How to use statistics to survive – a personal story

Autor: Paola Iannucci, Luciana Sacchetti, Simona Tosi
Rok vydání: 2011
Předmět:
Zdroj: Performance Measurement and Metrics. 12:78-86
ISSN: 1467-8047
DOI: 10.1108/14678041111124315
Popis: PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to present a personal story about the use of statistics to help protect library services at the Library of the Department of Statistics at Bologna University.Design/methodology/approachThis paper describes the statistics used uncritically by the Centralized Library Services of the University, their inadequacy, and greater utility of the data gathered by the Statistics Library together with those of the University of Ferrara.FindingsThe data gathered by the Statistics Library and those of the University of Ferrara provided a richer and more valid image of their services and their value to the user community, than the limited, somewhat old‐fashioned and simplistic metrics of the Centralized Library Services.Originality/valueThis successful approach helped change the mind of senior library management at a time of retrenchment. It is hoped that it will inspire others to challenge simplistic snapshots of services and strengthen their cases with more representative data.
Databáze: OpenAIRE