This document summarizes a study on the culture of assessment in Croatian academic and public libraries. It describes the study's project goals, hypotheses, methodology, instruments, survey sample, and key results. The study found that while organizational culture in Croatian libraries is becoming more open to assessment, it has yet to fully adopt assessment practices. Public libraries appeared more open to assessment than academic libraries, though academic libraries had done more assessment work already. In conclusion, the culture of assessment is still developing in Croatian libraries but progress is being made.

1. Culture of assessment in Croatian academic
and public libraries
Martina Dragija Ivanović, Boris Badurina, Kornelija Petr Balog

2. Project
• Evaluation of library services: academic and public
libraries (2007-today)
 In Croatia library performance was not seriously measured so
far
 Main goal: to research views and opinions on performance
measurement as a part of their everyday activities.

3. Hypothesis
• libraries in Croatia in general pay insufficient attention
to performance measurement activities
• public libraries approach this issue more seriously and
actively than academic libraries
• librarians in general are unprepared for activities
connected with performance measurement.

4. Methodology
• Based on the survey originally created by McDonald
and Micikas (1994)
 Holistic approach to assessment
 To measure the performance the whole of the organisational
culture has to be taken into account
 Library decision makers’ and the librarians’ views and
opinions has to be measured

5. Instrument
• Two parts
 Library decision makers (directors) – survey and interview
 Librarians – survey
• Survey elements
 general data about the library,
 elements important for library environment,
 library in general,
 library vs. founder/financier,
 library and new managerialism,
 library vs. library customers.
 education and continuous professional education - only Library
directors

6. Survey
• Sample Directors Librarians
Academic 62 47 109
Public 57 79 136
119 126 245

7. Results 1 mission statement
40,0%
11,4%
12,8%
11,4%
13,3%
23,8%
28,0%
12,0%
17,7%
20,0%
38,0%
2,0%
31,9%
14,3%
21,0%
15,1%
37,2%
10,5%
29,1%
10,5%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50%
I do not know
Library has not
started working on
mission statement
Library is in the
process of creation of
mission statement
Library has a mission
statement, but it is not
publicly announced
Library has a mission
statement and it is
publicly announced
Academic
Public
Directors
Librarians

8. Results 2
There are no job descriptions in the library Academic
92,0%
6,0%
0,0%
0,0%
2,1%
2,0%
0,0%
81,2%
2,1%
14,6%
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
For fewer than a half
For half of the positions
For more than a half of the positions
Job descriptions for all positions in the library
Public
4,49
4,35
4,57
4,20
1 2 3 4 5
Library should provide
conditions that its
services and programs
be regularly evaluated
Academic
Public
Directors
Librarians
Job description
Evaluation attitude
scale: 1 – I do not agree, 5 – I absolutely agree

9. Results 3 working climate
Librarians are positive and optimistic in regard to
their job **
Library encourages and rewards professional
education of the librarians **
Library director make decisions on his/her own **
** scale: 1 – always, 2 – sometimes, 3 – rarely, 4 – never
* scale: 1 – I do not agree, 5 – I absolutely agree
4,88
2,69
2,19
1,75
4,87
2,95
1,90
1,34
4,89
2,76
1,84
1,44
4,86
2,9
2,34
1,69
1 2 3 4 5
Good communication between library directors
and their co-workers is the prerequisite for
quality management*
Academic
Public
Directors
Librarians

10. Results 4 professional confidence
3,99
3,03
4,00
4,39
2,81
4,28
4,22
2,91
4,17
4,14
2,93
4,09
1 2 3 4 5
Librarians have all the
necessary skills for
their job
Library employs enough
people to enable
seamless and timely
operation
Librarians hold
positions that suit their
education and
experience
Academic
Public
Directors
Librarians
scale: 1 – I do not agree, 5 – I absolutely agree

11. Conclusions
• In Croatia organisational culture is catching up to the
needs of assessment culture – but not there yet
• Public libraries seem to be more open to the idea but
academic have done more!

12. Thank you!