Managing with Data: Using ACRLMetrics and PLAmetrics

by Peter Hernon, Robert E. Dugan, Joseph R. Matthews

Overview

Both the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) and the Public Library Association (PLA) provide important data services. For library managers and administrators, the key to the data's usefulness is knowing how to extract and apply the most relevant information to managing a library and improving accountability. A companion volume to the authors' earlier book Getting Started with Evaluation, this guide illustrates how to use the data to support value, collection use, benchmarking, and other best practices. This important resource

• Identifies key metrics in ACRLMetrics and PLAmetrics
• Demonstrates how to perform techniques for developing and using metrics
• Offers exercises that illustrate how to produce meaningful metrics and reports, accessible via a free web portal
• Shows how to move towards outcomes assessments while simultaneously embracing value
• Includes numerous examples to guide readers through the data services' web interfaces screen-by-screen

Managers at academic and public libraries, administrators, and library trustees will find this book a vital tool for accountability and advocacy.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780838912430
Publisher:	American Library Association
Publication date:	11/17/2014
Pages:	232
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Peter Hernon is a professor emeritus at Simmons College, Boston, and was the principal (and founding) faculty member for the doctoral program, Managerial Leadership in the Information Professions. He received his PhD degree from Indiana University, Bloomington, and was the 2008 recipient of the Association of College and Research Libraries’ award for Academic/Research Librarian of the Year, the founding editor of Government Information Quarterly, and past editor-in- chief of The Journal of Academic Librarianship. He is the coeditor of Library & Information Science Research and has taught, conducted workshops, and delivered addresses in eleven countries outside the United States. He is the author or co-author of 57 books, including the award-winning Federal Information Policies in the 1980s (1985) and Viewing Library Metrics from Different Perspectives (2009).

Robert E. Dugan is the dean of libraries at the University of West Florida (Pensacola, FL). Prior to assuming this position, he had been at Suffolk University, Boston; Wesley College, Dover, DE; and Georgetown University, Washington, DC. He has also worked in state and public libraries during his nearly 40-year career. He is the coauthor of eleven books, including Viewing Library Metrics from Different Perspectives.

Joseph R. Matthews is a consultant specializing in strategic planning, assessment, evaluation of library services, customer service, use of performance measures, and the balanced scorecard. He was an instructor at the San Jose State University School of Library and Information Science. He is author of The Customer-Focused Library, The Evaluation and Measurement of Library Services, Scorecards for Results, Strategic Planning and Management for Managers, and Measuring for Results, and the coauthor (with Peter Hernon) of Listening to the Customer, among other books.

Editorial Reviews

04/01/2015
Libraries of all kinds face increasing demands to justify their funding levels, and library administrators are constantly challenged to use numbers and proof of impact to tell their organizational story in meaningful and accurate ways. This title may very well be that powerful tool that helps meet this challenge. Hernon (emeritus, Simmons Coll.) and Robert E. Dugan (dean of libraries, Univ. West Florida), who previously collaborated on Viewing Library Metrics from Different Perspectives team with Joseph R. Matthews (Research-Based Planning for Public Libraries) to provide what they call a road map for using ACRLMetrics and PLAMetrics (subscription-based services that provide access to data sets specific to libraries). By using a complementary subset of ACRLMetrics and PLAMetrics via a companion website and the step-by-step instructions, readers can generate a vast array of reports that provide context for comparing their organization to peer libraries. As important as this access and practice is, the book's true value lies in explaining how to frame conversations about data use and results within library management teams and other stakeholders as well as providing, via evidence-based practices, ways to use data to create and execute a strategic plan rooted in numbers. VERDICT This book is much more than a how-to manual—it is also a conversation guide for grounding library decisions in evidence-based planning.—Kendra Auberry, Indian River State Coll. Lib., Port St. Lucie, FL

Library Journal