Croatian Libraries' Evaluation System

The aim of this poster is to present the evaluation system of Croatian libraries. According to the Croatian Library and Library Activity, the National and University Library in Zagreb is an institution responsible for development of a system for the libraries performance monitoring and measurement in the Republic of Croatia as well as for archiving and analysing collected statistical data.

For this purpose, The National and University Library in Zagreb has established a system of selected performance indicators and statistical data for all types of libraries that are collected yearly. Statistical data is predominantly based on international and Croatian standards ISO 11620 (Library Performance Indicators) and ISO 2789 (International Library Statistics). Thirteen performance indicators were selected, together with more than 500 library statistics variables. The system included those statistical indicators that best described the context of Croatian libraries, namely services and work processes, collections and access, management, budget and costs and library staff.

The whole documentation of the evaluation system is sited on the Portal of the Croatian library network’s development. These web pages contain guidelines, link to database, descriptions and glossary, infographics, yearly data exports, yearly analyses, as well as information on courses and webinars for librarians. All statistical data, as well as interpretations of it, are published in open access on the mentioned Portal.

From the year 2021, the system is enriched with new set of metrics that allowed comparing, and tracking performance of Croatian libraries. The first metric - quartiles of library performance indicators (KPU) - is used to group and rank libraries according to their performance indicator score into four groups: two above median and two below it. Quartiles are calculated for each of thirteen performance indicators for each reporting year by type of library. Quartiles of performance indicators for public, school and special libraries are calculated separately, while the results of university, higher education and research libraries are taken into account jointly. The second metric – compliance metric to the standard – is a tool for determining the percentage in which each public library complies to the national Standard for public libraries requirements. The fourteen indicators calculate compliance to the collection, income, personnel, costs of professional training, working hours, target population reached, library space area, number of user places and user computers. Both of these metrics are used in performance reporting and as part of evaluation procedures such as performance supervision of Croatian libraries.