CALCULATING RETURN ON INVESTMENT (ROI) IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR
June
2005 -- University
of Maryland, Masters of Information Management (MIM) Study Team's Progress
Report on Performance Metrics
MIM Team Main Report:
http://www.loc.gov/flicc/mim/measurement.pdf
MIM Report Bibliography:
http://www.loc.gov/flicc/mim/bibliography.pdf
(from the Executive Summary)
"Calculating Return on Investment (ROI) is the newest challenge
for justifying funding in the public sector. ROI can assist Federal librarians in successfully achieving
their library's missions and goals. Business thinking is entering the Government from the private sector
where it is customary to perform ROI to justify funding departments, programs, or staff. Even for career
Federal managers, there is increasing pressure to use business methodologies in managing Federal agencies.
ROI in the private sector is easier to calculate because private businesses are profit-oriented, product-producting
organizations. ROI is a new concept to public sector organizations. The challenge for organizations
like Federal libraries and information centers is to find a way to compute ROI even though they are not
revenue producing organizations.
The purpose of this paper is to assist Federal libraries in describing their value to the organizations they
support through a Performance Measurement Model (PMM). An attached set of reference charts of performance
measurement tools and methodologies is provided to assist each library at each stage of the performance measurement
process. This PMM outlines the history of how libraries have measured their performance and justified
their funding in the past and how the newer concept of ROI fits into the future model of performance measurement."
To download the full report and its bibliography, click on the links provided above.
June 2004 -- Business Case for Information Services: EPA's Regional Libraries and
Centers
EPA Publication number EPA 260-R-04-001, January
2004
http://www.epa.gov/natlibra/epa260r04001.pdf
An ROI (return on investment) study by the Environmental Protection Agency's network of regional and environmental center libraries of the costs and value of services being provided by the libraries. Mr. Richard Huffine, manager of the EPA's library network, discussed the study at the June 3, 2004 FLICC Quarterly Meeting. To review the findings of the study, download the document at the link above.
VALNET Staff throughout the country prepare these bibliographies in order to identify useful published information related to a variety of VA priority areas. These bibliographies are published monthly (in .pdf)
http://www.va.gov/VALNET/page.cfm?pg=1
The Consumer Health Information page on the public VA website:http://www1.va.gov/VALNET/page.cfm?pg=19
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