Presentation delivered as Chair of the SCONUL Working Group on Performance Improvement.

1. Service Assessment Programmes:
The SCONUL Experience
Stephen Town
Cranfield University
Chair, SCONUL Working Group on
Performance Improvement

2. Quality in Higher Education
• Quality Assurance
– eg Audit, TQA, ISOs, Bologna
• Traditional patterns of Peer Review
– eg RAE, Library Reviews
• Batteries of Performance Indicators
– CVCP, SCONUL, HESA
• Quality Culture
– eg IIP, TQM, Satisfaction Surveys

3. The University Context
(from the Library Assessment Conference,
Charlottesville, Va, September 2006)
Universities have two “bottom lines”
1. Financial (as in business)
2. Academic, largely through reputation in
• Research (the priority in “leading” Universities)
• Teaching (& maybe Learning)

4. Library Pressures for Accountability
The need is therefore to demonstrate the Library
contribution in these two dimensions:
1. Financial, through “value for money” or related
measures
2. Impact on research, teaching and learning
This also implies that “competitive” data will be highly
valued

5. The SCONUL Response
The SCONUL Working Group on Performance
Improvement
• Ten years of “toolkit” development to assist in
performance measurement and improvement (for
both management and advocacy)
• SCONUL ‘Top concern survey’ 2005, leading to VAMP

6. Frameworks:
Issues
• Balanced Scorecard
• EFQM
• Key Performance Indicators

7. Quality:
Issues & Solutions
• Benchmarking
– Process Benchmarking
– Statistical Benchmarking
– Peer Group Benchmarking
• Customer Satisfaction
Surveys
– LibQUAL+
– SCONUL Satisfaction Survey
– Priority Research
– Opinion Meters
• Charter Mark
• Customer Relationship
Management
• Investors in People
• Quality Assurance
– QAA Guidelines for
Assessors
– ISO 9001
• Quality Maturity Model

8. SCONUL Satisfaction Survey

9. SCONUL LibQUAL+ Results 2006

10. CMM
‘Capability Maturity Model’
1
2
3
4
55 Optimising
4 Managed
3 Defined
2 Repeatable
1 Initial

11. Statistics:
Issues & Solutions
• SCONUL Statistical Questionnaire
• SCONUL Statistics on the Web
• SCONUL Annual Library Statistics
• SCONUL Statistics: Trend Analysis
• Higher education library management
statistics (HELMS)
• E-Measures Project

13. New SCONUL Statistics Measures
• 2d: Breakdown of 'unique serial titles' into:
– print only (2e)
– electronic only (2f)
– print and electronic (2g)
• 2k 'number of electronic databases'
• 2l 'number of electronic books'
• 4r 'number of successful requests for full-text
articles'
• 4s 'number of successful accesses to electronic books'
• 7g Breakdown of 'electronic resources' into:
– 'subscriptions to electronic databases' (7h)
– 'expenditure on e-books' (7j)
– 'expenditure on other digital documents' (7k)
SCONUL Statistics Web Site

14. Impact & Value:
Issues & Solutions
• Impact
– Impact Initiative (LIRG / SCONUL)
– Institutional Critical Success Factors for Information
Literacy
• Value
– Contingent Valuation
– Transparency Costing
– Staff Value Added

15. Conclusions of Impact Measurement
“Helps us to move library performance on from
simply counting inputs and outputs to looking
at what difference we really make.”
Payne, et al, 2004

16. SCONUL VAMP Objectives
• New missing measurement instruments &
tools
• A full coherent framework for performance,
improvement and innovation
• Persuasive data for University Senior
Managers, to prove value, impact,
comparability, and worth

17. VAMP Project Structure
• Phase 1 (March-June 2006)
– Critical review
– SCONUL Member Survey
– Gap analysis & synthesis
– SCONUL Conference Workshops
• Phases 2 & 3 (July 2006 - April 2007)
– Development of new measures & techniques
– Review and re-branding of existing tools
– Web site development
– Dissemination & maintenance strategy

18. VAMP Web site
• Showcasing approaches to performance measurement in the
following areas:
– Frameworks
– Impact
– Quality
– Statistics
– Value
• Providing detailed methods on how to apply the different
approaches
• Sharing experience from those who have already applied the
approach
• Discussion areas

19. Communities of Practice
“groups of people who share a passion
for something that they know how to do,
and who interact regularly to learn how to
do it better”
“coherence through mutual engagement”
Etienne Wenger, 1998 & 2002

20. Member’s Forum
(Blog?)
Techniques in Use
(Wiki?)
VAMP
Home Page
Simple
Introductions
Detailed
Techniques
Community of
Practice
Techniques

21. J. Stephen Town
j.s.town@cranfield.ac.uk