Measure by Measure:  Assessing the 
Viability of the Physical Library 
Steve Hiller 
University of Washington Libraries 
Seattle, WA   USA  
Fifth Northumbria International Conference on Performance 
Measurement in Libraries 
July 30, 2003 
University of Washington, Seattle USA 
Academic Branch Libraries 
• Definition:   
A library service unit under the management of the library 
administration, with collections and staff, which is  
physically separate or divided from other library service units 
ACRL Guidelines for Branch Libraries in Colleges and Universities 1990 
 
• Attributes: 
– Many evolved from departmental reading rooms 
– Often associated with large research universities 
– Most common in sciences, fine arts, business, engineering, 
and health sciences  
– Traditionally able to offer more specialized and personalized 
services 
 
 
North American Academic Branch 
Libraries:  Recent Trends 
• Declining use, especially with the advent of full-text 
electronic resources 
• Multidisciplinary research and learning is on the 
increase; traditional disciplinary boundaries blurring 
• Facilities need upgrading; few new academic branch 
libraries built or substantially renovated 
• New library service models emerging that emphasize 
local support delivery rather than local collections 
• University budgets and space stressed 
• Closures and mergers on the increase 
• Are (collection based) academic branch libraries still 
viable and how can we measure that viability? 
Print Use Declines: UW Annual Loans and 
In-Library Use 1995-96 to 2002-03 
1048437
1018721
1040719 997831
1006856
1032155
1092525
1166147
1155552
2121895
1831768
1853964
1653298
1453632
1286490
799325
80000
1000000
1200000
1400000
1600000
1800000
2000000
2200000
2400000
1995-96 1996-97 1997-98 1998-99 1999-2000 2000-01 2001-02  2002-03
LOANS IN LIBRARY USE
UW In-Person Visits Declined and Remote 
Use Increased 1998/2001 (% who use library at least weekly) 
Visit 
1998 
Visit  
2001 
Remote 
1998 
Remote 
2001 
Faculty 
Change 
47% 40% 
-15% 
73% 79% 
+8% 
Grad 
Change 
78% 59% 
-24% 
63% 75% 
+19% 
Undergrad 
Change 
67% 61% 
-9% 
43% 54% 
+26% 
Reasons for Visiting Libraries 2001: UW 
Faculty and Students (Among those visiting at least weekly) 
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
Use
Collections
Use space or
services
Only
Collections
Only space
or services
Faculty Grad Undergrads
Branch Libraries Closure Criteria:   
North American Academic Libraries 
• Recent North American closures/mergers driven by: 
– Budget reductions 
– Space needed by academic departments 
– Desktop delivery of information resources and services 
– New service models that focus on people not collections 
• University of Washington measures (1994-95) 
– Distance from main library 
– Size of primary user community 
– Degree of multi-library use by primary user community 
ARL Spec Kit 255, Branch Libraries and Discrete Collections, 1999 
 
Branch Libraries Closure Criteria:  
Public Libraries 
• U.K.  (after Sheffield University ) 
– Book issue totals and trends 
– Book issues per hour open 
– Net cost per book issue 
– Total visitors per week 
– Visitors per hour open 
– Population/population trends of the local catchment areas 
– Distance to nearest library and to District/Central Library 
– Public transport availability  
– Social value and impact 
Sheffield University Centre for the Public Library and 
Information in Society 
Performance Measurement Criteria to 
Assess 10 UW Branch Libraries 
• Develop a “basket” of viability measures 
– Measures that relate to the library’s physical presence and location 
– Measures that are balanced 
– Measures that use available data or data that can be easily obtained 
– Measures that can be clearly presented and understood 
– Measures that incorporate trend data as appropriate 
• Viability measures that can provide a “road map” for 
long term strategy of merger and consolidation . . .  
– Mergers based on “objective” criteria rather than political or budgetary 
considerations 
– Measures that enable the library to have more control over the process 
• And identify those libraries where we could invest in 
facility upgrades for the short to mid term 
UW Branch Library Viability Measures 
• Measures developed 
in 4 broad categories: 
• Use  
• Primary user 
population 
• Facility quality 
• Library dependency 
of primary user 
community 
 
