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NSLS Offers New Return on Investment Calculator for Libraries
By Anna Yackle, NSLS
July 19, 2007
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Libraries are economic assets for their community and provide a significant return on investment (ROI). It is vital that libraries share this information with their users and funding sources. NSLS has selected Dollars and Sense: Why Libraries Are a Good Investment as our theme for the next fiscal year as well as our theme of the month for July 2007.

We want this to also be a major theme for our members. To help do this we have created the Return on Investment (ROI) Calculator.

Libraries can use the ROI calculator in a number of ways.

First enter your library's weekly, monthly, or annual usage statistics to determine the dollars and cents value of your institution to your users. Next take this number and publicize it.

We have added a convenient widget to help you post it online. Once the number is posted you can promote it and provide a link to the calculator and encourage your users to find the amount of out-of-pocket expenses they save per library visit.

Publicize the services libraries offer.

The calculator is a fantastic tool but, it only tells half of the story. Libraries offer a variety of valuable programs and services that are difficult to quantify. These are highlighted in a companion document that you are encouraged to steal, adapt, or use in any way that is helpful.

Share the facts.

According to Rex Stout, the author of the Nero Wolfe detective novels, “There are two kinds of statistics, the kind you look up and the kind you make up.”

Libraries are lucky. Our statistics are real and prove we are worth every dollar we are given. It is no mystery that libraries are priceless, let’s share the facts of our case with our community.

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