Using Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing to Identify Best Practices in Academic Libraries

In the current competitive and dynamic environment, libraries must remain agile and flexible, as well as open to new ideas and ways of working. Based on a comparative case study of two academic libraries in Belgium, this research study investigates the opportunities of using Time-Driven Activity-Bas...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Siguenza Guzman, Lorena Catalina, Auquilla Sangolqui, Andrés Vinicio
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2016
País:Ecuador
Institución:Universidad de Cuenca
Repositorio:Repositorio Universidad de Cuenca
OAI Identifier:oai:dspace.ucuenca.edu.ec:123456789/29212
Acceso en línea:https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-84964944619&doi=10.1016%2fj.acalib.2016.01.005&partnerID=40&md5=3c59a0259636cdb47cdcb42864e40b26
http://dspace.ucuenca.edu.ec/handle/123456789/29212
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Academic Libraries
Best Practices
Process Benchmarking
Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing
Time-Driven Benchmarking
Descripción
Sumario:In the current competitive and dynamic environment, libraries must remain agile and flexible, as well as open to new ideas and ways of working. Based on a comparative case study of two academic libraries in Belgium, this research study investigates the opportunities of using Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing (TDABC) to benchmark library processes. To this end, two major research questions are addressed: 1) Can TDABC be used to enhance process benchmarking in libraries? 2) Do results at activity level provide additional insights compared to macro results in a process benchmarking? We first start by describing the TDABC implementation. Then, we discuss and compare the workflow of 10 library processes covering the four principal library functions: acquisition, cataloging, circulation and document delivery. Next, based on the benchmarking exercise, we report and discuss potential processes and performance improvements that can be realized from using library time and costs information, in particular concerning the two libraries analyzed. We conclude this article by discussing the advantages of using TDABC as a tool to enhance process benchmarking in libraries.