Measuring the cost of a search
The cost of an information search arises from two components. The cost of staff time (yourself and colleagues) dedicated to the search and direct costs, ie: anything which has actually to be paid for.
An effective search strategy should mean that staff time input is minimised, thus keeping down the cost of the search. It can be easy to overlook the cost to the library service of staff time because public libraries do not normally charge for this. Commercial libraries often ask library and information staff to log the time spent on information searches and the enquirer's department is then billed for this.
We are not suggesting that you formally log time spent - merely that you keep aware of roughly how much time you are devoting to any information search and whether this is justified. If you find yourself devoting an inordinate amount of time to any search, ask yourself whether you should:
- modify your search strategy
- ask advice from a more experienced colleague
- ask a more experienced colleague to take over the search for you
- abandon the search at this point, explaining the reasons for this to the client.
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Before proceeding, note down any direct costs which you think could be associated with an information search on the Internet? |
Let's look now at Direct costs ...
