Cost-Benefit Analysis: An Indicator for Economic Evaluation of Libraries and Information Centers

• Main Authors: Leila Shahrzadi, Fahimeh Babalhavaeji, Hasan Ashrafi-Rizi
• Format: Article
• Language: fas
• Published: Vesnu Publications 2013-06-01
• Series: مدیریت اطلاعات سلامت
• Online Access: http://him.mui.ac.ir/index.php/him/article/view/951

Information is a critical factor in information societies. By its very nature, it plays a key role as a valuable commodity in economic interactions. Libraries and information centers are the main centers for information exchange in order to sustain life in the information age. They are required to assess continuously to information services economically based on standard indicators. Cost-benefit analysis is a user-centered, systematic and quantifiable economic evaluation method compares the benefits with costs of a particular product or service. In libraries, cost-benefit analysis is a way to compare the positive outcomes with the expenditures. It is a way to evaluate relative advantages of different projects-serving users in terms of allocating resources; and its results can lead to making the best decision for the optimal use of resources and reforming the library function. This study was an unsystematic review conducted in 2011 using the Emerald Sciverce and ISI web of Science databases and Google, Google Scholar and AltaVista search engines with the following keywords: "Benefit cost analysis" and "Cost-benefit analysis". 51 related articles were extracted and analyzed. In this paper, regard to the features and capabilities of this evaluation method, the concepts, procedures, implementation, applications, components and major indecies of cost-benefit analysis in libraries and information centers are explained and its advantages, limitations and procedures are discussed. Keywords: Cost-Benefit Analysis; Libraries; Information Centers