The Impact of Operating Environment on Efficiency of Public Libraries

TL;DR

This study evaluates the efficiency of 4,660 Czech public libraries using DEA, highlighting how municipal population and proximity influence efficiency scores and adjusting for environmental factors through categorization.

Contribution

It introduces a method to account for operating environment effects in library efficiency analysis using decision tree and expert-based categorization.

Findings

Efficiency scores vary significantly with municipality size and distance to extended powers.

Environmental factors strongly influence efficiency measurements.

Adjusting for environment provides more accurate efficiency assessments.

Abstract

Analysis of technical efficiency is an important tool in management of public libraries. We assess the efficiency of 4660 public municipal libraries in the Czech Republic in the year 2017. For this purpose, we utilize data envelopment analysis (DEA) based on the Chebyshev distance. We consider total expenditures, employees and book collection as inputs with registrations, book circulation, event attendance and collection additions as outputs. We pay special attention to the operating environment and find that the efficiency scores significantly depend on the population of the municipality and its distance to the municipality with extended powers. To remove the effect of the operating environment, we perform DEA separately for categories based on decision tree analysis as well as categories designed by an expert.