• Caveats: 
• Compared branch libraries 
with each other, not against 
any standard  
• Didn’t use as initial 
measures: 
– Operational costs  
– Collection size 
(unless>100,000 volumes) 
– Facility size 
– Distance from main library 
 
 
Library Use Measures 
• Print materials use (latest year) 
– Includes loans, in-library use, and print reserves 
• Print materials use change 1995-97 to latest 2 year 
period 
– Includes loans, in-library use and print reserves 
• Photocopies/prints made (latest year) 
– Sheets copied on library photocopiers and sheets printed on 
library printers (cost to user for both) 
• Reference inquiries (latest year) 
– Number of non-directional inquiries 
• Entrance gate count (latest year) 
In-Library and Reserve Use:  Science and Fine 
Arts Branch Libraries 1996-97 to 2002-03 
0
10000
20000
30000
40000
50000
60000
70000
80000
90000
100000
110000
120000
130000
140000
1996-97 1997-98 1998-99 1999-2000 2000-01 2001-02 2002-03*
Science In-Library Fine Arts In-Library Fine Arts Reserve Science Reserve
   
Print Collection Use and Reference Inquiries 
for 10 Branch Libraries 2002-03
Architecture
Art
Chemistry
Drama
Fish-Ocean
Forestry
Mathematics
Physics
Social Work
Music
0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
3000
3500
4000
4500
5000
5500
6000
6500
7000
15000 20000 25000 30000 35000 40000 45000 50000 55000 60000 65000 70000
Library Print Materials Used
R
e
f
e
r
e
n
c
e
 
I
n
q
u
i
r
i
e
s
44
4
2
3
4
3
2
3
5
2
1
5
2
3
3
4
1
3
2
3
2
5
3
1
1
2
2
1
1
4
3
1
2
1
5
5
3
4
4
1
1
1
1
2
1
1
3
5
2
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
20
22
Architecture Art Chem Drama Fish-Ocean Forestry Math Music Physics Social W
Use Scores  Values Assigned to each measure ranging from 1 (lowest) to 5 (highest)
Print Collection Use Print Use Change Copies Made
Reference Questions Gate count
User Population Measures  
Branch Library Primary User Groups  
• Undergraduate majors (latest year) 
• Undergraduate majors enrollment changes 1995-
97 to latest two year period (2001-03) 
• Graduate students (latest year) 
• Graduate students changes between 1995-97 and 
latest two year period (2001-03) 
• Number of faculty (latest year) 
 
 
Primary User Groups by Branch Library 
232
1137
149
333
837
157
255
336
355
96
335
82
65
163
284
239
179
183
198
369
57
45
20
47
111
86
63
93
106
47
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000 1100 1200 1300
Architect
Art
Drama
Music
Chem
Fish
Forest
Math
Physics
Soc Wk
Undergrad Grad Faculty
   
Student Enrollment Change 1995-97 to 2001-
03 by Branch Library
Fish-Ocean
Architecture
Art
Chemistry
Drama
Forestry
Mathematics
Music
Physics
Social Work
-40%
-30%
-20%
-10%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
-60% -50% -40% -30% -20% -10% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%
Undergraduate Majors
G
r
a
d
u
a
t
e
s
 
S
t
u
d
e
n
t
s
Facility Quality Measures:  
 Libraries Are Student Spaces 
• Students per user seat 
– Number students from primary academic area per general 
user seat 
• Students per computer seat 
– Number of students from primary academic area per library 
computer 
• Quality of user space 
• Quality of collection space 
• Quality of staff space 
Facility Space Quality:  Methodology 
• Discussed facility issues with unit staff 
• Reviewed user survey comments from 2001 and 2002 
• Developed list of criteria 
• A team of 3 walked through each unit 
• A second walk through was conducted 2 months later 
• Each member of the team assigned a score of 1 to 5 
for quality of staff, collections, and user spaces. 
• Scores were compared and made consistent. 
 
