Recent developments to the national framework to evaluate public library performance in the UK

摘要

IPF is the executive arm of CIPFA, the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) and is involved in the development of public library performance in the UK in a number of ways. On behalf of the Department of Culture, Media and Sport [DCMS] it has developed the framework for the submission and evaluation of annual public library plans and has evaluated the plans submitted to DCMS for the last 3 years. It has provided the secretariat to support DCMS in developing public library standards for England, which were published and adopted in early 2001. It supports the Committee on Public Library Statistics to specify what statistics will be collected for UK public libraries and publishes the results. It provides the PLUS [Public Library User Survey] service, which constitutes a de facto national standard in user surveys for public libraries. It operates a sophisticated network of metric and process benchmarking clubs to which a high percentage of public libraries subscribe.