You Know Bookmobile Service Is Worth It - Make Your Director and Board Believe It Too

Patti Stevic, Wayne County Public Library

Wooster, Ohio

Paul Ward, Tippecanoe County Public Library

Lafayette, Indiana

Jimmie Epling, Wayne County Public Library

Wooster, 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..

Reality Check
Do you know how your communitys movers and shakers measure success?
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 Librarys 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 Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Cost-Benefit Analysis. Wikipedia, the Free much Encyclopedia. 16 Aug. 2011. Web. 17 Aug. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org>

What should be included in a CBA?

Initial Cost Operating Costs Shelving Capacity Longevity of Facility Marketing Potential

Staffing Requirements/ Hours of Operation

Circulation per Patron Base Service Area

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
Cost
Building Construction: $904,625 Furniture/Equip.: 89,500 Other Costs: 96,068 Total Costs: $1,090,193 Buying Purchase: Furniture/Equip.: Other Costs: Total Costs: $205,000 15,000 $220,000

Benefit 50+ Years 17.5 Years

Analysis of Numbers

Annual Cost of Building: $21,803.86

1,090,193 / 50 = 21,803.86
220,000 / 17.5 = 12,571.43

Annual Cost of Buying: $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 HeightsUniversity Heights (OH) Public Library
http://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 Librarys 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 Paul Ward Jimmie Epling

pstevic@wcpl.info pward@tcpl.lib.in.us jepling@wcpl.info