You Know Bookmobile Service Is Worth It - Make Your Director

and Board Believe It Too

Patti Stevic, Wayne County Public LibraryWooster, Ohio

Paul Ward, Tippecanoe County Public LibraryLafayette, Indiana

Jimmie Epling, Wayne County Public LibraryWooster, Ohio

ABOS Conference October 13-15, 2011

You know you are a bookmobiler when you hear…

When I was a child I remember…You are my link to the world…

You helped me out by…You came to my door with…

Outreach services do not stop at 5 p.m.!

You know you are a bookmobiler when

you hear…

Stand Up If…..You are actively involved in Bookmobile/Outreach

and love your job!

Remain Standing If…..

Remain Standing

If…..

Do you know how your community’s movers and shakers measure success?

Reality Check…

Warm and fuzzy stories vs.how much will it cost and what will be the benefit?

With an economic downturn and a

tight budget?

The hard fact…

…a well crafted comparison of dollar costs and dollar benefits may leave a more lasting impact on a conservative audience of library administrators, Board members, government officials, business leaders, or donors than pages of statistics on number of items circulated, total visitors, or multiple anecdotes about children and elderly you serve on the bookmobile.

What is Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA)?

Economic techniques that measure and compare the monetary value of benefits from a good, service, or

activity to the cost of the good, service or activity; in policy analysis, a formal way of measuring the benefits

of alternative public-sector options relative to the cost of those options.

Elliott, Donald S… [et al.]. Measuring Your Library’s Value: How to Do a Cost-Benefit Analysis for Your Public Library. Chicago: American Library Association, 2007. Print.

CBA according to Wikipedia

economic decision-making approach, used particularly in government and business,

used in the assessment of whether a proposed project, program or policy is worth doing, or to choose between several alternative ones

involves comparing the total expected costs of each option against the total expected benefits, to see whether the benefits outweigh the costs, and by how much Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. “Cost-Benefit Analysis.” Wikipedia, the Free

Encyclopedia. 16 Aug. 2011. Web. 17 Aug. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org>

What should be included in a CBA?

Initial Cost Operating Costs

Staffing Requirements/ Hours of Operation

Shelving Capacity

Circulation per Patron Base

Longevity of Facility

Service Area Marketing Potential

How do I perform a CBA analysis?

Define specified time period for analysis. Make numerical summaries of costs for items being

evaluated (ie. Utilities, hours of required staff, number of patrons, years of service for item, etc.).

Analyze numbers pairing a cost with a benefit. Write an unbiased narrative summary.

Numerical Summary

Building

Construction: $904,625

Furniture/Equip.: 89,500

Other Costs: 96,068

Total Costs: $1,090,193

Buying

Purchase: $205,000

Furniture/Equip.: 15,000

Other Costs:

Total Costs: $220,000

50+ Years 17.5 Years

Benefit

Cost

Analysis of Numbers

Annual Cost of Building: $21,803.86 1,090,193 / 50 = 21,803.86

Annual Cost of Buying: $12,571.43 220,000 / 17.5 = 12,571.43

Narrative Summary

Facts to include in summary: In 10 years, building will be in need of minor

repairs (carpeting, painting, etc). In 20 years, building will be in need of major

repairs (roofing, major moves-not expansion, etc.). In 17.5 years, vehicle will need replaced and is

likely that annual cost will go up.

How do you use what you collect to have an impact?

Remember that hard fact?

…a well crafted comparison of dollar costs and dollar benefits may leave a more lasting impact on a conservative audience of library administrators, Board members, government officials, business leaders, or donors than pages of statistics on number of items circulated, total visitors, or multiple anecdotes about children and elderly you serve on the bookmobile.

Keep in mind…

How much will it cost and what will be the benefit?

Who will benefit?

When telling your Return on Investment story…

…stick to measuring direct costs, not indirect costs

…your results must be reasonable

…your results must be defendable

…your estimated costs must be conservative

…your target audience for the results, the

Director and the Board

Establishing your value…

…cost relevant to other locations

materials supplies

maintenance staffing

…circulation relevant to fixed branches

…circulation per square foot

…cost per square foot

…cost per circulation

…cost per visitor

Individual Customer Library Use Value Calculator

Cleveland Heights-

University Heights (OH)

Public Libraryhttp://www.heightslibrary.org/page/

library_use_calculator

Return on Investment (ROI) Study Results

Wayne County Public Library

$4.31 for every

$1 invested

The Problem with System Wide Study Results

The Library profession has tended to “lump classy libraries that make good use of their money to serve the needs of their constituencies with those that are strikingly mediocre or even worse.”

Elliott, Donald. Measuring Your Library’s Value. 2007. P. 6.

Communicating the Value of Your Library to Your Director and Board

• Sound bites• Press release

• Brochure• Fact sheet

• Presentations

Observations and Questions

Patti Stevic pstevic@wcpl.info Paul Ward pward@tcpl.lib.in.us Jimmie Epling jepling@wcpl.info