the British Library’s value: • Reflects ‘existence’ and ‘option to use’ value for wider UK society • Reflects a wide range of positive impacts that the Library generates for society and that society recognises ‘It’s an important cultural centre for the country’ ‘Everyone can benefit from it’ ‘It’s irreplaceable and it’s a memory of mankind’ ‘It’s for education’ ‘It’s very important that what’s there should not be lost’

20. Contents • Inputs and Outputs • Anecdotes and case studies • Outcomes • Broad approach

21. The study forms part of a broader approach to repositioning the British Library • We have derived many benefits from this study: • First extensive evaluation of benefits of the British Library to the UK economy • Sound investment for money • Public accountability • Mandate for continued investment • We need to redouble our efforts in demonstrating value in next Spending Review by focusing on our support for major political issues • Value for money • Transformation and innovation • Knowledge economy • Digital Britain

22. The British Library uses the Kaizen Continuous Improvement Programme in nearly 80 projects to improve customer services and efficiencies practice. One project that benefited from this approach was document supply productivity: the programme has led to 14% productivity gains, salary savings of £121k per year, and the creation of an extra 850 linear metres of shelving space Value for money • £4.9m efficiencies achieved in 2008/09 – 28% above the Government efficiency savings target • Reduction in staff numbers by 363 fte, from 2,340 to 1977, between 2000 and 2009 • Overall sickness absence managed down from 9.3 days in 2002/03 to 6.3 days in 2008/09

23. The UK Research Reserve, located at the BL, provides a central store of low use journals for universities, freeing up shelf space and resources at HE institutions around the UK. UKRR allows more efficient use of resources across the sector, saving £37m over 5 years. Transformation and innovation • £33.5m revenue generated in 2008/09 to supplement our public funding • Estimated £1.7m worth of value from strategic partnerships, e.g: • £0.5m value in kind from our Business and IP Centre partnerships • Document supply to top 50 pharmaceutical companies

24. Knowledge economy The Library’s Business & IP Centre supports entrepreneurs from their first inspiration to growth of their business. With no background in the food industry, Adam Pritchard developed a juice drink from pomegranates. He researched the fruit in our science reading rooms, and the viability of the business idea in our BIPC. Adam’s fruit juice is now sold throughout the UK and his company has an annual turnover of £10m. • We host UK PubMed Central which provides free access to a permanent online archive of peer-reviewed research papers in the medical and life sciences • We contribute to International Development through our £10m Endangered Archives programme and the £3m World Collections Programme

25. Digital Britain The British Library 2012 Olympic legacy website will be going live in September 2009 and will remain live for at least 6 months after the Olympics has ended, when it will be archived for future researchers The Codex Sinaiticus is one of the earliest Christian Bibles. A collaboration led by the BL has succeeded in reuniting virtually 800 pages and fragments from this treasure. People around the world can now explore high resolution digital images of the 4th century book • We aim to create a critical mass of digital content by exploring a range of sustainable business models, involving commercial and public sector partners • We have worked with a number of partners so far to digitise: • 100,000 19th century books • 2 m pages of 19th century newspapers • 4,000 hours of archival sound recordings

26. Conclusion • Demonstrating value is about effective delivery of core purpose and vision • Effectiveness depends on adequate resourcing of the core tasks • Finite resources will increasingly impose choices and priority decisions • We need to be clear about our priorities in terms of what constitutes value • Or else…. • Value will be eroded and impact lost