Statistics in Practice – Measuring and Managing

Citation

Ole Pors, N. (2003), "Statistics in Practice – Measuring and Managing", New Library World, Vol. 104 No. 10, pp. 442-444. https://doi.org/10.1108/03074800310504393

The book is in a traditional A4 format and contains 21 papers presented at a conference hosted by LISU and supported by the IFLA Statistics section. The papers are divided into three sections: 12 of the papers are presented papers, three papers are from the workshop session, and the remaining six papers are from the poster sessions of the conference. The papers in the last two groups are a bit shorter than the presented papers, which take up more than two‐thirds of the publication.

The overall emphasis is on the practical application of quantitative and qualitative evaluations in the library and information sector. It is a pleasure to receive a copy of the publication for review when one is, if not obsessed, then at least very interested in both statistical analysis and performance measurement.

There are many very good papers in the publication. It is not possible to comment on all of them. The volume starts with a small‐scale investigation of the teaching of statistics in ILS – schools in the USA, the UK, Australia, New Zealand and Canada by Patricia Layzell‐Ward. The investigation is based on the Web pages of 82 schools and the general conclusion is that research methods and especially statistical analysis is not a hot topic in the curricula of the coming professionals or academics in our field. Arguably, Web sites have their limitations as information sources to curriculum content, nevertheless, the paper confirms a prevailing suspicion. Generally, research methods and statistics are not taught at an advanced level at ILS‐institutions. This might cause problems because the management of libraries and library services depends at an increasing degree on the solid and creative use of data coming from users, IT‐systems and so on. This is the topic for Steve Hillers’ paper. His paper includes examples of the use of measurement and he discusses measures in an organisational context, emphasising staff attitudes and user‐centred organisations.

Many of papers report on measurements in specific libraries or different national projects. This is the case for the paper by Anja Smit reporting a Dutch benchmarking project and its results. The paper emphasises the merits of benchmarking in relation to the financing body. Liz Hart deals also with the topic of benchmarking in a UK context. Her paper reports on benchmarking projects in Great Britain and some of its outcomes. More specifically, she analyses the efforts of a benchmarking consortium and analyses both some of the processes involved and some of the results. The paper makes a very interesting read with good advice. I think the way the consortium has done some of the data collection through joint efforts could be very inspirational for other libraries. David Lightfoot’s paper touches upon a very important aspect of measuring for improvement in the library services and it is staff attitudes, staff interpretations and knowledge about the measurement process as a whole. In other words, measurement is also a question about ownership.

Joan Stein’s paper is a kind of case study from an academic library but it is also a methodological oriented paper using examples and cases to prove practical generic issues. It is a very practical and sound paper. She manages to present the measurement process in perspective. It is a good introduction to many of the aspects of performance measurement.

There are also a couple of methodological oriented papers. Sebastian Mundt from Germany approaches the subject of using samples. Eric Davies and Claire Creaser also have papers on interpreting statistics and putting this in a management context. Together, the papers offer sound advice about proper use, and warnings of misuse, of numerical data.

Two papers deal with measuring electronic services. Tony Kidd writes about Electronic Journal Usage Statistics and Julia Blixrud presents the ARL EMetrics project. Kidd’s paper reports on the achievements of Project COUNTER, a current British initiative to encourage standardisation. The paper describes the ongoing work of the project and succeeds at the same time to present the pertinent problems concerning measuring the use of electronic journals. Julia Blixrud’s paper contains information about the process and some of the outcomes of the US‐based Emetrics project. The process was setting up the different test situations and making the project truly cooperative through participation of over 20 libraries. The preliminary outcome of the project was 17 measures directed towards inputs, use, expenditures and digitisation activities. A fifth category appears to consist of different ratios between electronic and paper resources. Both projects clearly demonstrate the need for cooperative efforts.

Wanda Dole reports on experiences with percentage based allocations for the materials and media in different disciplines and formats in academic libraries. The allocation method is simple in principle, but I guess it is not that easy in real life. Allocation formulas have a long story in library and information science and, personally, I have always found it hard to recommend one as better than others. However, the presentation of the methods is interesting and Dole reports on two academic libraries that have used the method together.

The late John Sumison ends the section of presented papers with a personal overview of library statistics focusing on success stories rather than problems. The paper is a very good and interesting read demonstrating both the joys and the power of working with numbers and figures.

It is possible that the proceedings do not contain much new research information, new theories and concepts. However, the range of reports and papers from different countries and from different areas of the profession are illuminating and it puts the whole measurement business into a wider context than the single institution. A clear message comes across. Future performance measurement is collaborative in nature. The encouraging thing is that librarians have always been a networking and knowledge sharing profession.

Overall, I find that the book gives a rather good overview and it will serve well as an introduction to the performance measurement area for new professionals or professionals planning to be involved in the exciting work of collecting and using numbers to give a better service to the public.