UHMLG Summer Residential Measuring Impact, Demonstrating Value: a personal perspective

1. UHMLG Summer ResidentialMeasuring Impact, Demonstrating Value: a personal perspective J. Stephen Town Director of Information University of York

2. Welcome to York!

3. York: visible and valuable libraries • York Minster Library • King’s Manor Library • The Yorkshire Philosophical Society Library • The York Explore Library and the City Archives • The Railway Museum

4. Search Engine (National Railway Museum) • Railway related books and journals • Railway archives: technical drawings, company records, publicity materials, maps, plans and timetables • Catalogued through York University

5. York Minster Library • The oldest and largest Cathedral Library in the country • Operated under a unique partnership between the Dean & Chapter and the University of York

6. The University of York • Founded 1963; top UK under-50 University • RAE 8th; World top 100; Russell Group • 14,000 students • >30 departments in humanities, social sciences, science • Campus growth • Collegiate and inclusive

7. The Library & Archives • > 1m items • >100 staff • Traditional divisions • Archives extensive & unique • Developing digital library expertise • Part of a broader Information Directorate

8. University of York strategy (& values?) • Excellence • Internationalisation • Inclusivity • Sustainability

9. York Digital Library • Online library enabling access to digital collections • JISC funded through SAFIR and YODL-ING projects • Developed as an Open Source project, contributing to the Fedora Commons community

10. History of Art Collections

11. Cause Papers • Records of cases heard between 1300 and 1858 in the Church Courts of the diocese of York • Funding from Andrew W Mellon Foundation for creating catalogue • JISC funding to digitise records • Collaboration with HRI Online (Sheffield University)

12. Court, Country, City and OpenART • Sources and tools for the history of art in early modern Britain • Collaboration between UOY Digital Library, History of Art and Tate Britain • AHRC funding for Court, City, Country Project • JISC funding for OpenART • Paul Mellon funded editor

13. Measuring impact and demonstrating value The challenge?

14. Personal strategic challenges around value • Articulating the value proposition • Translating what we understand about changing need into strategies and plans • The transformation and sustenance of our services into a different social, technological and economic future • To demonstrate that our value proposition encompasses a contribution that transcends narrow and local assumptions about the library’s role

15. RIN Report on academic library challenges “ … there is a strong feeling among senior librarians that they have failed effectively to communicate the value of their services [and]…in rigorously demonstrating the value of their activities” “The focus of performance indicators up to now has tended to be on inputs and outputs … rather than addressing the much harder issues relating to impact and value. … we believe it is essential that more work is done to analyse the relationships between library activities … and learning and research outcomes … .”

16. Measuring impact and demonstrating value What is value?What is impact?

17. Definitions • “Striking against”; “collision”; effect; “influence” • “Outcome” of a process or behaviour • What is the opposite of impact? Negative impact or absence? • Relationship and difference to effectiveness, efficiency, satisfaction, integration

18. What is Value? “The quality or fact of being excellent, useful or desirable” Rescher, 1969 … so valuable things will have impact?

19. Computing value? • Extrinsic or intrinsic value? • Instrumental or symbolic? • Holistic or process-based? • Transcendent or hedonic? • Value within a value system

20. Financial value? • Cost efficiency • Cost effectiveness • Cost comparison (for benchmarking) • Financial management process standards & audit • Financial allocation (for transparency) • Valuation (including contingent valuation) • Value added • Return on investment • Best value programmes (eg UK Open University)

21. Academic Library Progress • “Storehouse” • “Service” • “Educational integration” Lancour, 1951

22. “Is good” Quality Effectiveness “Does good” Value Benefit Orr’s Library Goodness (1973)

23. The distinction between Quality and Value R. H. Orr. (1973). MEASURING THE GOODNESS OF LIBRARY SERVICES: A GENERAL FRAMEWORK FOR CONSIDERING QUANTITATIVE MEASURES. Journal of Documentation. 29 (3), p318.

