The following work is part of the requirements of the Course “Human Capital and Evaluation of Academic Libraries RICBLU (Inter-American Network of Connectivity of University Libraries.” Dictated in the virtual modality between Nov. 2004 / Feb. 2005.
A cooperative Benchmarking experience is described, between Academic Libraries, from Mexico, El Salvador and Argentina.
Its organizational infrastructure, its processes and its services are compared, and this experience is capable of being transferable to other similar areas, with cooperation objectives.
Indicators have been identified that may be useful and will serve as the basis for a new benchmarking study and for future decision-making.
Keywords: Academic Libraries - Comparative Librarianship - Comparative Studies - Benchmarking - Mexico - El Salvador - Argentina
international-cooperative-benchmarking-study-1Benchmarking definition:
“Systematic and continuous process to evaluate the products, services and work processes of the organizations that are recognized as representing best practices, with the purpose of making organizational improvements. It is setting goals, using external and objective standards and learning from others.
Its objective is to optimize the organization. In other words, it is part of a set of activities that organizations currently use for this purpose.
Benchmarking aims to transfer the know-how of those organizations with the best performance to the organization itself. With this process it is possible to transfer elements from different organizations ”(2)
The different Benchmarking definitions share the following elements:
- Develop competitive advantages Study best practices in organizations in any industry Compare the performance of one organization with that of others, to obtain information that, creatively adapted, leads to improve its performance
Benchmarking and Information Units
Benchmarking is an important tool for information specialists. It is a management technique, applicable to any organization, including information units, be they libraries, archives, documentation centers and others.
Also, Benchmarking research is an informational process. This means that the result of the investigation generates information that can be used by other organizations of the same tenor or character. ”(2)
Four items were taken for the benchmarking study, which are the following:
- Administrative Collection (books, pp, electronic resources) Services (supply of paper's, interlibrary loans, cooperative projects) New Technology (open source developments, catalis, web interface consys) Maintenance (collection repair)
