An Academic Library Value Study

by stephen

I've written before about the paucity of good ROI studies on the value of academic libraries. Therefore I was happy to see this new study published in LIBER Quarterly:

The Library as Strategic Investment: Results of the Illinois Return on Investment Study
Paula T. Kaufman, University Librarian and Dean of Libraries, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

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. This paper reports on a study undertaken at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign that sought to measure the return on the university's investment in its library. 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, which is believed to be the first of its kind, represent only one piece of the answer to the challenge of representing the university's total return from its investment in its library."

Sample ROI calculations included:

"More than 78% of tenure-system faculty who have grants used citations to the scholarly literature in their proposals.

Over 50% of grants awarded to the campus came from proposals that included citations to materials accessed through the library.

The average grant income at Illinois is approximately $64,000.

Multiply these 3 numbers to calculate the average grant income generated through the use of the library of just over $25,000.

Multiply this average amount of grant income by the number of grants expended in 2006 at Illinois and divide that by the total library budget to arrive at a return on investment of $4.38 for every dollar invested in the library."