BOOK AND SOFTWARE REVIEWS
Showers, Ben, (Ed.). Library analitics and metrics: using data to derive decisions and services. London, UK: Facet Publishing, 2015. xxxii, 176 p. ISBN 978-1-85604-965-8. £49.95
Measurement and evaluation is a fascinating area. I am always intrigued by possibilities that analysis and interpretation of data opens up for understanding, explaining and acting. With the deluge of data that now circulates in each and every organization, the problem is to select the important metrics and indicators that are suitable for a purpose. The purpose, aim or goal is the core of the whole measuring and evaluating activity guiding it from the selection of data to the instruments of its analysis and interpretation frameworks. This is well spotted by the authors of the book about library analystic and metrics.
This is not a book for researchers and academics, though some of us may be interested in the cases presented in it. It is unambiguously directed to professional librarians and library managers. The goal of it is to explain the usage of data for decision making and service development in modern libraries. In general the book can also fit the needs of other professionals working in many organizations, especially memory institutions.
The very structure of the book turns it into a kind of guidebook or reference book. Apart from the first chapter explaining the purpose of the book and main concepts used in it all other chapters consist of two parts. First of them is more general explanation of the characteristics of data used for a certain purpose: collections management, demonstration of library impact, transformation of user experiences or understanding the risks of analytics. The second part introduces concrete projects and their results as well as demonstrates how these results were used and what potential they have for concrete libraries or other institutions. Each chapter is closed with a general summary and a list of further resources.
The most interesting part is, of course, the presentation of the projects. A reader learns how the Open University Library has exploited the data of the usage of library resources for developing recommendations to the users. She can appreciate the problems of data interpretation through the Library Analytics and Metrics Project in the UK academic libraries. The development of the tools for library data analysis and visualisation in Harvard Library Lab increases understanding of challenges that are absent at most other areas where statistics are applied. We have a glimpse of the Copac Collection Management tools in England permitting a fruitful analysis and coordination of collections across universities. Three projects explain how libraries can connect the data about the use of the library with the data of students' performance, attainment or academic engagement. Though the problems and limitations of the methods and data may dampen the enthusiasm to use them, but the benefits of such approaches are quite evident. One can also learn how to use qualitative methods for evaluation and development of libraries for users. I was particularly impressed by the ethnographic space observation at the newly built Atkin Library at the University of North Carolina. The method itself may be quite familiar, but the application of it for the formation and transformation of the library space was particularly interesting.
The chapter on legal constraints and consequences is based on the UK legislation and regulations, so it may have a restricted interest for the global audience, though the general outline of the problem is quite universal.
I would say that it is quite strange to say that the chapter on web and social media metrics was least interesting. First of all, the presented projects were of a different character than in other chapters. One of them looked at the digital traces of user access to the British Museum, National Gallery, Natural History Museum, British Library and National Archives. It seemed to be quite academic and led to no visible conclusion answering the question: So, what? In a different book it might have read differently, but all the previous chapters have introduced a very strong application bias, not any general application, but looking into problem solving or decision making in a particular organization for a certain purpose. Thus this in itself interesting project seemed to be slightly out of context. The project Culture24 was far more explicit in its applied goals and aims to explore certain questions (e.g. How to evaluate online success of cultural institutions?), but was spoiled by too many bulleted lists, smacking of a project report rather than of an instructive narrative.
I would also like to point out something that I became worried about while reading the texts. It may be that the abundance of data provides libraries, universities and any other institution with new possibilities to understand and evaluate their own activities and needs or behaviour of their users. These possibilities should be used wisely. And I would violently disagree that access to any amount of data and wonderful tools of analysis should take away the responsibility of those who are 'measured' and investigated, especially, if they are grown-up persons. The recurring motive of a failed university student coming to the university and blaming it for not noticing that s/he is going to fail is really ridiculous for an educator with a long-life teaching experience. It is as if people, coming to a wonderful pool, having access to the best trainers and not bothering to enter the water or make an effort, complain that they have not learned swimming. The universities provide the opportunities and facilities, competence and services (lakes, streams and rivulets), but learning by using these possibilities (drinking from them) is up to the people. The monitoring and understanding students, lecturers, researchers, managers and any organization as a whole does not imply that duties of those mentioned are disappearing or turn into some obscure rights to be saved from trouble, just because we can collect data about what they do and how they behave.
All in all, I think that one of the best outcomes of this book would be building the understanding of how the data of different types can be effectively and creatively used in libraries. Libraries seem to have a tendency to use the data in a simplistic way without thinking what actually it indicates and signifies. This is the fault not only of libraries, but quite recently my colleagues were collecting data about how libraries evaluate their activity and performance in one of the Central European countries. We were quite amazed how much data is entirely uninformative and useless, how little meaningful data is available because no one at a national or organizational level actually takes time to think what they are doing.
So, I would heartily recommend the book to all professional librarians, but also to educators, as it provides good examples not only of data usage, but also of critical thinking.
