Re: Quantity to Quality -Special library statistics issue

[Marloth _at__ t-online.de (H. Marloth)]

JANKE schrieb:

> +++++  EVERYBODY IS INVITED FOR COMMENTS  +++++
> Revising the German Special Library Statistics
> A Quantity-to-Quality Initiative 
> Discussion Paper for the 
> European workshop for suppliers and users of library statistics
> organised by the European Commission DG XIII-E4
> 9 and 10 December 1997, Luxembourg
>
> The picture in many European countries looks the same: the response rate to
>  statistical
> surveys of special libraries is much worse than the response of other library
>  types - but
> why? Maybe the reasons are among the following characteristics:
>       small (often one-person) units have small time budget for
>  administrative work 
>       private sector units don't like 'officially' looking forms
>       subject community involvement is obstructive to standardised statistics
>       special libraries run special services not to be found in statistical
>  formats
>       non-educated staff don't know anyhing about national library statistics
>       frequently changing staff never succeeds to accumulate statistical
>  expertise 
>       feedback is weak due to inattractive presentation, publication time lag
>  etc.
>       scattered and 'hidden' libraries are unaddressable
>       effort-benefit ratio for collecting and supplying data is not clear
>       quantity-dominated data doesn't reflect quality of services and
>  perfomance
> In Germany the response of special libraries to their national library
>  statistic, DBS, never
> exceeded 35 % (compared to about 98 % of public and academic universal
>  libraries).
> Moreover, collected data persisted to be incomplete and inconsistent.
>
> In view of this (in a way 'alarming') situation ASpB, the German Special
>  Library Associa-
> tion, initiates to revise the respective part of the German Library
>  Statistics. An expert
> group for this task has been implemented by DBI, the Geman Library Institute,
>  consisting
> of four special libraries' practioners representing diverse background in
>  terms of subject
> and nature of their host institution. Both private and public sector
>  libraries are involved.
> .....
> Moreover, we
> would like to encourage experts active in the same field to contact us for
> exchange of
> experience and/or information. Our address is: 
> DBI Expert Group for the Revision of the German Special Library Statistics
> c/o Eberhard Janke, Chairman
> German Information Centre for Technical Rules / Euro Information Centre
> at DIN Deutsches Institut für Normung e.V., 10772 Berlin, Germany
> Tel. ++4930 2601 2494, Fax ++4930 2601 1231
> E-Mail janke _at__ ditr.din.de
> http://www.dbi-berlin.de/bib_wes/zdf/zdf_00.htm

Lieber Eberhard Janke, als meinen beitrag zur diskussion dieser hochaktuellen 
fragen leite ich die folgende mail an sie weiter:

+++++  Weitergeleitete Nachricht  +++++
"As part of the research undertaken during the development of the 
MINSTREL prototype DSS, a questionnaire was sent out to librarians in 
a variety of different types of library in the Netherlands, *Germany* 
and the UK in order to determine their management information needs.  
Some of these contacts also atttended seminars hosted by the project 
partners. 
Below you will find details of some of the needs and 
issues highlighted by these two methods.  Please feel free to send 
any comments to the CAMILE list - we would be interested to hear from 
you.
Joanna Dare
CAMILE Project Administrator

User needs highlighted in response to MINSTREL questionnaire:
-The importance of ease of use in collecting and manipulating data
-The system should be quick to perform queries and response times 
should be maintained
-It should sit on standard hardware
-An excellent manual with lots of examples would be useful
-The need for flexible output formats which are easy to tailor for 
different purposes
-(In UK) The development of software for production of SCONUL *
statistics alone would be useful 
-Independence form the library automation system is essential
-The need to interface with a variety of systems currently on the 
market
-The need to interface with total library management system 
facilities eg administration, housekeeping as well as the DSS
-The importance of multi-site access over a WAN, shared with other 
systems developments
*SCONUL - Standing CONference on University Libraries: national 
organisation which collects statistics on University Libraries in the 
UK
Issues raised in the MINSTREL seminars:
-There is a lack of management strategy or rationale in libraries' collection of 
data.  A habit of "collecting for collecting's sake" has become 
established
-The use of data is very much determined by the organisations which 
require it eg the national statistical collections, funders etc
-There is a split in emphasis between different types of library.  
Public libraries tend to be interested in market penetration and 
cost-effectiveness, whilst academic libraries focus on stock usage.
-The fragmentation of the systems which hold relevant data.  
Automated library systems were criticised for the inadequacy of 
their MIS facilities.  In most cases they require an expert user to 
set up queries and anre not capable of meeting the needs of today eg 
carrying out analyses over varying time periods or archiving data to 
enable historical analyses.  Management information should also cover 
data which can only be collected manually eg survey data and 
monitoring in-house use, because this is equally important and 
indicative of library performance.
-The problem of linking library data fromother parts of the 
organisation and from external sources.  Geographical Information 
Systems and student records databases are already widely used by 
libraries even though accessing the data can sometimes prove 
problematic.  In the case of financial information, some libraries 
duplicate the data held by their central authority because the 
centrally held data is often not current.  This leads to a problem of 
the integrity and duplication of data.
-The lack of knowledge of how to evaluate user satisfaction and 
electronic services.  This was despite an acknowledgement of the 
increasing importance of electronic services.  Measuring the value or 
impact of the information provided by the library to the user was 
another area requiring further work.
[ Ende des Zitats ]

mfg   H.M.
--
Heinz Marloth, Seehofstrasse 15, D-60594 Frankfurt, Germany
Tel.  069  61 23 94   eMail  marloth _at__ t-online.de
~~
Dass es in den Leitungen vieler Bibliotheken an Management-Kenntnissen fehlt, 
behaupte ich nur deshalb nicht, weil ich Untertreibungen nicht leiden kann.