Dr. Jennifer Weil Arns, Associate Professor,
Dr. Robert V. Williams, Distinguished Professor
Emeritus,
Ms. Karen Miller, Doctoral Student
School of Library and Information Science
University of South Carolina
A Research Project Funded by IMLS
Value
Problem
Source: http://espin086.wordpress.com/tag/supply-and-demand/
Recent Response: Cost-Benefit Studies
 South Carolina (carried out by the
St Louis Public Library
University of South Carolina as a service to the
South Carolina State Library; 2003, 2011)
Cost and benefit estimates were based on
a business model and standardized Public
Library Survey income and expenditure
data. Examined both direct and indirect
benefits.
State of Florida (Griffths,
et al, 2004). Using a variety
of estimation techniques,
the report built on earlier
work by Fraser, Nelson and
McCure (2001,2002).
http://www.libsci.sc.edu/MetaWeb/research
team.html
US Institute of Museum and Library Services Laura Bush 21st
Century Librarian Program.
Grant #: RE-04-08-0047: Assessing the Economic Value of Public
Library Collections and Services: A Review of the Literature and
Meta-Analysis (META) - a multi year research project designed
to provide insight into these questions and a more robust model
of the economic value of public libraries.
Principle Investigator: Jennifer Weil Arns
Primary Researchers
The information I’m going to share with you today represents
the preliminary result of a nationally funded study conducted
primarily by a small group of dedicated researchers who,
perhaps unwisely, decided to tackle this problem, first
reviewing the literature on this topic and then conducting an
experiment .
Research questions:
1) Is there consistent and mounting evidence that
public libraries contribute to the economic prosperity
of the communities they serve
2) What steps might be taken in order to strengthen
this assertion.
Approach and
Methodology
Meta-Analysis
Meta-analysis is the statistical procedure for combining data from
multiple studies. When the treatment effect (or effect size) is
consistent from one study to the next, meta-analysis can be used to
identify this common effect. When the effect varies from one study to
the next, meta-analysis may be used to identify the reason for the
variation.
Clinicians and applied researchers in medicine, education,
psychology, criminal justice, and a host of other fields use metaanalysis to determine which interventions work, and which ones
work best. Meta analysis is also widely used in basic research to
evaluate the evidence in areas as diverse as sociology, social
psychology, sex differences, finance and economics, political
science, marketing, ecology and genetics, among others.
Source: http://www.meta-analysis.com/pages/why_do.html
Phase 1: The User’s
Perspective
An initial corpus of 143 value related
studies was identified using Dialog file 438
Library Literature and Information Science;
and the results of this search were
analyzed and extended using University of
South Carolina search services provided by
Wilson Web (HW Wilson), CSA Illumina,
and EBSCO. Internet searches were also
conducted using the Google advanced
search feature (search terms “libr* valu*)
and random searches to locate referenced
citations.
Cost/
Benefit
Analysis
Table 1: Contingent Valuation, Direct Benefits Study Summary
Study
Date of Date of
Study
Data
CBA
Inflation Inflation
Adjusted Adjusted CBA
CBA (2011 Dollars)
Public Library Benefits Valuation Study - Birmingham
Public Library, Al a
Charlotte Mecklenburg Library
St. Louis Public Library, MOa
2000
1999
2010 2008-2009
2000
1999
$2.00
$3.14
$3.75
$1.20
$1.46
$2.25
$2.70
$3.29
$5.06
San Francisco Public Librarya
2007 2005-2006
$4.74
$2.39
$5.37
Baltimore County Public Library, MDa
2000
1999
$4.50
$2.70
$6.08
King County Library System, WA a
Phoenix Public Library, AZ
2000
2000
1999
1999
$7.50
$10.00
$4.50
$6.00
$10.13
$13.50
Mean
$6.59
a
Mean ROI
Consumer Price Index Source: All Urban Consumers, All Items, U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics. Available at
ftp://ftp.bls.gov/pub/special.requests/cpi/cpiai.txt
Table 2: Contingent Valuation, Direct and Indirect Benefits Study Summary
Inflation
Inflation
Date of Date of
Adjusted Adjusted CBA
Study
Study
Data
CBA
CBA
(2011 Dollars)
Eagle Valley Library District, CO
2007
2006
$4.28
$2.12
$4.78
Mesa County Public Library District, CO
2007
2006
$4.57
$2.27
$5.10
Rangeview Library District, CO
2007
2006
$4.81
$2.39
$5.37
Denver Public Library, CO
2007
2006
$4.96
$2.46
$5.53
Charlotte Mecklenburg Library, NC a
Douglas County Libraries, CO
Montrose Library District, CO
Pennsylvania Public Libraries
Florida Public Libraries
Florida Public Libraries
Fort Morgan Public Library, CO
2010
2007
2007
2006
2004
2010
2007
2008-2009
2006
2006
2006
2003-2004
2008
2006
$5.32
$5.02
$5.33
$5.50
$6.54
$8.32
$8.80
$2.48
$2.49
$2.64
$2.73
$3.51
$3.86
$4.37
$5.57
$5.60
$5.95
$6.14
$7.89
$8.69
$9.82
Cortez Public Library, Cob
2007
2006
$31.07
$15.41
$34.67
Mean
$8.76
a
Mea n ROI
b
The Cortez Public Library has unusually
high levels of users outside of funding unit.
