Using an automated tool to calculate return on investment and cost benefit figures for resources: the Health Sciences and Human Services Library experience

Abstract

In difficult economic times, libraries experience greater pressure to justify budget expenditures to their fiscal managers. Over the last decade, library administrators have become increasingly interested in incorporating return on investment (ROI) and cost benefit analysis (CBA) techniques into their reporting structures to provide quantitative evidence of the worth of services and resources. The Health Sciences and Human Services Library (HS/HSL) of the University of Maryland appointed a small task force in 2009 to experiment with an automated instrument for calculating ROI and cost benefit ratios (CBRs) for its collection of books and journals. The tool was developed by the National Network of Libraries of Medicine (NN/LM), MidContinental Region [1], and promoted by them in a series of presentations [2, 3]. This article describes the process used to compile the statistics for the calculator, first using data from the 2008 fiscal year and then with data from the 2011 fiscal year. The HS/HSL supports the graduate school and the schools of dentistry, medicine, nursing, pharmacy, and social work, which have a combined faculty and student full-time equivalent (FTE) of 6,797. Additionally, some of the library's resources are available to the University of Maryland Medical Center community, a 705-bed teaching hospital with approximately 6,500 employees as well as 1,000 attending physicians. The collection includes approximately 8,500 print and online journal subscriptions, 174,000 print and online books, and 96 databases. The HS/HSL is also home to the NN/LM Southeastern/Atlantic Regional Medical Library. ROI is expressed as a percentage and represents the “rate of return” (loss or gain; in other words, benefit) versus the initial “investment” (total cost). The mathematical formula for calculating ROI is: CBA results in a CBR that compares a dollar spent versus dollars reaped in benefit, which is determined by dividing total benefit by total cost [4].