Methodology and methods to assess library innovations efficiency: An approach proposal

Abstract

The innovative management today is to promote and support organizational strategic goals through the rational use of material, labor and financial resources. The main goal of innovative management in libraries is to build the management system which enables focused search of options, development and implementation of novelties to increase the library’s competitiveness and sustainability and, in its turn, the sustainability of the environment. The specific features of innovations in the library and information sphere are as follows: comparatively rare radical while frequent modernizing innovations; consistency and systemacity (change in any element inevitably changes the library system overall); irreversibility. To assess the value of library innovations, the author suggests to apply the following criteria (characteristics) correlated with the world experience: innovative relevance, financial effectiveness, cultural efficiency, social significance, global sustainability. Each criterion has its own weight while the expertise has to be accomplished within the suggested procedure. This methodology enables to assess the library knowledgeably. It was tested thrice by expert teams – participants in the All-Russia Contest of Library Innovations initiated by the Russian State Library in 2013, 2015, and 2019.