Measuring the Efficiency of University Libraries Using Data Envelopment Analysis [poster/paper]

Author: Nevena Stancheva,  University of Economics, Bulgaria

Co-author: Vyara Angelova

Fulltexts

Abstract

Data Envelopment Analysis is non-parametric linear programming based technique used for measuring the relative performance of organizational units where the presence of multiple inputs and outputs makes comparisons difficult. DEA is generally used to measure efficiency of hospitals, universities, bank branches, police offices, tax offices. The method calculates the efficiency of a set of decision making units (DMU’s) and provides information on which unit is not using inputs efficiently. We estimate the panel data of five University Libraries for years 2002 and 2003. The input variables we consider are: staff, expenses for print issues, expenses for electronic issues, scale, wages, material and technical founds. As an output variables we estimated: number of registrated readers, number of served costumers, number of books checked out. We found that 3 libraries form the efficiency frontier and the other 2 are inefficient for 2002 and 2003. We suggest a benchmark for inefficient units.