Work Stream Two Evaluating Social and Economic Impact José-Marie Griffiths School of Information and Library Science University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill European Congress on E-Inclusion: ECEI09 Technology and Beyond in Public Libraries Brussels October 22-23, 2009
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Jose Marie Griffiths Evaluating Social And Economic Impact
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Work Stream Two
Evaluating Social and Economic
Impact
José-Marie Griffiths
School of Information and Library Science
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
European Congress on E-Inclusion: ECEI09
Technology and Beyond in Public Libraries
Brussels
October 22-23, 2009
Introduction
• Scope of Work Stream
– How to evaluate social and economic
impact of accessible technologies in
public librariespublic libraries
– How libraries can demonstrate the
impact of the investments made
– Which criteria are needed to evaluate
social and economic impact
Key Questions
• What are current approaches to the
evaluation of public library impact
and how are they being applied?
• What studies have been undertaken to • What studies have been undertaken to
assess specifically the performance of
e-inclusion services within public
libraries?
Questions cont’d• How have these evaluative tools
affected the wider municipal, regional
or national policy agendas?
• What should be the future approaches
to the evaluation of public libraries to the evaluation of public libraries
within the context of increasing direct
access to networked services within
communities
Potential Outcomes• Feedback on the range of current
evaluation activities within public
libraries
• Examples of evaluation that has
demonstrated the social and economic demonstrated the social and economic
value of e-inclusion in public libraries
• Future trends in terms of how public
service can be evaluated successfully
within the networked society
Measuring Return-on-
Investment
in Public Librariesin Public Libraries
Return-on-Investment (ROI) for
Public Libraries
� has been applied to many different types of
organizations and community resources
� application of cost/benefit, cost-
effectiveness, impact and return-on-effectiveness, impact and return-on-
investment measures
� for-profit sector - common
� to libraries, museums, schools and
colleges, parks, etc. – not common
Importance of ROI for Public
Libraries
• Tight budgets
• Competing national, regional and local interests
• Must make the case in quantitative terms, not just anecdotal evidencenot just anecdotal evidence
• Economic valuation is a powerful tool for advocacy
• Data must be collected and analyzed in the context of what is important to the communities within which the libraries operate
Why ROI is More Difficult to
Calculate for Libraries• Difficulty of quantifying benefits that vary
from
� user to user
� use to use
� from library to library (as service mixes � from library to library (as service mixes vary)
• The push for public libraries to develop services relevant to the needs of their local communities, has made the evaluation process more difficult.
• As a result, libraries tended to focus on user satisfaction and other attitudinal measures.
Early Efforts -
Value Assessment
• Example: Griffiths/King study - 1982, Office of Scientific and Technical Information of the U.S. Department of Energy — develop approaches to assessing/measuring the value of the assessing/measuring the value of the Energy Database
• Three Levels of Value Assessment
�Willingness-to-pay or exchange value
�Use value
�Consequential value
Early Public Library
Evaluations
• Example: Griffiths/King ROI studies–
1989, U.K public libraries; 1991,
Massachusetts public libraries; 1993 U.K
policy briefing
• Need to create an aggregate picture of
library value
• Compare this value to the total investment
in libraries - return-on-investment
Costs, Outputs and Outcomes
Need to consider:
• The costs (investments) of the libraries
and their services
• The outputs produced
• The use of the outputs• The use of the outputs
• Outcomes resulting from that use
– Improved quality of life
– Support for lifelong learning
– Support for the community’s economy
Total Economic Value*
• Use value - net willingness to pay
• Option value - willingness to pay for the option to use in the future
• Existence value - willingness to pay for the good/service to exist even though no future good/service to exist even though no future use is contemplated
• Bequest value - willingess to pay for the endowment of the good or service for future generations
* North Carolina Blue Ridge Parkway Study, 1999-2002*
Jobs and Income
• Center for Economic Development
Research at the University of South Florida
- economic contribution or impact of
various corporations and institutions to the
statestate
• Measured:
– Jobs and jobs created (both paid and volunteer)
– Personal income (wages and disposable
income)
– Local output (value of goods and services
resulting from jobs created)
Contingent Valuation• economic method of evaluation for non-
priced goods and services
• looks at the implications of not having the goods/services.
• includes • includes
– added cost to use alternatives sources of information, should people choose to do so (also called net benefit);
– portion of direct economic contribution public libraries make to their communities that would be lost;
– portion of economic benefits to the library users that would be lost.
Case Study -
State of FloridaState of Florida
Methods
Used a variety of data collection and
analytic methods including – data reported to the state by the libraries
– a statewide household telephone survey of
adults
– in-library user surveys of adults
– a follow-up survey of the libraries
– surveys of organizations
– an input-output econometric model
Household Interviews/
In-Library Survey
Collected information about:– cost to use the library
– services used
– reasons for using the services
– importance of the services; ways the services – importance of the services; ways the services were important
– what visitors would do to obtain the needed information if there were no public library
– estimated cost in time and money to use the alternatives
– used critical incident approach
Organization Survey
Determined:
– use of public library services
– cost to use these services
– savings resulting from service use– savings resulting from service use
Follow-up Survey
Obtained some information about:
– use by tourists and school age children
– interlibrary lending and borrowing
– expenditures and income
– business-like operations run by the library,
outside persons or vendors.
REMI
• Addresses the economic effect a public organization or resource has on other economic sectors over time
• Econometric input-output model• Econometric input-output model
• Extends the economic contribution of libraries beyond the actual users of the libraries to yield a set of direct, indirect and induced effects to the served communities
Results and Presentation
Results
• Figured on lower bound - so results were at
least as good as reported
• Emphasis on “bottom line” results (with
detail available for those who wanted it)
• Correlation with interests important to state • Correlation with interests important to state
and community leadership and decision-
makers
• Provision of effective graphics in reports
and presentations
Florida’s Public Libraries
Return $6.54
for every $1.00 Invested
+ + =Net Benefit Lost Community
Benefits
Lost Community Spending
Community BenefitsUse Benefits
Lost Uses
Lost Use Benefit
Economic
Return
$2,993.660
million
Economic
Return
$2,993.660 million
Investments$448.903 million
Return on
Investment
6.54 to 1.0÷=
User Investment to Use the
Investments (costs)
Federal
Funding
State
Funding
Local
Funding
Other
Funding Multitype
Benefits (of having the library)
To
individualusers:
availability
To
organizations as users
of the
library:
availabilitty
To community/
state
Pass through
Halo
Staff
Compensation
In-state spendingTo
individualusers:
use
Community BenefitsUse Benefits
Expenditures by the
library
Staff
Compensation
Print
Expenditures
In-state
out of stateIn-state
In-state
out of state
Electronic
Expenditures
Media
Expenditures
Other
Operating
Expenditur
es
Capital
Outlay
In-state
out of state
In-state
out of state
In-state
out of state
For
IndividualsFor
Organizations
Cost to use alternatives
User Investment to Use the
Library $1.7 billion
Individuals
$1,721 million$1,721 million
Organizations
$2.384 million$2.384 million
Revenue Investment
Economic Return:
$2.93 Billion
Economic Returns ResultingFrom Florida's Public Libraries
(total $2.93 billion)
80%Added cost to use80%Added cost to usealternatives
15%Lost direct communityeconomic benefits
5%Lost direct user
economic benefits
+
New Jobs —
1 for every $6,448 invested
Florida’s Public Libraries
Increase GRP
Florida Public Libraries
Increase Income in the State
$12.66$14.00
Income Increases from Public Support of Florida Public