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Evaluation in French Academic Libraries Library evaluation and University evaluation

Evaluation in French Academic Libraries Library evaluation and University evaluation. Pierre CARBONE. Governance : from centralization to autonomy. University libraries (UL) centralized & department libraries autonomous Means allocated to the UL by the French Education Ministry

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Evaluation in French Academic Libraries Library evaluation and University evaluation

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  1. Evaluation in French Academic LibrariesLibrary evaluation and University evaluation Pierre CARBONE

  2. Governance : from centralization to autonomy • University libraries (UL) centralized & department libraries autonomous • Means allocated to the UL by the French Education Ministry • 1984, service commun de documentation : unique library system implementing the university policy • 1989, Contract policy with universities (4-year contracts) • 2007, law : Liberty & Responsibility of the Universities financial autonomy (including staff costs), global budget for teaching, research and other activities EUROLIS London May 15, 2008

  3. Statistics of French university libraries • Annual surveys since 1974 : consistent data series on activities, resources & means for national budget programming ; but no data on department libraries • 1988, Annuaire des bibliothèques universitaires (The French University Libraries Directory), published by Documentation Française (2006 under press) • Rankings by category of university (discipline, size) • Integration of data on electronic resources & services • Internet http://www.sup.adc.education.fr/asibu/ , access to results since 1999 and options for generating personalized figures and comparisons EUROLIS London May 15, 2008

  4. From statistics to evaluation • 1984 : a new independent authority : Comité national d’évaluation des universités, new procedures of peer-assessment, public reports • 1984-1988, national project of indicators for the UL (tableau de bord)… not successfull at that time, but progress of ideas with public debate & training • 1989, New public policies evaluation programmes in all the administrations for renewing public services • Taking into account the peculiarities of each university and evolution to project management and monitoring (vs processes ) EUROLIS London May 15, 2008

  5. Contract policy & indicators • 1984, contract policy for research activities • 1989, contract policy for all university activities • Adequation of national / local policies • Four-year projects linking library objectives to teaching & learning and research goals and projects • Allocation of means after negotiating the contract (for the ULs, 50% of government funds) • Indicators for measuring the achievement of objectives EUROLIS London May 15, 2008

  6. Evaluating the 4- year contracts : the main national and local indicators • According to national policies : • Largest weekly opening hours of the library • Data on libraries not managed by the UL • % of UL acquisition expenditures in relation to total acquisition expenditures of the university • % electronic resources with remote access • Specific projects financed during the contract : local indicators (e.g % of undergraduates in business sciences attending IT training sessions) EUROLIS London May 15, 2008

  7. Budget law & indicators • 2006, new structure for the national budget : assignments (40), programmes (150) and actions (500) vs hundreds of chapters and articles for each ministry • In the Higher Education & Research programme : • one action Libraries & documentation • one objective : Optimizing the access to library resources for teaching, learning & research • Political use of indicators (Parliament, Government) • National indicators from the user viewpoint : • Weekly availability of seats per student • Visits per registered user (only physical visits for the moment) • Access to electronic resources : items downloadedand % of delivery EUROLIS London May 15, 2008

  8. Users evaluating the library • More autonomous system, more user-oriented • Influence of the users’ perceptions on the outcomes • Users surveys in many universities, mainly at the beginning and at the end of a 4-year contract • LIBQUAL+ (http://www.libqual.org/ ): national project with LIBER and ARL, 10 ULs in 2008-2009 • 3 levels of service minimal/ optimal / perceived ; • 4 aspects : resources, services, facilities, staff • 1-9 scale EUROLIS London May 15, 2008

  9. Benchmarking • Context of each UL partly different, partly similar • Not only at national scale, but also at international scale • Not comparing data but ratios & indicators • More competition, need for best practice • Need for comparison with the environment (neighbours, similar libraries, etc.) and to learn from others • Standards : ISO 11620 Performance indicators for libraries 2nd ed, IFLA Measuring quality 2nd ed • 2008, French annual survey revised to allow international standardized comparisons EUROLIS London May 15, 2008

  10. Impact • The library as a piece of a system • Relations between library activities and student achievements (diploma)? • Relations between library activities and research achievements (patents, publications…) ? • Need for evaluating the library in a university quality assessment process, not only on specific criteria EUROLIS London May 15, 2008

  11. University quality assessment • ENQA (European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education http://www.enqa.eu/ ) : • 2005, agreement on standard references, • 2007, register of national assessment independent agencies • 2006, AERES (Agence d’évaluation de la recherche et de l’enseignement supérieur), public report on all the universities before the 4-year contract renewal • Assessing the abilityof universities to develop quality insurance, but at this time no indicator on ULs EUROLIS London May 15, 2008

  12. Combined approaches • Not only statistical data, but also indicators • Not one indicator but 3 or 4 to have a global view • Not only indicators, but also user surveys and benchmarking • Also quality assessment methods • Also external reports and studies, public debate • Not recipes but various ways of learning more and more to do the right thing EUROLIS London May 15, 2008

  13. References • Asibu : http://www.sup.adc.education.fr/asibu/ (annual survey of the French university libraries) • Libqual+ : http://www.libqual.org/ • ISO 2789 : 2006, Information and documentation, International library statistics, 4th ed. • ISO 11620:2007, Information and documentation, Performance indicators for libraries, 2nd ed. • ENQA : http://www.enqa.eu/ • AERES : http://www.aeres-evaluation.fr/ EUROLIS London May 15, 2008

  14. Thank you for your attention ! pierre.carbone@education.gouv.fr EUROLIS London May 15, 2008

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