9.2 Monitoring
It is useful to monitor key aspects of the resource centre
and its services, to provide information that can be used to
evaluate these activities. Before deciding what to monitor,
it is important to know what is to be evaluated, and how the
information collected through monitoring will be used for evaluation.
Monitoring can be a regular activity, such as keeping monthly
records of the number of enquiries received, or a periodic activity,
such as keeping records for a three-month period, or for three
separate months over the course of a year.
If monitoring is being carried out regularly, it is better
to collate the records (add up the figures) each month, when
it will not take long, than to leave it until the end of a quarter
or a year, when it will take much longer.
TIP: Collating records
To collate records easily, take an unused monitoring
form (see sample in Section 9.2.2) and write the relevant monthly
or yearly totals in or next to the relevant boxes.
The same form can be used for both visitors and enquiries.
However, it is useful to collate the records separately, as
visitors and enquirers may have different information needs.
9.2.1 What to monitor
It can be useful to keep records of:
- availability of the service
- visits
- acquisition of materials
- materials used
- services used
- enquiries
- website ‘hits’ (use of your website)
- publications
- promotion
- networking.
The following are suggestions for information to collect in
each of these areas. More or less detail could be collected
in each area, depending how the information is to be used.
1. Availability of the service
- number of hours intended to be open per month (or quarter
or year)
- number of hours actually open per month (or quarter or year)
- number of hours the resource centre was staffed per month
(or quarter or year).
2. Visits
- total number of visits made each month
- number of visits made by each user each month, or the total
number of repeat visits
- average number of visits made each day that the resource centre
is open
- number of visits made each month by different categories of
user (such as hospital doctors, nurses, community health workers,
administrative staff, regional and district health team members,
students and others).
This information can be obtained by asking visitors to fill
in either a visitors’ book which invites this information
(see Section 7.2.1: Welcoming visitors),
or a monitoring form.
To make sure that information from visitors is collected, staff
must either check that each visitor has completed the visitors’
book or monitoring form before the visitor leaves, or staff
must enter details themselves, based on information gathered
while assisting the visitor.
3. Acquisition of materials
- total number of new acquisitions (books, periodicals, reports,
slide sets, audio-cassettes, videos)
- total number of materials for which new editions have been
obtained
- total number of materials weeded
- number of new acquisitions as a result of efforts made by
staff or the resource centre advisory committee and other users
- number of new materials paid for and average cost
- number of materials donated, or exchanged for publications
- number of materials obtained that were published in the country/region
- number of materials added to each subject area of the collection
in the past month.
Most of this information can be obtained from the accessions
register (see Section 4.6.2), and
entered onto a form. It is important to collate these records
regularly, such as once a month. Otherwise it becomes a time-consuming
task, and there is a risk that it will not get done, and that
the information will be lost.
4. Materials used
- subject areas most often requested or used in the past month
- types of materials most often requested or used in the past
month.
This information can be obtained from visitors’ records
(see Section 9.2.2), the accessions register (see
Section 4.6.2), loans records (see
Section 7.5.2), and from the materials that are re-shelved
after use.
5. Services
- number of times the various services offered to visitors are
used per month (such as lending, photocopying, use of the database,
document supply, or literature searches).
This information can be collected from visitors’ records
(see Section 9.2.2), loans records (see
Section 7.5.2), document supply records kept by staff, and
notes kept by the resource centre officer on the number and
types of literature searches undertaken.
6. Enquiries
- number of enquiries per month
- average length of time taken to respond to enquiries
- subject areas requested
- materials used to answer enquiries
- geographic areas where requests come from (such as the district,
or whether urban or rural).
This information can be obtained from the enquiries forms which
are completed for each enquiry (see Section
7.11).
7. Website ‘hits’ (use of your website)
- ‘total unique sites’ or number of users who have
visited your website
- geographic location of these visitors, by country
- ‘search strings’ or text that visitors have typed
into search engines to reach your site (useful for developing
keyword metatags).
This information can be obtained monthly from most internet
service providers (ISPs). When selecting an ISP, ask whether
they will provide this information, how it will be presented,
and how detailed it will be.
8. Publications
- number and types of publications produced (such as current
awareness bulletins, resource lists, articles, newsletters,
or information packs)
- number of each publication distributed
- groups of users and locations to which publications have been
distributed
- number of publications that have been produced on time.
This information can be collected from publications distribution
records and staff notes.
9. Promotion
- amount of time spent on promotional activities
- number of people from the promotion target group who have
visited the resource centre or made enquiries in the two months
before and after the promotion
- number of materials of the type promoted that have been used
or requested in the two months before and after the promotion.
This information can be collected from staff notes and resource
centre advisory committee meeting minutes, and from visitors’
records (see Section 9.2.2) and enquiries records (see
Section 7.11).
10. Networking
- number of organisations networked with
- number of referrals to and from other resource centres
- number of documents supplied to and by other resource centres.
This information can be collected from visitors’ records
(see Section 9.2.2), enquiries records (see
Section 7.11), document supply records (see
Section 7.7), and staff notes.
next: 9.3 Evaluation
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