The SAA-ACRL/RBMS Joint Task Force on the Development of Standardized Statistical Measures for Public Services in Archival Repositories and Special Collections Libraries is responsible for development of a new standard defining appropriate statistical measures and performance metrics to govern the collection and analysis of statistical data for describing public services provided by archival repositories and special collections libraries.
The Standard will describe and quantify users of special collections and archival materials and services and their usage of the same, including reading room paging/circulation, paging/circulation of materials for other purposes (e.g., class/events, exhibits, reference questions, conservation, processing), reference interactions (in person and via email), reproduction orders (numbers of orders and pages photocopied/digitized), interlibrary loan requests (physical, digital; filled, not filled), and events (e.g., numbers and characteristics of class visits, exhibits [physical and virtual], tours, programs, etc). If feasible, the Standard may also include recommendations for gathering and analyzing statistics about special collections website visitors and their page views and file downloads.
News & Announcements
ACRL/ RBMS, SAA Release Standardized Statistical Measures and Metrics for Public Services in Archival Repositories and Special Collections Libraries
The SAA-ACRL/RBMS Joint Task Force on the Development of Standardized Statistical Measures for Public Services in Archival Repositories and Special Collections Libraries has submitted the final version of the standard to SAA and RBMS for review and eventual approval.
November 2017 update on the SAA and ACRL/RBMS review and approval of the proposed standard.
Draft version 2 of “Standardized Statistical Measures and Metrics for Public Services in Archival Repositories and Special Collections Libraries” is now open for comment through Friday, February 17, 2017.
In the second of our series exploring the results of a survey issued last fall on behalf of the SAA-ACRL/RBMS Joint Task Force on the Development of Standardized Statistical Measures for Public Services in Archival Repositories and Special Collections Libraries, we delve here into questions of patron-centered metrics. These posts are intended to prime some of the thinking about how we, as a profession, currently collect, work with, and think about data in a public services context.
The Task Force disseminated a survey requesting responses from repositories about their practices and priorities in the gathering of public services data. Results from the survey will be shared in a series of brief posts.
Comments sought on proposed standard defining statistical measures and performance metrics for public services.
