These reports are also available below:

• Why the Need for this Work?: [HTML] – [MS Word]
• Summary of Events: [HTML] – [MS Word]
• Summary of Blog Posts: [HTML] – [MS Word]
• Feedback from the Second Workshop: [HTML] – [MS Word]
• Summary of the Final Workshop: [HTML] – [MS Word]
• Running Your Own Surveys: [HTML] – [MS Word]
• Metrics FAQ: [HTML] – [MS Word]

Note that the reports are available under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) licence.

Following the publication of the final reports, this blog is now frozen. It is not intended to publish any significant new content on this blog.

In light of such considerations it is intended that this blog will be used to provide a record of activities including events, but related discussions will take place on the UK Web Focus blog which has a large readership.

A session on ““Sixty Minutes To Save Libraries”: Gathering Evidence to Demonstrate Library Services’ Impact and Value” was held at the Mashspa event held in Bath on  29 October. This session attracted participants from both academic and public libraries.

A report on the session has been published on the UK Web Focus blog.  In brief:

• There was agreement on the need to provide evidence on the value of libraries
• There were concerns by some that evidence was not being gathered.
• It was recognised that academic libraries gather evidence which is colleated by and published by SCONUL.
• There were concerns that the data was not publicly available and the reports had to be purchased at a cost of £80.

There will be a need to gather evidence of the value of the work which is being carried out within the sector as, without such evidence, there is a danger that such work may fail to be funded when cuts arrive.

The evidence needs to demonstrate the impact of the work and how such work results in positive changes.

There will also be a need to understand the metrics which can ensure that the evidence is being collated and used in a consistent fashion.

Such work will, however, need to consider the potential negative aspects: the dangers, for example, of evidence being misinterpretted or misunderstood, and the risk that an emphasis on metrics leads to approaches being used which seek to maximise benchmarking figures rather than enhance the value of the work for which the metrics provides a proxy measure.

Despite such concerns there are also dangers that a failure to gather evidence will leave services in a vulnerable position.  At a time in which we are seeing a much greater emphasis being placed on transparency within the public sector it would seem to be counter-productive to fail to be gathering evidence.  The challenge will be to ensure that a better understanding is gained across the sector in the limitations of such activities.

This blog aims to ensure that a better understanding of various approaches for gathering and interpreting evidence and using metrics is gained across the sector.

This is an initial summary of this work which has been provided in order to help others understand the work to be covered.

This blog will provide an open forum for ideas and sharing of resources.

Guest posts from others will be welcomed.

Details of events which will be organised to support this work will be posted on this blog.