We know that libraries are essential to modern civilization and provide superb value and return on investment. But it's not enough for us to know that. Politicians, university administrators, the public--everyone with a hand in funding libraries needs to know that they provide good value.

This article offers a variety of notes on demonstrating library value.

How to Keep the Lights On

By Leigh Anne Vrabel. Excerpted and adapted from a November 4, 2009 post at Library Alchemy. Used by permission.

Kudos are in order for everybody involved in the Keep the Light On Levy, one of 30 successful library levies in Ohio this election season. Mahoning County residents obviously have their priorities straight when it comes to library funding, but the phenomenal effort exerted by the library’s supporters was, I’m sure, a key role in the levy’s passing.

What made this campaign so delightfully awesome? Let us count the ways:

1. The perfect slogan. Keep the light on. Could it be any clearer? Mood, imperative. Focuses on the positive. Uses one of humankind’s most primal metaphors, light, implying warmth, growth, safety, knowledge. Sheer genius.
2. Gorgeous web design. Love the simple primary colors. Love the inclusive photo on the front page that reflects the diverse makeup of the Mahoning Valley. Love the simple box arrangement that makes the page easy to navigate. Ditto on the tabs at the top.
3. Patrons are front and center. Two of the first things you see there are “The People’s Blog” and “Real Quotes From Real Library Users.” The scrolling list of library supporters is a nice touch, too, letting people see how much they’re appreciated. The only thing that could make this even better is moving the library usage calculator up higher, so people could see and use it more easily.
4. Transparency. As you navigate the site, you will see funding issues explained in a clear, concise fashion. The FAQ, in particular, explains where library funding comes from at the state and local levels, what cost-saving measures the library has already tried, and how much money fundraisers and other revenue-generators actually raise. Most importantly, the FAQ details what cost-saving measures the library has already taken, and what consequences would occur if the levy doesn’t pass. Here, in my opinion, is the money quote:

Levy FAQ 6. What effect has the loss of 31% of State funding had on Your Library? Thirty members of Your Library staff had to be laid off. Funding for books and other materials dropped dramatically. The entire staff, including the Director, took wage cuts. The library was forced to reduce hours at all locations.

Emphasis mine. Everybody. Took. Wage. Cuts. Wow. That is definitely one way to tell people that you are dead serious. Would you take a wage cut for your library? But I digress:

5. Good use of social media/web technologies. Content on YouTube. Strong Facebook and Twitter presences. Including PayPal as a donation option. An e-newsletter. Clearly this group “gets it” when it comes to reaching out to tech-savvy patrons and including them in their advocacy efforts.

[Aside: Yes, I'm biased. You can take the girl out of Youngstown, but you can't take the Youngstown out of the girl. And honestly, why would you want to?]

Excerpt from the Comments

Frontline librarian: Our library has suffered budget cuts in the 30% range as well. We’ve had layoffs and some staff hours have been reduced. But once the initial shock and drama was over, our Friends group stepped up and was able to take over all of our programming budget. Our fundraisers this year have included passive ones (such as having the Schwann Truck in the parking lot), restaurant days, collaboration with local businesses on fun events, . . . we are trying not to barrage our patrons with constant pleas for money. To this end, local business have sponsored everything from Summer Reading to our teen film festival. Once the news got out about our budget cuts, volunteers started coming through the doors that has helped tremendously, as well.

We’re not out of the woods yet, and we’re not even sure there is a light at the end of our tunnel . . . but Ohio’s “keep the lights on levy” is an inspiration. It is so well done, in fact, that I suspect that there will be other successes to follow. The doors will stay open, and people who never came through them before will want to see what this groundswell of support is all about.

Are You Worth It?

Excerpts from "Are you worth it? What return on investment can and can't tell you about your library" by Cory Lown and Hilary Davis, published April 1, 2009 in In the Library with the Lead Pipe.

It’s almost a sure bet that your friends, family and colleagues are looking at ways to save money and, in general, are tightening the purse strings a little more these days. This post reviewed the state of libraries during recessions and pointed out the growing news pieces that remark at the huge surge in library usage. People are realizing real savings by relying more and more on libraries. Ask yourself how much do you spend at bookstores and music shops such as Amazon and Barnes and Noble each year? Magazine subscriptions? Internet service? Entertainment like movies and concerts? If you had to go without one or more of those services, think about how much you could save by relying on your local library to provide access to those services and content streams. At the same time, libraries of all types are faced with the inevitability of budget cuts due to the recession and must justify the use of existing funds for programming, staff, services and collections. Take a second and google ‘return on investment and libraries’ to get a sense of the importance of demonstrating library value.

In order to have the financial ability to continue providing those services and content streams, libraries need to prove to their funding sources, whether tax-payers, private donors, universities, governments, schools, or corporate parents, that those services, programs and collections are meeting users’ needs. Moreover, libraries must prove without a doubt that the funds provided to libraries to develop those services, programs and collections provide a good return on investment...