24. The Aim & Role of Universities & their Libraries: cautions for measurement • Research, Teaching & Reductionism • ‘Mode 1’ Research & impact ‘transcendental’ • ‘Mode 2’ Research & impact ‘instrumental’ • Value, Price & ‘Mandarinisation’ of research and its support • Learning as a set of discreet assessed modules • All of this may damage the idea of Libraries as ‘transcendent’, symbolic, collective and connective elements of the academy

25. Cost and Value “focusing on cost without being able to demonstrate [service] value and quality … leaves the initiative to people whose chief concern is cost-control or profit: the funders and the vendors” Whitehall, T (1995)

26. Guardian editorial reporting Professor Michael Sandel’s Reith Lectures,4th July 2009 “the credit crunch has exposed myriad mirages, demonstrating how the market can get things badly wrong when it comes to valuing things … when bureaucracies price things which should not be priced, they start trading them off against other objectives, instead of appreciating their absolute obligations.”

27. Library directors under cross-pressure between new public management and values based management. Pors & Johanssen, 2003 “civil society has more to do with attitudes, feelings and symbols … leadership [sees] an increasing emphasis on values … value-based management is second only to change management … but most organisations consist of different value sets … there is a focus on the importance of leaders as value creators”

28. Recent work on impact & value • SCONUL/LIRG Impact initiative (2003-05) • SCONUL VAMP initiative (2005-) • IMLS LibVALUE project (2010-) • ACRL’s ‘Value of academic libraries’ (2010) • 3rd LAC paper (2010) see Library Quarterly • Neal’s “polemic” and return to “virtues” (2011)

29. Some conclusions about value measurement • Economic valuations tend to be one off, static, historic, defensive or project bounded • Values based evaluation more likely to encourage dynamism, development and culture • Answer needs to be balanced, contextual, coherent and holistic (a framework?)

30. The Arguments (see Library Quarterly) • Cross-pressures and failure to prove worth • Worth is about value (and impact) • The value sought is transcendent • Library assessment has been about (mainly) quality rather than value • Value is linked to values • Values provide the key and route to proof of worth

31. The Transcendent Library The transcendent library is one in which the value can be judged beyond immediate needs and demands, through contribution to less concrete aspects of institutional or societal intent

32. Transcendent contributions to … • The student experience • Research impact • Reputation • Internationalisation • Financial sustainability • Society & the World

33. Measuring impact and demonstrating value Building a value scorecard

34. Libraries and economic value: a review of recent studies. Missingham, 2005 A natural history of value initiatives: • Activity based costing for output efficiency • Perceived value based on labour saving • Balanced scorecard pressure for ’hard’ value measurement “demonstrate value by linking to the organisation’s value statements”

35. Intangible assets for academic libraries. Kostagiolas & Asonitis, 2009 • Intangible assets = assets without tangible hypostasis • Equivalent to knowledge assets? • Difficult to evaluate, but a library’s total valuation = the sum of value of real and intangible • Focuses on the added value intangibles create

36. Developing values exercise (2009) • Library as a “real tangible physical expression of knowledge” • “Intellectual heart, a collection of knowledge made without fear or favour” • Exaltation of solitary study - deeper understanding by “conquering the stuff alone” • Organisation of knowledge reflected in how things are laid out; browsing and walking through physical objects • Browsing; overview of knowledge by the way it is structured; ‘to steer thinking”; density tells you what’s important • “A real physical existing thing where I can see the celebration of scholarship” Professor John Robinson

37. Staff values debate using ideascale

38. Unmeasured assets? Petros A. Kostagiolas & Stefanos Asonitis. (2009). Intangible assets for academic libraries. Library Management. 30 (6/7), p425.

39. Corrall & Sriborisutsakul Indicators for: • Human • Structural • Relational • Collections and service assets linked to institutional objectives

40. The Value ScorecardDimension 1: Relational Capital • Competitive position capital • Reputation • Reach • Relational capital • External relationship development • Internal institutional relationship development • Supplier relational capital

41. The Value ScorecardDimension 2: Library Capital • Tangible capital • Collections • Environments • Services • Intangible capital • Intangible assets formed around the above (meta-assets) • Organizational capital • Human capital

42. The Value ScorecardDimension 3: Library Virtue • Social Capital developed beyond the Library • Contribution to research • Contribution to learning • Contribution to employability • Contribution to professional and vocational intent • Contribution to inclusivity • Contribution to other common goods

43. The Value ScorecardDimension 4: Library Momentum • Capital saved or gained by progress • Capital assets developed early • Facilitation of research capital • Facilitation of learning capital • Facilitation of quality • Capital saved by sustainability

44. Questions?

45. stephen.town@york.ac.uk