Initiative Review Group XI Progress Report April 30, 2001

Develop and document a comprehensive plan for data collection and analysis.

Members:

Usha Gupta, leader; Jo Grippe, Ann Waligorski, Judy Culberson and Candy Combs.

The Strategic Initiatives 11 group has had three meetings on April 9, 16 and 23, 2001.

The subject of discussion at the first meeting of the Strategic Initiatives Committee members was:

1. Purpose of data collection and analysis.
2. Organizational need for statistics and performance measures.
3. Services in the Library that lend themselves to measurement and data collection.
4. Types of decisions the various units in the library are making that require statistics or performance measures.
5. What types of existing data are available and are being collected by the various units.
6. What types data should be collected?

At the second meeting the members discussed the following:

1. Develop a preliminary list of data collections in the various departments of the Library
2. Examine the data collection for performance measures and see if the statistics generated are useful and needed.
3. Based on number two if changes are needed make recommendations for refinement of data elements and statistics to reflect performance measures in operational terms.
4. Does the data meet accountability requirements of cost, use and services provided by the department

Third Meeting:

Members brought samples of statistics and data collected by the various units in the library. The samples were examined and discussed and the following recommendations were made. Issues that need to be addressed ranked in order of priority:

1. All departments should look at their data and statistics on a regular basis to see if the statistics generated reflects the productivity, use, collections and service provided by the unit.
2. Review what statistical information can be generated from Infolinks. Who will be responsible for generating and reporting the statistics?
3. Terminology used by various units should be used consistently within the various units so that data-cumulating statistics from different departments is easy.
4. All units must be able to rationalize the statistics for relevance and efficiency in collecting the data.