Document Type : Original Article
Authors
1 Expert in National Library and Archives of Iran, Tehran, Iran
2 Professor, Knowledge and Information Sciecne, Shahid Chamran University
3 Associate Professor, National Library and Archives of Iran
Abstract
Purpose: This paper aims at determining appropriate performance indicators based on the world’s national libraries and related ISOs. They are also chosen according to the NLAI’s experts comments based on Fuzzy Delphi Method (FDM).
Methodology: The present research is applied to the research purpose and uses a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods. The statistical society includes 2 categories: first, performance indicators of the world's national libraries (Library of Congress, British Library, National Library of Australia, National Library of Spain, Swiss National Library, Library and Archives Canada, National Library of France, and National Diet Library) adopted via emails to their national libraries.
The second is through 14 top level managers of NLAI selected by a purposeful sampling. The research tool to conduct a Fuzzy Delphi technique involve a checklist whose validity were recognized according to expert's opinion. The final checklist includes two categories of general and specialized questions. General questions include the demographic characteristics of the respondents. These questions include gender, age, organizational status, work experience, and level of education. Specialized questions that are the main part of the checklist and include 192 performance indicators in 11 dimensions (Building the national collection, Making the services accessible: Cataloguing, Making the services accessible: Quick and easy access, Making the services accessible: Usage, Making the services accessible: Digitization, Offering reference services, Building potentials for development, Preserving the collection, Managing efficiently, Research, and Library Standards Development).
Findings
In this study, out of 192 indicators, 32 indicators were selected view point of NLAI expert's. In the dimension of "Building the national collection" out of 20 indicators, 3 indicators were among the performance indicators selected by the experts NLAI.
In the dimension of " Making the services accessible: Cataloguing" out of 12 indicators, 2 indicators; in dimension of "Making the services accessible: Quick and easy access" out of 17 indicators, 3 indicators;in dimension of "Making the services accessible: Usage" out of 53 indicators, 6 indicators; in dimension of "Making the services accessible: Digitization" out of 21 indicators, 5 indicators were among the performance indicators selected by the experts NLAI.
In dimension of "Offering reference services" out of 10 indicators, 5 indicators; In dimension of "Building potentials for development"out of 28 indicators, 3 indicators; In dimension of "Preserving the collection" out of 9 indicators, 2 indicators; In dimension of "Managing efficiently" out of 14 indicators, 3 indicators were among the performance indicators selected by the experts NLAI.
Also, from the other results of this research, it can be said that in the "Research" dimension, out of a total of 4 indicators, no indicators were selected from the perspective of NLAI's experts.
In the "Library Standards Development" dimension, the two tasks of cataloging standards and digital and technology standards were selected by the organization's experts.
2 proposed items (Number of newly provided bibliographic data to OCLC, and New number of offerings authority data to VIAF), which was not the responsibility of the National Library's review staff, but because of its global importance. They were questioned by experts, not selected by NLAI experts.
Conclusion
In this research, for the first time, the performance indicators of the national libraries of the world and the ISOs related to evaluation of performance of libraries in order to determine and select the performance indicators for NLAI were studied in a coherent manner.
From the other results of this research, it can be said that among the 32 selected indicators to evaluate the performance of NLAI, a total of 8 indicators are related to the two ISOs studied (28118 and 21248); That is, 25% of the performance indicators monitored in this study are in accordance with ISO.
As Maurice Line stated, "no type of library varies so much in nature, size, and types of media covered, range of acquisitions, functions and services. But what matters is that the responsibilities of national libraries can differ from country to country as they are ‘subject to political agendas which change, often more rapidly than for public or academic libraries.
Accordingly, the need to develop performance indicators for national libraries according to their goals and tasks is a very serious issue. Therefore, it is suggested that NLAI use the performance indicators obtained from this study and compare the results and methods used with other national libraries to finally, with frequent reviews and monitoring, achieve a consensus on valid indicators.
Finally, given that indicators are defined at the organization’s top levels organization, managers can rely on the findings of the research to appropriately use the indicators to show a clear picture of the performance of the NLAI, and also be effective in allocate resources, make plans and policies of national libraries and prevent potential costs.
Keywords
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