Please join us on Monday, May 21 for a SILS Alumni Event from 6:00-7:15 pm at Pearse Street Dublin City Public Library, 138 - 144 Pearse Street, Dublin 2.
Professor Jennifer Arns from the University of South Carolina will be giving a presentation on:
A Penny Earned: Making the Case for Public Library Investment Using the Results of Recent Research and Meta-analysis
The value of public libraries is often readily apparent. In the United States and other countries, they are visited millions of times each year. Research suggests strong demand for their services, and a number of studies have recently examined their contributions from the economic perspective that has become increasingly important to advocates and managers.
Less progress has been made in consolidating and interpreting these efforts and it is still somewhat unclear how they can be used most effectively in public forums and comparative assessment discussions. This federally funded national research project addresses this problem from two directions, beginning with the review, analysis and integration of the results of a corpus of recent valuation studies and continuing with an eight step cost-benefit model that draws from National Public Library Survey data. Both analyses estimate a return of approximately $5.00 to $6.00 2010 U.S. dollars for every dollar expended, suggesting a pattern of real and vital contribution to the prosperity of the communities in which public libraries are located. Further examination of the social capital associated with these figures points to additional aspects of the value of public library service and lends considerable strength to arguments for sustained public library funding.
Dr. Arns graduated with a B.A. from Syracuse University in 1968, a MLS from the University of California at Berkeley in 1970, and a MPA from Harvard University in 1991. She received her Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2002. Dr. Arn's teaching areas include Public Librarianship, Information Systems Policy, Information Systems in Organizations and Foundations of Librarianship and Information Services.
Hope you will join us on 21 May!
