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Value of Academic Libraries: Return on Investment

Used with permission from Alison Morgan, Assistant Director of Public Services, Xavier University

Tools for ROI

ROI Articles and Presentations

Older ROI Articles and Studies

Abram, Stephen. (2005, December 14).  The value of libraries: Impact, normative data, and influencing funders. Sirsi/Dynix One Source

Fraser, Bruce T., McClure, Charles R., and Leahy, Emily H. Toward a Framework for Assessing Library and Institutional Outcomes.  Portal: Libraries and the Academy, Vol 2, No. 4 (2002) p. 505-528.

Holt, Glen E. (1997). A San Francisco story: Economics and Politics in the Age of Electronic Media, Bottomline, 10 (2 ), 84-87.

Holt, Glen E. (1996). Something More Than Sound Bites: Communicating Value to Library Constituencies. Bottomline, 9 (3), 36-39.

Holt, Glen E., et al.  Libraries are Valuable--Prove It!: Prepared for the Public Library Association Pre-Conference, July 7, 2000.  St. Louis, MO. :St. Louis Public Library, 2000.

Holt, Glen E. & Elliott, Donald. (1998, September). Development of a Portable Cost Benefit Methodology for Urban Libraries.

Kingma, Bruce R. (2001). The Economics of Information: A Guide to Economic and Cost-Benefit Analysis for Information Professionals (Second Edition). Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited.

Matthews, Joseph R.  Measuring for Results: The Dimensions of Public Library Effectiveness.  Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2004.

Matthews, Joseph R. The Bottom Line: Determining and Communicating the Value of the Special Library.  Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2002.

McCook, Kathleen de la Pena.   Serving the Demands of Democracy: The Critical Role of Libraries in Ensuring the Full Civic Participation of a Diverse Population  Threshold, Winter 2004, pp. 22-30.

McNicol, Sarah. The eVALUEd Toolkit: A Framework for the Qualitative Evaluation of Electronic Information Services. VINE 34, no. 4 (2004): p. 172-175.

Norton, Tom Albert. Demonstrating the Value of Library and Information Services. Science and Technology Libraries 36 (1991), 90-93.

Olson, Chris.   What's in it for them? Communicating the Value of Information Services (pdf). Information Outlook, November 2002, pp. 19-23.

Oppenheim, Charles. (1986, July). The Value of Library and Information Services: And How to Beat the Economists at Their Own Game. State Librarian 34 , 24-26.

Rudd, Peggy D.   Documenting the Difference: Demonstrating the Value of Libraries Through Outcome Measurement,   Perspectives on Outcome Based Evaluation for Libraries and Museums, Washington D.C.: Institute of Museum and Library Services, 2002, p. 16-23.

Simoneaux, L. and Miller, W. (1998).  Provosts, Libraries, and Electronic Information: Reports from AAHE and CNI. College & Research Libraries News. 59(6).

Saracevic, Tefko; Kantor, Paul B.  Studying the value of library and information services. Part II. Methodology and taxonomy (pdf). Journal of American Society for Information Science, 48 (1997), p. 543-563.

Strouse, Roger.  Demonstrating Value and Return on Investment: The Ongoing Imperative. Information Outlook 7 (3) (2003), p. 14-20.

Task Force on Academic Library Outcomes Assessment Report. Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL). (1998).

The Future of Libraries: Six Perspectives on How Libraries, Libraries, Librarians, and Library Patrons will Adapt to Changing Times.  Threshold, Winter 2004.

American's for Libraries Council. Long Overdue: A Fresh Look at Citizen and Leadership Attitudes About Libraries in the 21st Century

Worth Their Weight: An Assessment of the Evolving Field of Library Valuation. American's for Libraries Council, May 2007

Broady-Preston, Judith and Williams, Tegwen.  Using Information to create business value: City of London legal firms, a case study. Proceedings of the 5th Northumbria International Conference on Performance Measurement in Libraries and Information Services, 2003.

Payne, Philip, Crawford, John and Fiander, Wendy. Counting on Making a Difference: Assessing Our Impact. VINE 34, no. 4 (2004): p. 176-183 Journal Code: VERI [academic libraries, UK]

Measuring Our Value. The British Library. http://www.bl.uk/pdf/measuring.pdf (pdf) and http://www.bl.uk/about/annual/pdf/ar0304meas.pdf (pdf)