A major trend in the business world today is the notion of "Business Intelligence". Business Intelligence or BI for short, encompasses several concepts. First, is the use of data mining techniques to get at information on customers including their purchasing habits, geographic area, income and so forth.
Next, this information could be used to redirect resources or provide new or expanded services customers are demanding. All organizations have finite resources so maximizing their productivity can make the difference between success and failure.
Finally, an organization can use the information to anticipate customers needs. A proactive organization can get ahead of the curve and beat its competition to market.
Now, what does all this have to do with libraries? An exciting development is the SirsiDynix Normative Data Project or NDP.
Normative Data Project
NDP gathers circulation and customer demographic data in an effort to better target the libraries collection and serivces to its customers.
Such data gathering raises many questions we in the library world need to ask and answer. Some questions could include privacy of the customer library record, technical expertise of the staff, funding or making a case that makes sense to your governing Board or your public.
My library is exploring a similar project. Questions we are asking as we experience rapid growth in circulation include type and quantity of materials to buy (VHS or DVD for example), collection makeup for different branches and so on. We hope using data mining technicques can help us better use our taxpayers money in providing a quality collection.
The data is available in our circulation system but in most cases, the data we need - checkout history - disappears when the item is checked back in. Yet, keeping that checkout history to create an Amazon.com like experience raises all the questions above and probably many more.
I will post more on this topic as we move forward as well as providing case studies where businesses have used or are using business intelligence techniques to better serve their customers.
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1 comment:
Thank you, this is an exciting topic for me as well as a solution provider. There is an interest I have in key metrics that are useful for libraries that are translated from the corporate world, such as Cannibalization Rates that show the percent of new product "sales" taken from existing product lines. Where do metrics like this add value to a library organization? Are they already used in some form? What questions can be answered using dashboards for library decision makers who are working with limited resources yet need to accomplish more today than ever? Things to keep in mind as case studies are posted to this blog.
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