ISO is updating library standards to reflect changes in services and evaluation methods. [1] New standards address services like interactive tools, social media, mobile access, and support for special populations. [2] Performance metrics are added for digital preservation, digitization, repositories, and web archiving. [3] Evaluation aims to prove impact and value through inferred, solicited, and observed evidence, including economic analysis showing return on investment.

1. Changes in library
standards
Statistics and evaluation as mirror of
library innovations
Dr. Roswitha Poll
Chair of ISO TC 46 SC 8: Quality – statistics
and performance evaluation
LIDA 2012

2. ISO standards for ISO Technical Information and
quantitiy and quality committee 46: documentation
in libraries Subcommittee 8: Quality, statistics and
performance evaluation
WG 2: International library statistics
ISO/DIS 2789 (2012) International library statistics,5th edition
To be published 2013
WG 4: Performance indicators for libraries
ISO 11620 (2008) Library performance indicators, 2nd edition
Revision since 2010
WG 7: Quality measures for national libraries
ISO TR 28118 (2009) Performance indicators for national libraries

3. ISO standards for
quantitiy and quality ISO Technical Information and
in libraries committee 46: documentation
Subcommittee 8: Quality - statistics and
performance evaluation
WG 8: Statistical data for library buildings
ISO TR 11219 Qualitative conditions and basic statistics for
library buildings
Published May 2012
WG 9: Statistics and quality issues for web archiving
ISO TR 14783 Statistics and quality issues for web archiving
to be published 2013
WG 10: Methods and procedures for assessing the impact
of libraries
ISO 16439 Methods and procedures for assessing the impact of
libraries
to be published 2013

4. ISO 2789 International library statistics
Library statistics are
 1st edition 1974 more and more short-
 2nd edition 1991 dated
 3rd edition 2003
 4th edition 2006
 5th edition: revision started March 2010;
1st voting positive with comments;
DIS is going to voting now

5. ISO 2789 counts
Users
(number of registered or active users, types of users)
Use of traditional and electronic services
(physical and virtual visits, loans and ILL, accesses and
downloads, reference questions, etc.)
Collections (all formats)
(volumes, microforms, databases, e-serials, ebooks ,etc.)
Facilities
(space, equipment, opening hours)
Staff
(number and types of staff, staff training)
Income and expenditure
(sources of income; expenditure on resources, services or staff)

6. ISO 2789: Reasons for the revision
Neglected topics
 Preservation
 Digitisation From ISO TR 28118
 Legal deposit „Performance measures
for national libraries“
 National bibliography

7. ISO 2789: Reasons for the revision
Neglected topics
 Cooperation
(projects, long-term cooperation)
 Institutional repositories
(documents, usage)
 Promotion of library services
(reports in the media)
 Library research
(research papers by library staff)

8. ISO 2789: New topics
New library services on the Internet
 Library-hosted interactive services
(blogs, wikis, podcasts, etc.)
 Libraries’ participation in social networks
Core datasets:
- number of accesses (visits) to the library’s account
- number of downloads of documents
Optional counts:
- number of subscribers (e.g. fans/followers)
- number of posts or new entries within the library’s
account

9. ISO 2789: New topics
The library‘s services for mobile devices
Examples of services formatted for mobile devices:
(websites, catalogues, teaching lessons, library
tours)
Datasets:
• Number of services
• Number of accesses (visits)

10. ISO 2789: New topics
Services for target populations with special
needs
Target populations with special needs are parts
of a library's population with needs that require
special library services.
Examples
 physical and health impairment
 economic disadvantages (e. g. long-term
unemployment)
 cultural differences (e. g. non-native speakers,
new arrivals)

11. ISO 2789: New topics
Services for target populations with special
needs
Services provided for such groups:
 special collections
 special events
 long-term services (e. g. media transports for house-
bound persons)
Data to collect:
 For special collections: Count loans or downloads
 For special events: Count attendances
 For long-term services: Count cases of usage

12. ISO 2789: Costs for the new services
How much staff time is needed for…
 cooperative projects
Time-logging in
 organisation of events
sample times
 digitization of analogue materials
 services for mobile devices
 services in social networks
 library evaluation

13. ISO 11620: Performance indicators for libraries
ISO 11620, 2nd ed. (2008), Library performance
indicators (45 indicators)
Indicators for
 Adequacy of the resources
- user places per capita
 Adequacy of the collections
- collection use rate
 The quality of processes
- shelving accuracy
 The attractiveness of library services
- attandances at events per capita
 Cost-efficieny
- Cost per use