Facility Quality:  Key Attributes 
• Staff spaces 
– Privacy 
– Light and noise levels conducive to work 
– Furnishings and equipment 
– Staff area separated from public area 
• Collection spaces 
– Growth potential 
– Theft detection system 
– Collection arranged in a user friendly manner 
– Environmental conditions suitable for preservation 
• User Spaces 
– Diversified and sufficient user space 
– Light and noise levels conducive to work 
– ADA compliant 
– Furniture and equipment 
– Ambience and amenities 
Library Dependency Measures:   
Tied to Use of  On-Site Print Collections  
• Percentage who visit library to use collections 
• Frequency of faculty in-person library visits 
• Ratio of faculty use of primary library to main 
library 
• Importance of certain print collections to faculty 
– Books 
– Journals published before 1980 
• Percentage of core journals currently available electronically 
Primary User Community Dependency 
on  Physical Library:  Sources 
• In-Library Survey Spring 2002 
– Distributed short survey that asked about their library visit 
– Survey distributed during five 2 hour time blocks 
– 4000 completed surveys returned 
• Library Triennial Survey 2001 
– Survey sent to all faculty and a sample of students 
– Survey asked about library use patterns, importance of 
books and journals, priorities 
– 1345 faculty surveys returned (36% response rate); 600 
graduate student surveys returned (40% response rate) 
• ISI Journal Citation Reports  
– Develop list of highly cited journals by subject and then 
check for electronic availability 
   
Importance of Books and Older Journals by Faculty 
Primary User Group (Scale of 1-not important- to 5-very important-)
Architecture
Mathematics
Physics
Art
Chemistry
Drama
Fish-Ocean
Forestry
Music
Social Work
3
3.1
3.2
3.3
3.4
3.5
3.6
3.7
3.8
3.9
4
4.1
4.2
4.3
4.4
4.5
3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 3.9 4 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7 4.8 4.9 5
Books
J
o
u
r
n
a
l
s
 
P
u
b
l
i
s
h
e
d
>
1
9
8
0
34
17
12
16
34
13
8
19
26
21
12
14
26
7
8
17
28
13
21
17
14
15
15
17
22
17
8
24
42
13
10
17
12
19
16
15
24
16
21
14
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
55
60
65
70
75
80
Architecture Art Chem Drama Fish-Ocean Forestry Math Music Physics Social W
Branch Library Viability Measures Score (Use weighted 2x)
Use Primary User Population Facility Quality Library Dependency
What’s Next at UW? 
• Report and recommendations on merging 4 libraries 
during next 2 years accepted by library administration 
– 1st merger into main library anticipated December 2003 
– Merger of 2 science libraries possible in 2004-2005 year 
– Potential merger of a fine arts library into main library 
• Developing and implementing new service models 
where the Libraries can maintain a presence (but not 
house print collections) in the academic unit 
Future Viability of Branch Libraries 
• Use measures will continue to decline 
• Branch library closures and mergers will accelerate in 
those subject areas with substantial electronic resources 
available and in libraries with stressed budgets 
• New service models will evolve for providing library 
service and support within the space of the academic unit 
• Surviving physical libraries will emphasize student work 
and support space in collaborative teaching and learning 
environments 
 The Future of Branch Libraries?  
(From The Simpsons, after robots run amok at Itchy and Scratchy Land) 
     
 
Professor Frink: Man, if this is happening here, I'd hate to think of what's 
happening in Euro Itchy and Scratchy Land. 
           [shot of empty parking lot in said park] 
Booth man: [French accent] Hello?  Itchy and Scratchy Land open for business.  
Who are you to resist it, huh? 
Come on.  My last paycheck bounced.  My children need wine.