What is ROI and how is it used by libraries?

Return on investment (ROI) is how much you get back for what you put into something. Strictly speaking, ROI is based on dollars and cents. So, you need to be able to quantify how much money was invested in something and then you need to compare how much money is gained or lost as a result of how the investment was handled. There are two kinds of questions that ROI is good at answering. One is: how much money will be gained by investing in a particular financial asset? The other is: will putting resources into a project or service yield a measurable benefit?...

In libraries, ROI is measured in many different ways. ROI can be used to measure the costs (investment) and the outcomes (the return on investment) from the perspective of library users, the parent organization, or from the perspective of the library itself. Costs are typically dollars spent on a service or resource and/or time spent to provide or access a service or to acquire or use a resource. The returns on an investment can be either outputs (the result of a service or resource such as expanded journal collection), uses (how the service or resources are used), or outcomes (indirect results of the output or the use such as time saved)...

ROI in libraries

ROI can be an integral part of the process for evaluating a library’s services, collections, staffing levels, planning for new services and resources, or measuring how valuable your library is to your community and stakeholders.

For example, for libraries supported with public tax dollars, one way to use ROI is to measure tax dollars (the investment) against the benefits (savings by not having to pay elsewhere for the use of library materials and services). Library ROI studies consistently suggest that public libraries give a high return on investment, providing anywhere from $2 to $10 in return for every tax dollar received....

Calculating a return on investment may seem straightforward until one considers the kinds of costs and returns associated with libraries. Measuring returns first requires that the organization have a clear sense of its mission and objectives. It is not possible to measure benefits unless one can identify the value an organization aims to provide. There are several classes of returns, direct and indirect, and individual and collective. In general, direct, individual benefits are easier to measure and quantify than indirect and collective benefits. This poses a challenge for libraries, as many of the benefits libraries provides are indirect and collective, such as the value of having a better-educated citizenry...

Using ROI, libraries can try to place a value on the services they provide and the collections that they make accessible. For instance, many ROI studies compare the cost associated with borrowing an item from the library versus individuals having to purchase that item on their own. Consider the costs associated with the library providing a DVD that is worth $20 that circulates 50 times in a year. If each library user had to purchase that item, the collective cost would have been $1,000. Of course, there are additional costs borne by the library for providing the DVD than just the $20 investment, including staffing, storage, and preservation.

Libraries can also be valued in terms of savings of entertainment costs to a community—public film viewings, author readings, and workshops are freely offered services provided by libraries. Many libraries also offer classes, which can be viewed as a cost savings to the community as well. Classes on Microsoft Office programs, general computing, financial planning, and job hunting strategies are often offered for free at libraries. Libraries are also valuable to communities as employers of citizens and as contributors to the local economy...

The complete post discusses several examples of actual ROI studies in libraries, not included here.

A potential hazard of ROI studies is that they produce what appears at face value to be a simple metric that can be compared across libraries... For ROI library metrics, the point isn’t that putting more and more money into libraries will yield ever increasing returns. The point is to show that libraries are providing value for the money that is invested in them. Those investments should be commensurate with the needs of the communities they serve.

A Few Caveats

There are some reasons why ROI might not be the best tool for demonstrating library value. In some cases, a strict ROI metric may demonstrate that a library is not providing a good return on investment... One of the disadvantages of ROI..is that these metrics cannot be used for peer-comparison. The metrics are created using value systems and context-sensitive data that pertain to individual libraries...

There are more subtle reasons to not rely on ROI metrics alone, and to be careful about interpreting ROI... Not-for-profit organizations, whose missions are based on soft values or moral ideas rather than monetary profit, must be supported by private donations, government, or by the organizations that they support. The values of the library—ubiquitous access, preservation, and organization of information—are prone to differing interpretations of importance. Put bluntly, the library must show that the Internet has not rendered it obsolete. Libraries will be stronger if they can demonstrate their value in terms which those that provide its funding understand. In the culture and time in which we live, “value” is understood most readily in monetary, economic terms...

It is...essential to remember that there is a reason why libraries do not operate for a profit...and that they came into being for reasons other than generating monetary wealth. There are also good reasons to be skeptical of measurements of library quality, performance, and relevance presented in purely economic terms... Libraries must strike a balance between focusing on their mission and on their desire to prove worth in terms of high performance and ROI. For many libraries, ROI simply doesn’t measure the indirect benefits they provide.

It is vital that libraries demonstrate both the monetary value and...the social value of their services... Relying on ROI alone to communicate and demonstrate the value of libraries may very well undermine the core purposes libraries serve and the indirect benefits they bring... It’s up to us to convince our users and our sources of funding that we’re worth it. ROI studies aside, one of the best things we can do to show our worth is to provide great services that help our users work more effectively.

