Can we quantify the library's influence? Creating an ISO standard for impact assessment

摘要

Traditionally, libraries collect and present at least basic data about the input into their services (funding, staff, collections, space, equipment) and the output of those services (loans, visits, downloads, reference transactions, etc). Such statistics are usually collected in the individual library and are more or less regularly summed up to regional or national statistics. Definitions and collecting procedures have been formalised and are described in the ISO Standard 2789 (International library statistics). In addition to such quantitative counts, libraries have also developed measures for assessing the quality of their services and the cost-efficiency of their service delivery. Such quality indicators or performance indicators are described in the ISO Standard 11620 (Library performance indicators).