Library performance management in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Abstract

Purpose -This paper intends to illustrate an application of data envelopment analysis (DEA) to assess library performance from an efficiency standpoint. Design/methodology/approach -DEA modeling was applied to a convenience sample of 37 libraries affiliated to a federal university in Rio de Janeiro. Data were collected from the university's managerial database and refer to three inputs -number of employees, area and number of volumesand four outputs -consultations, loans, enrolments and (user) traffic. Markovian analysis of transitions between efficient and inefficient states along time allowed a long-term distribution between those states to be computed. Findings -The retained DEA model provides a list of estimated scores that quantify efficiency status for each library unit and from which both rankings and operation plans can be determined for each unit to assist managers in their quest for library efficiency. In fact, (re)allocative measures, expressed as operation plans, indicate that, for each unit, some input(s) may be decreased and nonetheless some output(s) will increase. Those indicators may also be used to further or avoid either promised or planned changes. Originality/value -As long as the efficiency principle is accepted the paper provides a three-step procedure whereby any set of library units may be simultaneously assessed and ranked in relative terms and a set of quantitative operation plans may be used to (re)direct inefficient units toward efficiency. Whenever historical (e.g. annual) data are available, more adequate long-term efficiency profiles will be computed, as well as some (e.g. yearly) durations relating to time spent in or before visiting (in)efficiency states. This model, combining short-and long-term assessment, may be seen as a novelty contributed by the paper.

Project Managers’ Competences

“…For the development of this network, the co-citation of the keyword has been used as a cut criterion at least four times. By organizing words into common themes using the diagram technique of the affinity or KJ (Kawakita Jiro) method (Carvalho & Paladini, 2012), it was possible to identify three clusters on the network.…”

Urban public libraries: Performance analysis using dynamic-network-DEA

“…In contrast, Miidla and Kikas [37] posit a study of 20 public libraries in Estonia over a period of four years, with an efficiency analysis using DEA for each year. De Carvalho et al [38] assess the efficiency of a group of university libraries in Brazil applying DEA in two consecutive periods, while Stroobants and Bouckaert [39] employ DEA and Free Disposal Hull (FDH) to evaluate a group of local public libraries in Flanders. It should be pointed out, however, that these works follow a concept of comparative statics model when evaluating efficiency each year in an individual and independent manner.…”

Are public state libraries efficient? An empirical assessment using network Data Envelopment Analysis

“…3 Miidla and Kikas [24] consider four inputsyearly acquisition expenditures, yearly salary expenditures, collection size and floor area, and two outputsthe number of readers and number of loans. De Carvalho et al [25] use as inputs: number of employees, area and number of volumes, and they consider consultations, loans, enrollments and user traffic, as outputs.…”

“…Namely, we first exclude variables based on correlation levels, because highly correlated variables are generally redundant and should not be included in the analysis [40]. 25 In Table 4, we report the pairwise correlation matrix of our input-output variables. In MOD_2, we exclude the variables that for each group show a correlation higher than 90% (namely SHELF and OTHER_COLLECTIONS), whereas in MOD_3 we exclude the variables that for each group show a correlation higher that 80% (namely EXP x 1,000, PERIODICAL and LOAN).…”

“…Source: our elaboration 24 For a numerical example of the trade-off between sample size n and the number of inputs and outputs used for the consistency of efficiency estimate, see Simar and Wilson [42], p. 439. 25 We are aware of the potential risks of distortion connected to the use of this rule [50]. However, it has to be noted that we report the estimates for all the models and use the rule proposed by Jenkins and Anderson [40] simply to check for the consistency of our estimates.…”