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By David Fuegi - February 2003
David Fuegi explains the role of the LIBECON Project in providing library statistics for policy makers and how you can make use of them yourselves.
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The LIBECON project [1] collects library statistics and makes them available via the Web to policy makers, practitioners and researchers free of charge in a standardised format based on ISO2789 (the international standard for library statistics). The data comes from national surveys conducted by the competent authorities in each country. This resource supports research and advocacy. It also enables international benchmarking to take place. LIBECON now supports self-defined searching. You can download the database for the sector that interests you (e.g. Public libraries or Higher Education Libraries) and compare internationally on any parameter in the questionnaire with any countries that interest you. The database is particularly strong on Europe (EU, EFTA and Accession Countries) but now welcomes data from any country willing to participate.
LIBECON is funded by DGINFOS under FP5. It is a freely available tool for policy makers, practitioners and researchers who require standardised statistical data to make comparisons between countries or groups of countries for advocacy or for management purposes, including international benchmarking. Although national statistics are now increasingly available on the Web, Web publishing is still far from universal. Statistics of some library sectors are hard to find - not always because they have not been collected. If you manage to find the data you need at national level, you still have to take care to check definitions. For example, you have found the number of staff employed in public libraries in country X but is it telling you total numbers or totals in full-time equivalents? Or you find the total spending in local currency, but need to convert it accurately.
LIBECON does not undertake primary surveys but relies on a network of country coordinators to complete the LIBECON survey forms from national sources. These forms are based on the ISO2789 standard and help ensure both that the data is comparable and that ISO2789 is understood and more widely adopted. LIBECON checks the data received for feasibility and follows up queries. If the data is incomplete, LIBECON seeks to agree a basis for grossing up the data so that it is complete for that country. If data is missing, LIBECON interpolates from known years. If a country has no data at all for a sector, an average derived from a group of comparable countries is interpolated. This interpolation process allows the big "political" numbers to be estimated, for example, total number of library employees in Europe (374,000 in 2000) or total registered readers (139 million). Readers requiring more information on actual numbers or on methodology can find it on the LIBECON website, especially in the Millennium Report which is still of great value. A new version of the Millennium Report (with a new name!) will be published on the site in the second half of 2003.
LIBECON's geographical scope is increasing. The strength of the database is mainly Europe [not just EU] but we are currently adding new countries, for example, Canada, USA, Turkey and so on. Our 4th Newsletter, available on the website gives more information. LIBECON is keen to load data from any country able to supply it to the necessary standard.
You can now download LIBECON data for the sectors which interest you. The sectors are public libraries, national, schools, special, higher education and other major non-specialised. You can then choose to compare any country with any other country or specified groups of countries using any of the data elements collected through the LIBECON questionnaire.
The data elements include, for example number of libraries, number of staff, issues, stock, spending and so on. To see a complete list, download the questionnaire. You can combine any two data elements to give ratios which then allow transparent and meaningful comparisons between countries. This is made possible by the standardisation process described earlier.
You are interested in public libraries (one of six possible choices of sector). You download the relevant file from the website. You are interested to see if you can make a case for more spending on public libraries based on international benchmarking. If the country for which you want to make the case has not contributed data, you will not be able to proceed. If your country HAS supplied data, you need to choose the relevant ratios. In this case, the obvious one to start with would be total spending on public libraries divided by total population to give spending per thousand population. The answer will be in Euros, so you do not have to worry about currency conversions. You decide to compare yourself with EU countries and Central and Eastern European countries. The result will look like this (based on grossed data).
| Figure 1: |
You then move on to other ratios that you regard as significant. For example, if your spending per head figure is low, could this be because you have few readers? Do a ratio of registered readers/population. If this is low, is it because service levels are low? Check libraries/population or stock/population for example. You can define the questions that you want answered which allow you to explore the issues.
LIBECON aims to work with all other organisations with an interest in library statistics, including UNESCO [2], EUROSTAT [3], ISO [4], IFLA [5] and EBLIDA [6] and has formed a Strategic Advisory Group to ensure that it remains in touch with the agenda of the major stakeholders, (see details in Newsletter 4 from the Web site [7]).
LIBECON supports standardisation in our field by keeping in touch with developments in ISO2789 and ISO11620 (Library Performance Indicators) and in EUROSTAT which is undertaking useful development work at present. The new LIBECON questionnaire is based on the current draft revision of ISO2789 and aims to speed up take-up of the revisions to this crucial standard.
LIBECON also creates a network for compilers of library statistics, many of whom are neither librarians nor based in institutions answerable to library stakeholders. An international workshop will be held in 2003 aimed at such people and our network of country coordinators.
LIBECON also recently conducted a feasibility study to find out if it might be possible to extend its activities to archives and museums, but concluded that this would not be feasible due to the non-availability of comparable data for both domains. It also looked into EUROSTAT's current activity in cultural statistics, especially museums.
We believe our work is valuable for many people interested in our field. We welcome feedback on any aspect of the work.
David Fuegi
david.fuegi@mdrpartners.com
http://www.mdrpartners.com
David Fuegi is professional adviser to LIBECON. He is a partner in MDR Partners, a consultancy company established to engage with strategic IST developments in Europe and specialising in international work involving libraries. He is joint author of "Library Performance Indicators and Library Management Tools" (1995) and of "Study of Library Economics of Central and Eastern Europe" (1998) both published in Luxembourg by the Office for Official Publications of the European Communities. He is joint author of the LIBECON project's Millennium Study. In the UK he is involved in the Co-East EQUAL project. Other major recent projects include business planning for the TACIS Russian State Library Project in Moscow and drafting public library standards for England for the Department of Culture, Media and Sport. He manages the IPF public library benchmarking clubs and is special adviser to the UK Committee on Public Library Statistics. Other European library projects in which he has worked include the Publica Project (DG13), ISTAR (DG5), PLDP (DG16), PULMAN, TACIS TELRUS etc. Formerly he was Library Advisor to UK government ministers responsible for Libraries and held senior positions in public libraries.
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For citation purposes:
Fuegi, D. "Who Needs Statistics? : A note on the Libecon Project", Cultivate Interactive, issue
9, 7 February 2003
URL: <http://www.cultivate-int.org/issue9/libecon/>
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Related articles:
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< - LIBECON - IST Programme - Cultural Heritage - Libraries - Museums - Archives - Statistics - ISO2789 - >
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