The Depths of Cost-per-Use : Historical Context and Applications

Harker, Karen R.

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/121586 Copy

Description

Title

The Depths of Cost-per-Use : Historical Context and Applications

Author(s)

Harker, Karen R.

Issue Date

2022

Keyword(s)

Cost-per-use

Abstract

racticing librarians, library science researchers, operations researchers, and economists have documented their extensive efforts to ensure that libraries serve users effectively and efficiently. The measures and methods used have, in some ways, grown substantially more complex and sophisticated. Such tools include development of statistical models describing the use, and predicting future use, of resources (largely books and journals), as well as incorporating more variables to better explain the use. The cost-per-use metric, however, has become ubiquitous and nearly universal for evaluating resources, especially renewable resources such as journals and databases. Composed of only two factors, cost and use (and, by implication, time), this measure provides context missing from either metric alone, yet is simple enough for most practicing librarians and the library stakeholders to instantly comprehend. This article provides a background to the forces that led to the development, use, and gradual acceptance of this metric, and concludes with a case study of its application in different collection development decisions at the author’s institution.

Publisher

Johns Hopkins University Press and the Illinois School of Information Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Series/Report Name or Number

Library Trends 70 (3). Winter 2022

ISSN

0024-2594

Type of Resource

text

Language

eng

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1353/lib.2022.0000

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2022 Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

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