Management information in the British Library Humanities and Social Sciences division

Abstract

An effective library planning system should incorporate a set of clear objectives, a means of monitoring resources allocated to services and a system of measuring performance to assess how far the library is achieving its objectives. The British Library's prime objectives are given in its Strategic Plan, published in 1985. A detailed costing system provides information about resources allocated to services. Until recently, Humanities and Social Sciences had few corporate measures which could be used to assess how the division was performing. This article describes how performance indicators are being evolved and looks at some of the problems encountered.