2018 Charleston Library Conference

Librarians face a number of obstacles in telling their ROI story. Our research has shown that one of the challenges is that the measures university administrators have traditionally used to define institutional ROI don’t translate well for the library. For example, while graduation and time-to-degree are essential to demonstrating the university’s story, they need not define the value of the library or be used to diminish the library’s story.

This is common knowledge among librarians, but administrators, some of whom you may be familiar with, often need guidance to understand how much value the library provides to the campus community without using student outcome measures. This panel will be made up of librarians who will share strategies on how they’ve successfully told their ROI story both internally and externally. The goal of this highly interactive session is to openly acknowledge the difficulties in communicating the library’s value in a supportive atmosphere and to inspire librarians with new and interesting ways to tell their own story back at their home institutions. The session will include ample time for Q&A with the audience.