A guest column by Rosalind Dudden for Informed Librarian. From the column:

We can measure inputs into the programs the library hopes to accomplish. What is the size of our staff, budget, space, or collection? We can compare it to others with benchmarking studies. Some think this is not worthwhile but sometimes it is the only thing stakeholders understand. It answers questions people ask because they do not know what else to ask. It can start a conversation: “How many e-journals do you have?” Answer: “350 (or whatever) AND did you know that the process of investigation by our scientists has been fast-tracked by their access to this information at their desktop?” or “1500 (or whatever) AND did you know that the use of these resources by our high school students at home has increased their ability to have more citations in their papers?” If you don’t have that initial number, you can’t expand on it. So don’t drop those very traditional input counts just yet.

About the author: Rosalind Farnam Dudden is the health sciences librarian at the National Jewish Medical and Research Center in Denver, CO. A member of the Medical Library Association (MLA) since 1971 and a former member of the Board of Directors of MLA…

Source: Informed Librarian

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