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 * Project as part of the UPLS self-evaluation**

It is difficult to demontrate a library's value. Our contibution is considerable (we believe) but entangled with other factors which makes it difficult to isolate and prove our value. Hence we tend to report in the //busy-ness// style: what we have accomplihed every year and which explains why we feel so burnt out! But it is not clear whether all this activity **really** contributed to student success and to our university's research success (see [|**Mapping the success and significance of our services**]).

> > **Definition(s)** > > > **Goals**
 * ROI is about **accountability**, an assessment method aimed at connecting investment with real outcomes. "ROI would answer the question of how much quantifyable value the University received for every dollar it invested in the library" (Kaufman).
 * "Indeed, ROI is often described as the holy grail of measurement - a revealing metaphor, with its implication of an almost certainly doomed search" (Likierman).
 * ROI works best as one aspect of a sophisticated, multi-faceted, holistic assessment including quantitative and qualitative measures.
 * The inadequacy of ROI to fully describe the value of non-commercial activities gave rise to Value on investment (VOI) (Gartner) and Social return on investment (SROI).
 * 1) To develop a number of indicators which will demonstrate the value that we create for our main investors/ stakeholders as part of the value proposition.
 * 2) To investigate the feasibility of using ROI for certain library functions/programmes/projects.

Monica Hammes (monica.hammes@up.ac.za) Gerda Beukes (gerda.beukes@up.ac.za) Louis Leonard (louis.leonard@up.ac.za) Soekie Swanepoel (soekie.swanepoel@up.ac.za) Ria Groenewald (ria.groenewald@up.ac.za) Martha de Waal (martha.dewaal@up.ac.za)
 * Task Team**

Notes of a meeting held on 3 June (Afrikaans)


 * Provisional modus operandi (phase 1)**
 * 1) Identify groups who invest in us (our income sources): the University, government/tax payers, students and their parents, external clients, grant funders
 * 2) Establish what these groups (can) expect from us in exchange for their money
 * 3) Identify information that will help us to measure our success with these expectations
 * 4) Keep track of US Lib-Value project [|**US Lib-Value project**]. UP interpretation of their model available at I:\Share\2010\Peer Review\VALUEandROI


 * Reports (URLs to be added soon)**
 * 1) Elsevier study
 * 2) ROI of our investment in Millnnium
 * 3) Chapter in 2010 UPLS self evaluation report