Using statistics for management decisions

Hands-on case study!

WHY????????????????

The correct way! but harder

Internal AND external buy-in!

HOW?????????????

Best when combined - Loans of books are down from 60 000 to 40 000 - Full-text downloads are up from 40 000 to 60 000 - BUT student numbers have halved! - NO! student numbers have doubled!

Technical University of Atlantis

A brand new institution, the collection of monographs has to be built up. An initial fund of A$1,000,000 has been given, and now the library has been asked to explain to the Senate Library Committee how they are going to divide this equitably amongst the different departments

Per head division

Add up all students, divide money by total and multiply result per numbers in each department!!! QED!!
Faculty of Engineering: Mechanical Marine Civil Astronautics Quality Faculty of Applied Sciences 16000 80000 230000 10000 20000

Marine biology
Environmental Science Horticulture Biotechnology Vulcanology

230000
80000 20000 160000 10000

Problem!
The Faculty Librarian for Applied Sciences looks at this and says Theres no way we can have A$230,000 for Marine Biology, but only A$10000 for Vulcanology you cant build a collection with only A$ 10000!!

Solution
Divide the budget into two: Use half for an equal distribution for departments, and half per student
Per dept Per student Total

Faculty of Engineering: Mechanical Marine Civil 50000 50000 50000 8000 40000 115000 58000 90000 165000

Astronautics
Quality Faculty of Applied Sciences Marine biology Environmental Science

50000
50000

5000
10000

55000
60000

50000 50000

115000 40000

165000 90000

Horticulture
Biotechnology Vulcanology

50000
50000 50000

10000
80000 5000

60000
130000 55000

Everyone happy!
The Faculty Librarian for Engineering clears his throat: This looks fair, but we have been told that as a library we need to support research and we all know that my Faculty produces most of the research! AND we know that the material used by researchers and students doing research is more expensive! But this doesnt show it!

Solution
Divide the budget into three: Use one-third for an equal distribution for departments, one-third per student, and one third to be divided on the basis of research output and postgraduate students

Result
Per dept Per student PG students Research output Total

Faculty of Engineering: Mechanical Marine Civil Astronautics Quality Faculty of Applied Sciences Marine biology Environmental Science Horticulture Biotechnology Vulcanology 33333 33333 33333 33333 33333 76667 26667 6667 53333 3333 66667 16667 4167 41667 0 11667 11667 11667 11667 11667 188333 88333 55833 140000 48333 33333 33333 33333 33333 33333 53333 26667 76667 3333 6667 4167 8333 0 8333 16667 21667 21667 21667 21667 21667 112500 90000 131666 66666 78333

Now everyones happy!

Head of Technical Services is still frowning: Weve taken into account the number of students, research needs and even protected smaller departments, but in my department we know that the price of material varies widely Vulcanology pays four times as much as Horticulture for their material! Surely this must be taken into account?

Final solution?
Divide into quarters: One quarter per department One quarter for students One quarter for research One quarter for cost of items.

Final division!
Research output

Per dept

Per student

PG students

Total

Faculty of Engineering: Mechanical Marine Civil Astronautics Quality Faculty of Applied Sciences Marine biology Environmental Science Horticulture Biotechnology Vulcanology

25000 25000 25000 25000 25000

40000 20000 57500 2500 5000

3125 6250 0 6250 12500

16250 16250 16250 16250 16250

25000 15789 22368 42763 12500

109375 83289 121118 92763 71250

25000 25000 25000 25000 25000

57500 20000 5000 40000 2500

50000 12500 3125 31250 0

8750 8750 8750 8750 8750

17105 38158 13158 25000 38158

158355 104408 55033 130000 74408