Return On Investment: Is It Possible to Demonstrate Value for Digital Library Services?

As the financial crisis has deepened in higher education, administrators and others have called for more evidence of value and return on investment, even for such core services as libraries. Others have argued that this approach simply can't apply to library services. The California Digital Library has attempted to develop various measures of value and return on investment (ROI) to its services and will examine where these approaches may be credible and where there are gaps.

For background on the issues, see “Stop the Madness: The Insanity of ROI and the Need for New Qualitative Measures of Academic Library Success” by James G. Neal or the Lib-Value project.