14. ISO 11620: Revision
Outdated indicators (7):
 Public access workstations per capita
 Workstation use rate
 Percentage of information requests submitted
electronically
 Subject catalogue search success rate
Reasons:
 WLAN in the library
 Users bring own computers or other devices
 Electronic requests have become normal
 Searching goes other ways

15. ISO 11620: Revision
New topics for performance indicators (10)
 preserving the library’s rare collections
- Percentage of storage space which has an appropriate
environment
- Percentage of the rare collection in stable condition
 digitizing the library’s collections
- Number of documents digitized per 1,000 documents in the
collection
 cooperation and partnerships of libraries
- Percentage of staff in cooperative partnerships and projects
 building institutional repositories
- Percentage of the owner institution’s publications in the
institutional repository

16. ISO 11620: Revision
No indicators as yet for
1. Library services in social networks
2. Services for mobile devices
3. Services for target groups with special needs
But the existing indicators can partly be used for
topic 3:
 Collection turnover (the special collection for the
special group)
 Percentage of the target population reached

17. ISO 16439 Methods and procedures for assessing
the impact of libraries
What is seen as impact of libraries?
Impact on individuals
 changes in attitudes and behaviour
 changes in skills and competences
 higher success in research, study, or profession
 individual well-being
Social impact
 social inclusion (e.g. of elderly people or immigrants)
 social cohesion (e.g. intercultural and intergenerational
understanding) Can we prove that?
 free access to information
 education and life-long learning
 local culture and community identity
 high awareness of health and environmental issues

18. ISO 16439 Methods and procedures for assessing
the impact of libraries
Inferred evidence of impact: Using
the data we have
1. Statistics
Example: Increase in attendants of training
lessons
2. Performance indicators
Example: Higher market penetration in a target
group
3. Results of user satisfaction surveys
(perceived quality of library services)
Example: High satisfaction with reference
service The data must be
validated by other
methods

19. ISO 16439 Methods and procedures for assessing
the impact of libraries
Solicited evidence of impact: asking
users
 surveys (in-house, telephone, mail, online)
 street surveys
 interviews
 focus groups The results must be
 self-assessment of users quantified for
showing patterns
 collected anecdotal evidence
(the story behind the data) of impact

20. ISO 16439 Methods and procedures for assessing
the impact of libraries
Observed evidence of impact: the
objective data
 observation (open or covert, participant or non-
participant)
 log analysis
 tests for ascertaining an increase of skills and
competences (e. g. before and after user training)
Most projects combine
2 or more methods

21. ISO 16439 Methods and procedures for assessing
the impact of libraries
Economic impact: showing ROI
Can we express the library’s impact in money?
 Calculation of market prices
 Time spent on library services (calculated as prices)
 Contingent valuation What would users pay for the
willingness-to-pay: maintenance of a service?
willingness to accept: Which sum would users accept as
equivalent for the deletion of a service?

22. ISO/TR 11219: 2012 Qualitative conditions and
basic statistics for library buildings — Space,
function and design
1. reliable data for calculating space requirements
- for housing the collections
- for adequate user areas
- for background areas of the library administration
2. support in technical aspects
- security and safety systems
- floor loading
- transport systems
- acoustic conditions
- lighting systems and wiring

23. ISO/TR 11219: 2012 Qualitative conditions and
basic statistics for library buildings — Space,
function and design
New issues for library buildings
 adaptation to new technologies and forms of communication
 space for the library’s new role as teaching library
 accessibility for handicapped users
 sustainable library design
 areas for recreation and communication
 areas for events
A place for quiet study and learning,
a lively point for meeting and communication

24. ISO/TR 14873: Statistics and quality issues for web
archiving
Statistics for web archiving
 the volume and growth of a web archive by number of documents
and by size
 the use of the archive (number of visits, pages viewed, unique
visitors)
 the costs of building the archive
Quality indicators
 the coverage and currency of the web archive
 accessibility and use of the archive
 the adequacy of preservation activities
 the cost-efficiency of the archiving processes

25. New activities, new services in libraries
New and enlarged services
 interactive services
 participation in social networks
 services formatted for mobile devices
 services for target populations with special needs
 teaching activities
 long-term preservation
 digitization
 institutional repositories
 web archiving
New concepts for the building
 the library as place for meeting and communication
 sustainable design
New aims and methods of evaluation
 proving influence and value
 showing cost-efficiency and ROI

26. To change
and to improve
are two different things