Measures of Change in Academic Library Behavior

Abstract

Most of us working in academic libraries recognize that new strategies and practices are required given the changes technology has brought to higher education and scholarly communication.1 Many libraries are implementing these strategies and practices, but it is difficult to move often long-established ways of doing things and to know how much progress is being made. At least in part this is because we are in uncharted waters and the old markers no longer measure the things that matter. What we need now are new measures to help establish how we are doing. It is a management truism that what gets measured is what gets done, and so until we have measures that direct us toward the changes we know we should be making, we are unlikely to go fast enough or far enough. This article explores these issues and recommends measures.