Information Delivery: Identifying Priorities, Performance, and Value

Abstract Although technology might have improved information organisation, delivery, and access mechanisms, information services unit (ISU) managers continue to have difficulties in identifying the benefit to the parent organisation of the information services provided. Traditional evaluation techniques provide indicators of operational efficiency and improvements over time. However, these need to be complemented by techniques that seek to identify the benefits of those information services to the organisation in terms having meaning to both managers and users. This paper outlines two techniques that bridge the gap between those used by senior managers and those with which ISU managers have been comfortable. The first approach, priority and performance evaluation, builds on critical success factor methodology. This is complemented by a form of cost-benefit analysis applied to current awareness services. These two approaches were trialled in two organisations and found to make an effective contribution to evaluating library and information services in terms understood by users, management, and the provider group.