Abstract
Libraries today document their performance for the most part only in data of input and output (e.g. size of the collection, number of issues, of reference answers etc.). If they do more, they evaluate the quality and user-orientation of their services by applying performance indicators or user satisfaction surveys. Data of high use or high user satisfaction seem to indicate that users benefit from the library's services. But in demonstrating the library's value to the financing authorities or the public it would be much more effective if libraries could show a direct impact/outcome of their services on their users. Such outcome might be either a monetary value attributed to one case of use, or the impact on the users' skills and knowledge, their information literacy. Quite a number of projects in different countries have tested methods to catch this 'outcome'. They have tried to assess the value assigned by the population to certain library services, to find a connection between success in studies or research and library use, to assess the library's impact on students' information literacy, to explore the information behaviour of groups in order to specify the library's role in information research and information delivery. The paper describes the different starting points for assessing outcome of library services.
Highlights
In times of dwindling resources and a general demand for accountability, libraries have to show the results of the funding spent on their services
"Outcomes ... are the ways in which library users are changed as a result of their contact with the library's resources and programs." (ACRL, 1998)
Such effects on users could be immediate or long-term; the effects could be intended by the library, but they might be quite unexpected effects; outcomes could be actual or potential, and - libraries would wish to assess positive outcomes there might be negative effects of library use
Summary
In times of dwindling resources and a general demand for accountability, libraries have to show the results of the funding spent on their services. Such results can on the one hand be documented by output data like number of issues or reference answers, on the other hand by qualitative indicators that assess the speed, correctness, or costeffectiveness of service delivery and the users' satisfaction with the services. Neither the quality of library services nor the quantity of their use gives evidence as to the impact on users. To find answers to such questions, libraries should be able to demonstrate their output, and their outcome. To find answers to such questions, libraries should be able to demonstrate their output, and their outcome. [1]
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