Made to measure.

Made to measure. Value and Impact: Proceedings of the 3rd Northumbria InternationalConference on Performance Measurement in Libraries and InformationServices See Information Systems. , Friday 27 to Tuesday 31 August 1999. Newcastle: University ofNorthumbria at Newcastle, 2000. 278p 65.00 [pounds sterling] spiralbound Spiral-Bound is an active online mailing list and newsletter devoted to the discussion of 20th century authors that explored the limits of traditional narrative and structure, often coming from modernism, surrealism, magical realism, and postmodernism. ISBN ISBNabbr.International Standard Book NumberISBNInternational Standard Book NumberISBNn abbr (= International Standard Book Number) → ISBN m0906433355 IN AUGUST 1999 NORTHUMBRIA WAS AGAIN THE VENUE FOR AN INTERNATIONALCONFERENCE to discuss various library and information servicemeasurements and assessment issues and activities, to exchangeexperiences, to increase awareness of current research, and to identifyissues for further study and work. The conference, which attracted over130 delegates from twenty-five countries, focused specifically on howperformance measurement affects the value of services and how it impactson those services. The Conference proceedings contain an overview of the conference,four keynote papers, four invited papers, thirty-four seminar papers andthe after-dinner speech. Two papers were not available for publication. In the overview, Sandra Parker notes that Jennifer Cram fromAustralia `set the scene very powerfully, reminding the conference thatmanagement is often blind to reality and thus assumptions are oftenunchallenged and myths allowed to flourish. Measuring performance toreveal the real picture avoids the abyss and allows all of thestakeholders to see the service clearly.' The keynote and invited speakers section includes the followingpapers: * John Carlo Bertot (USA), `Developing national network statisticsand performance measures for U.S. public libraries: models,methodologies and issues' * Phillip Calvert Phillip Calvert may refer to: Phill Calvert (b. 1958), Australian musician Phillip Calvert (governor), fifth governor of Maryland See alsoPhilip Powell Calvert (1871-1961), an American entomologist (New Zealand New Zealand(zē`lənd), island country (2005 est. pop. 4,035,000), 104,454 sq mi (270,534 sq km), in the S Pacific Ocean, over 1,000 mi (1,600 km) SE of Australia. The capital is Wellington; the largest city and leading port is Auckland. ), `Integrated performance measuresin New Zealand' * Jennifer Cram (Australia) `Six impossible things Impossible Things is a 1993 collection of short stories by Connie Willis including tales of ecological disaster, humorous satire, tragedy, satirical alternate realities, and possibly a vampire. Its genres range from comedy to tragedy to horror. beforebreakfast: A multidimensional approach to measuring the value oflibraries' * David Fuegi and Phillip Ramsdale (UK), `English public libraryplans: analyses and other outcomes after year one' * Charles R McClure (USA), `Developing national network statisticsand performance measures for public libraries in the networkedenvironment: preliminary issues for redesigning a national datacollecting and reporting system in the USA' * Roswitha Poll (Germany), `The costs of quality: cost analysis andcost management as counterpart to performance measurement' * J Stephen Town (UK) `Benchmarking: Strife, theft orcommunion?' * Ian Winkworth and Pat Gannon-Leary (UK), `Library performancemeasures: government perspectives'. The Seminar Papers Section is divided into papers on academiclibraries, the electronic library, national libraries, public libraries,and techniques and tools. Australia is well represented in the academiclibrary section with papers by Marion Bannister (`From research topractice'); Doreen Parker (`Performance indicators: an Australiandual sector perspective'); Janine Schmidt and Jennifer Croud (`TheUniversity of Queensland The University of Queensland (UQ) is the longest-established university in the state of Queensland, Australia, a member of Australia's Group of Eight, and the Sandstone Universities. It is also a founding member of the international Universitas 21 organisation. Library: a case study in building a culture ofcontinuous improvement'); Anne Wilson, Isabella Trahn, LeeannePitman and Gaynor Austen (`Best practice in Australian universitylibraries: lessons from a national project'). The proceedingsconclude with text of the humorous after-dinner speech given by GeoffreyFord of Bristol University on the art of conference presentation(`Evaluating conference presentation skills') and a list of theconference delegates. Value and Impact: Proceedings of the 3rd Northumbria InternationalConference on Performance Measurement in Libraries and InformationServices provides a plethora of useful readings based on the researchand experience of those actively involved in performance measurement inlibrary and information services around the world, and should proveuseful to a wide range of individuals and organisations, from thestudent of information management to experienced practitioners, seniorexecutives and policy makers, and information management consultants inorganisations large and small. Margaret Pember, Curtin University of Technology