Development of Quantitative Assessment of Medical Libraries

Abstract

Assessments of library services can be used for a variety of purposes, including improvement of services, management justification, and budget preparation. The Institute for the Advancement of Medical Communication has developed methods for testing an academic research medical library's ability to provide specific services. These include the ability to deliver books and journals to primary clientele, to supply answers of simple fact, to deliver documents through interlibrary lending, and to verify and correct citations. Other methods were tested for evaluation and comparison of library service policies and utilization of services by a library's primary clientele. A random alarm device was developed. The use of this device has been tested and has demonstrated that many library statistics can be collected randomly and provide the same information that can be acquired by maintaining total counts of such services as circulation and library use.