The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, in collaboration with the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) Libraries and the Association of Research Libraries (ARL), has received a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). The funding will be used to study the value of academic libraries to students, faculty, policymakers and funders.
The three-year grant, entitled ‘Value, Outcomes, and Return on Investment of Academic Libraries (Lib-Value),’ will work to enrich, expand, test, and implement methodologies measuring the return on investment (ROI) in academic libraries.
Academic libraries actively participate in the many changes in scholarship, such as the move to e-science, collaborative and participatory scholarship, and focus on new materials such as data, multimedia, and born-digital assets. To remain relevant and central to the academic mission in the future, academic librarians need to be able to demonstrate the value that the academic library provides to the campus community using proven methods of measurement.
The results of the study will provide evidence and a set of tested methodologies and tools to help academic librarians demonstrate how the library provides value to its constituents and ROI to its funders; and to measure which products and services are of most value to enhancing the university’s mission. The project is expected to expand upon earlier studies to consider multiple measures of value that the academic library brings to teaching/learning, research, and social/professional/public engagement functions of the academic institution.
To ensure that the process will be rigorous, realistic and highly visible in the academic library and university community, an experienced team of academic librarians and researchers are projected to bring their leadership to the project. The project is also engaging an advisory committee of noted information science researchers.
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