Editor's note: This is roughly one-third of an article worth reading in the original. The article includes links to a number of ROI studies and other background information.

The Library as Strategic Investment

By Leslie Dillon from Leader's Digest December 2008

Lorcan Dempsey alerts us to an article by Paula Kauffman, Dean of Libraries at UIUC, about the results of their return on investment study. Excerpted from the abstract:

University administrators are asking library directors to demonstrate their library’s value to the institution in easily articulated quantitative terms that focus on outputs rather than on traditionally reported input measures. The study sought to develop a quantitative measure that recognizes the library’s value in supporting the university’s strategic goals, using grant income generated by faculty using library materials. It also sought to confirm the benefits of using electronic resources and the resulting impact on productivity over a 10-year period. The results of this study, believed to be the first of its kind, represent only one piece of the answer.

It’s interesting to note that the UIUC team adapted a corporate library model to use in their study.

Dean Kaufman also suggests next steps, which include: using this calculator at multiple institutions over a period of time so that trends can be identified; looking at additional sources of income; developing methodologies to determine ROI on a library’s contributions to more effective teaching andlearning; and developing a predictive model.

(Paula T. Kaufman, "The library as strategic investment: results of the Illinois return on investment study," Liber Quarterly, Vol. 18 (2008), No. 3/4, from Lorcan Dempsey’s blog, Dec. 11, 2008.)

Libraries are Smart Investments

By Jamie LaRue, originally published January 4, 2007 in LaRue's Views

There are two kinds of people--those who think there are two kinds of people, and those who don't.

To put it another way, there is a peculiar psychological need for some people to see the world in black and white. Politically, in our divided nation, there are liberals and conservatives.

In that context, I've been thinking some more about "a national agenda for public libraries."

I believe there are two fundamental arguments for the public library: it is a public good, and it is a sound return on the investment.

"The public good" argument is immediately understood by liberals. Public libraries are social assets, available to, and benefiting, all.

Public libraries are "bootstrap" institutions--places where ambitious people of any age or background can seek the education they need, rather than waiting for somebody else to deliver it to them. Or as my granddad used to say, "Education isn't something that's done to you; it's something you do for yourself." Providing, of course, the resources are accessible to you.

Surveys show that the poorest among us often have the greatest appreciation for education, and see public libraries as part of that continuum of services. They believe education is a means through which their children can achieve a better life than their parents, and is therefore worthy of shared financial support.

Another argument for the public good is a demonstration of the efficacy of the public sector. I remember, when I first understood as a child that I could use the public library for free, feeling a surge of wonder and respect for the grown-up world. It was a tangible sign of social benevolence.

For over a hundred years, America's libraries have maintained a tradition of openness to all, of frugality and good stewardship of local resources, of simple respect for the individual's right both of inquiry and privacy.

People trust libraries and librarians, and that's a rare achievement.

Finally, libraries are builders of community. Just lately, we see how often people come together and work out common aims in our buildings.

The second argument for libraries veers from social good to private gain. It is quickly grasped by conservatives. In brief: libraries give at least two dollars back for every tax dollar invested. (We're participating in a statewide study on the exact amount, which I'll report on later in 2007.)

You might be surprised to learn that much of the economic activity in our county [Douglas County, CO] begins at the library. For instance, developers often begin by researching past uses of land, and find our aerial maps from the 1930s invaluable.

Small business owners start by putting together a business plan to attract investors or borrow money. As part of that business plan, entrepreneurs investigate the competition or potential target market--and discover that their library card unlocks literally tens of thousands of dollars of relevant data resources.

I've seen many business people use the library as both virtual office, and as business conference center. One of our small meeting rooms is an ideal location for a quick consultation or sales discussion: we have white boards, projection screens, plugs and connections for computers. Chambers of Commerce hold larger group meetings at libraries too, for leads groups, organizational business, and continuing education for people with little time, but a great need to stay current.

Too, libraries improve property values in a neighborhood, and as I mentioned last week, make great anchor stores.

On an individual basis, some people are driven to the library through a big change in life circumstance: pregnancy, career change, health problems, big consumer purchases. One visit to the library, for many people, saves far more money than they have ever paid in taxes. In the case of medical information, libraries have even saved people's lives.

The library is more than passive "resources," by the way--the buildings, books, magazines, and databases. What makes a library is the staff, people trained to move swiftly and surely to the most salient information.

It's not hard to find data. What's hard is finding data that matters.

Public good or private gain -- which argument is "right?" Like most dualities, it's a false choice. Whichever you may privately hold is "better," it doesn't take much thinking to realize that both are necessary.

The public library: it's smart for the public, smart for the individual, and a good investment either way.

Related Articles

• Librarians as salespeople? - Should librarians be selling the library?
• Advocacy and marketing - char booth and Leigh Ann Vrabel on advocacy for the library.
• From awareness to funding - Commentaries on OCLC's report on library support.