Cons umer Pri ce Index Source: Al l Urba n Cons umers , Al l Items , U.S. Depa rtment of La bor, Burea u of La bor Statis tics . Ava i l a bl e a t
ftp://ftp.bl s .gov/pub/s peci a l .reques ts /cpi /cpi a i .txt
Phase 2: The
Institutional Perspective
For the purposes of analysis, the
“treatment” of interest was
considered to be an action: the
expenditure of public funds. The
intensity of the treatment was
thought to be reflected in the size of
the expenditure, and the effect of
interest was initially defined as the
benefits derived from these
investments, all of which would be
described in dollars.
Cost/
Benefit
Analysis
Public Health
Public Libraries
Type of study
Drug trial
Public library survey
Participants
Patients
Individual libraries
Treatment
Drugs
Public money
Effect
Drug response
Expenditure
Metric of interest Improvement
Net benefit
Data Collection
IMLS Public Library Survey data were
used for analysis. The full file includes
elements that pertain to each of the
over 9,000 public library systems
located in the U.S., U.S. Territories,
and the District of Columbia. The
smaller State Summary file aggregates
these data.
These sources were attractive for
several reasons:
The variables were accompanied with
operational definitions, the units of
analysis were uniform, and the data
were for the most amenable to
analysis.
Preliminary Results
2009 State Summary
File: Descriptive
Statistics
The
Institutional
Perspective
Table 3: Phase 2 Descriptive Statistics
2009 Direct
Return
$4.15
2009 Indirect
Return
$1.54
Mean
$4.43
$1.55
$5.97
$6.26
Median
$4.34
$1.51
$5.89
$6.17
Min
$1.77
$1.32
$3.20
$3.35
Max
$6.52
$1.97
$8.14
$8.53
Total
2011 Inflation
2009 Total Return Adjusted Total Return
$5.69
$5.97
Regional Analysis
The
Institutional
Perspective
Regional Analysis
The
Institutional
Perspective
Direct Return Direct Return Indirect
Indirect
Total Return Total Return % Increase
Region
2008
2009
Return 2008 Return 2009
2008
2009
2008 to 2009
New England
$3.90
$4.52
$1.72
$1.73
$5.62
$6.25
11.2%
Mid East
$3.20
$3.71
$1.60
$1.60
$4.80
$5.31
10.6%
Great Lakes
$3.68
$4.23
$1.50
$1.49
$5.18
$5.72
10.4%
Plains
$4.13
$4.63
$1.51
$1.51
$5.64
$6.14
8.9%
Southeast
$3.36
$4.09
$1.40
$1.47
$4.76
$5.57
17.0%
Southwest
$3.66
$4.17
$1.41
$1.46
$5.07
$5.63
11.0%
Rocky Mountains
$4.13
$4.99
$1.52
$1.58
$5.65
$6.57
16.3%
Far West
$3.31
$4.01
$1.50
$1.54
$4.81
$5.55
15.4%
Total
$3.51
$4.15
$1.51
$1.54
$5.02
$5.69
13.3%
Preliminary Results: Phase 2
Regional Meta-Analysis
The
Institutional
Perspective
The results of the preliminary meta-analysis
we performed using the updated USC
formula and the IMLS state summary file
data suggest that we can be 95% confident
that the mean total value is between $5.69
and $5.91
Research Question 1. Is there
consistent and mounting
evidence that public libraries
contribute to the economic
prosperity of the communities
they serve
When the results described above are taken into
consideration, the answer to our first research
question appears to be yes – the analyses performed
for this project suggest mounting and moderately
consistent evidence that public libraries contribute to
the economic prosperity of the communities they serve
and that these benefits may be expected to range
around $5.00 to $6.00 for every dollar spent.
 Further meta-analysis
 Better use of survey data.
 Further examination of the
intangible outcomes and
benefits that are typically
not taken into account in
these cost benefit estimates.
Three
pathways to
added value