Toward Meaningful Academic Library Ratio Analysis

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Toward Meaningful Academic Library Ratio Analysis

• Brinley Franklin
• Stellenbosch, South Africa
• 15 August 2007

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• Ratio Analysis
• A tool used to conduct a quantitative analysis of
  information. Ratios are calculated from current
  year numbers and are then compared to previous
  years, other organizations, the industry, or even
  the economy to judge the performance of the
  organization. Ratio analysis is predominately
  used by proponents of fundamental analysis.

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New Ways of Measuring Collections

• The ARL Task Force on New Ways of Measuring
  Collections was established in December, 2004
  and charged with identifying relevant issues and
  proposing changes on how ARL should be measuring
  research library collections.
• More than 100 ARL directors were interviewed in
  early 2005. Some directors felt ratio analysis
  would help offset the traditional measures in
  which bigger was better.
• A recent article shows that the top fifteen
  liberal arts colleges libraries spend an average
  of 2,077 per FTE while the 216 liberal arts
  colleges reporting to NCES average 633 per FTE
  and the 3,700 academic libraries reporting to
  NCES average 386 per FTE. (The 112 ARL
  libraries range from 2800 to 188 per FTE)
• Do we currently have meaningful ways to use ratio
  analysis to effectively describe our expenditures
  for collections?
• D. Yvonne Jones, How Much Do the Best
  Colleges Spend on Libraries? Using College
  Rankings to Provide Library Financial
  Benchmarks College and Research Libraries (July
  , 2007)

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Generating Ratios Using ARL Statistics
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UConns current ARL ratios
Library Materials Expenditures 8.2 million
of Faculty 1,541 5,321

Library Materials Expenditures 8.2 million
of Undergraduates 21,664 378

Library Materials Expenditures 8.2 million
of Graduate Students 4,130 1,985
To actually spend this much per capita would
require 24.6 million
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Another Look at the Facts

• UConn Main Law Health
  Center
• Materials Expenses 8.2 m 5.34m 1.25
  m 1.61 m
• of Faculty 1,541 1,098
  45 398
• of Undergraduates 21,664 21,664
  ------ --------
• of Graduate Students 4,130 2,909
  736 485

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One of the ACRL Standards suggested points of
comparison for input measures is

• Ratio of material/information resource
  expenditures
• Combined total of student and
  faculty FTE
• All UConn Libraries 8.2 million 300
• 27,335
• UConn Main Library 5.34
  million 208
• 
  25,671
• UConn Health Center
  1.61 million 1,823
• 
  883
• UConn Law Library
  1.25 million 1,600
  781

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Towards Meaningful Ratio Analysis

• At the main library, library user surveys have
  determined that library materials (all formats
  combined) are actually used as follows
• of use of per capita
• Undergraduates 40 2.14m
  99
• Graduate Students 51 2.72m 936
• Faculty 5 267,000 243
• All Other Users 4 214,000
  200

This calculation truly reflects 5.34 million in
materials expenses at the main library.
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Incorporating User Survey Data

• At UConns main library, user surveys have
  demonstrated that library materials are actually
  used as follows, by format
• Print Electronic Other
• Books Journals Resources Materials
• Undergraduates 34 36 28
  39
• Graduate Students 52 53 35
  53
• Faculty 9 5 28
  4
• Other Users 5 6 8
  4

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Per Capita Expenses by Format Main Library

• Print
  Electronic Other Per Capita
• Books Journals Resources Materials
  Expenses
• Undergraduates 14 16 40
  7 77
• Graduate Students 154 174 566
  75 969
• Faculty 71 43 113
  15 242

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Towards Meaningful Ratio Analysis

• At the UConn Health Center library, user surveys
  have determined that library materials (all
  formats combined) are actually used as follows
• of use as a per
  capita
• Graduate Students 49 789,000 1,627
• Faculty 41 660,000 1,658
• All Other Users 10 161,000
  1,642

This calculation truly reflects 1.61 million in
materials expenditures at the Health Center
Library
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Incorporating User Survey Data

• At the UConn Health Center Library, user surveys
  have determined that library materials are
  actually used as follows, by format
• Print Electronic Other
• Books Journals Resources Materials
• Graduate Students 57 40 35
  49
• Faculty 36 46 54 41
• Other Users 7 14 11 10

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Per Capita Expenses by Format Medical Library

• 
  Print Electronic Other Per
  Capita
• Books Journals Resources Materials
  Expenses
• Graduate Students 170 720 410
  32 1,332
• Faculty 131 1,009 771
  32 1,943

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Toward Meaningful Academic Library Ratio Analysis

• 
  ARL by Total
  Materials
• Total Materials Expenses ARL
  Library ACRL Materials Use
  by
• Ratio Ratio Ratio
  Use Ratio Format Ratio
• All UConn Libraries
• Per Undergraduate 378
• Per Graduate Student 1,985
• Per Faculty Member 5,321
• Students and Faculty 300
• UConn Main Library
• Per Undergraduate 246
  99 77
• Per Graduate Student
  1,836 936
  969
• Per Faculty Member
  4,863 243
  242
• Students and Faculty 208
• UConn Medical Library
• Per Graduate Student
  3,320 1,627
  1,332
• Per Faculty Member
  4,045 1,658
  1,943
• Students and Faculty
  1,823

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Toward Meaningful Academic Library Ratio Analysis

• If Libraries were to use ratio analysis to
  measure collections expenditures per capita
• The combined cost of each materials expenditures
  ratio for a library (e.g., undergraduates,
  faculty, and graduate students) should total that
  librarys total expenditures for materials.
• Grouping different types of libraries together
  into an institutional ratio leads to very
  different ratios than looking at individual
  libraries separately.
• Identifying materials usage by user group by
  library gives more accurate ratios of materials
  expenses per capita than the other approached I
  identified.

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This presentation is available at
www.lib.uconn.edu/bfranklin