We do! We count the number of people using the library, consulting our databases, and taking our classes; we also count how many books we own, and the number of journals and databases we subscribe to. Now we just need to figure out how to make them meaningful. We were helped with this task when we joined almost 400 librarians who gathered last month in Baltimore for the biennial Library Assessment Conference, sponsored by the Association of Research Libraries.
The conference inspired us to focus our efforts on turning those numbers into information that can help us serve you better. The gathering was especially timely since we’ve been asking you for lots of feedback lately on our services via LibQual and the furniture for the Brody Learning Commons. Stay tuned as we share with you how we plan to turn numbers into action.
In the meantime, here are some numbers you might find interesting:
- Books: over 3.7 million
- Databases: 523
- Classes: 386
- Annual gate count: 1,002,773