The Challenge of Showing Economic Impact of Library

Abstract

The libraries are organizations financed with public funds and they have to evaluate their operation and report it to their financiers. In the present, even still tightening economic climate they must also be able to show that they produce their services cost-effectively. So the service offered by the library shall be of as high quality as it is feasible with an acceptable cost level. Developing of quality of the library services may be included in a library law. National library policies obliging to developing and maintenance of the quality of the services may also be defined in some countries. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) published the standard ISO 16439 “Methods and procedures for assessing the impact of libraries” in 2014. In this paper, the challenges related to the showing of the economic impact of the library are discussed and a critical review for the economic impact analysis of the library is presented.