ROI IN SPECIAL LIBRARIES2011 ORSLA Breakfast – Jessica Hastings

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Introduction Why ROI? About me Goals

Increase understanding of and comfort with ROI.

Promote awareness of how to use this tool to your advantage.

3 What is ROI?

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ROI and Value“Value, or return on investment (ROI), in many forms has long been a topic of interest among the library community. While value has been a recurring theme in recent trade literature and on conference agendas, much of what has been written and discussed has centered on the cost-justifications of collections or the relative time-savings of electronic literature in research processes.”

- Luther, J. (2008) Study looking at academic library ROI is underway. Library Connect 6(1).

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Library Contexts Demonstrating the value of libraries Evaluating existing services, collections,

staffing levels, etc. Making the case for additional resources

or services Recruiting support for a program or

initiative

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Demonstrating ROI Components of ROI analysis:

Measurable outcomes, outputs, or uses Realistic expectations Supported assumptions

Approaches* Contingent valuation Estimate contribution to revenue-generating

activities Survey users

* Lown, C. & Davis, H. (2009). Are You Worth It? What Return on Investment Can and Can’t Tell You About Your Library. In the Library with the Lead Pipe. http://bit.ly/fMNFat

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ROI State of Mind Increasingly regular and scrutinizing

review of services* Alignment with business goals and

strategies Clear sense of library’s mission and

objectives Focus on user needs and processes with

services and marketing Benchmarking followed by ongoing

measurement & regular reporting* Matthews, S. SLA 2009: ROI for Special Libraries. Vancouver Law Librarian Blog. http://bit.ly/mk2N5

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ROI Resources Departments in your organization Vendors Online resources

Lang, J.R. (2009) Much more on Library ROI. The Proverbial Lone Wolf Librarian’s Weblog. (http://bit.ly/dYaZkW)

SLA Measuring Our Value (http://bit.ly/dLnM29) Value of the Information Center Bibliography (http://bit.ly/hR1M0j; login

required) Additional Value Resources (http://bit.ly/h8kLeq)

ALA’s ROI Bibliography (http://bit.ly/6l5D4B) ARL’s Organizational Performance Assessment for Libraries (

http://bit.ly/eY8MV7) Hadro, J. (2010) For both corporate and academic libraries,

measuring value and ROI involves more than usage data and cost analysis. Library Journal. (http://bit.ly/glpgnI)

Jessica HastingsAnalyst, Insight & AnalyticsWaggener Edstrom Worldwidejhastings@waggeneredstrom.com

Thank you!