Library Services Benchmarks: Corporate Library Services in the Biopharmaceutical Industry

Industries Profiled:
Biopharmaceutical; Biotech; Pharmaceutical; Marketing; Chemical; Medical Device; Consulting; Health Care; Consumer Products; Non-Profit; Research


Companies Profiled:
Alkermes; Amgen; ANA (Association of National Advertisers); Astellas; BASF Corporation; Baxter International; Chiesi; CSL Limited; Daiichi Sankyo; Ferring Pharmaceuticals; Health Advances; Integra LifeSciences; North Carolina Biotechnology Center (NCBiotech); Novartis; Novavax; OTSUKA; Roche; RTI International

Study Snapshot

Best Practices, LLC engaged 20 leaders from 18 pharmaceutical and life science companies in this research update through a benchmarking survey instrument. Research participants include Directors, Managers, Heads, VPs, Senior Librarians, and Analysts/Specialists.

Key topics covered in this report include:

• Library Services Organizational Structure
• Services Offered by the Library or Information Center
• Human Resources and their Involvement Level
• Data Usage Metrics and Adoption of Library Service Strategies
• Financial Resourcing and Cost Recovery
• Corporate Size and Complexities

• Library Usage: Corporate libraries provide wide-ranging services to their organization, but penetration rates of the user base is only 41%.

• Larger organizations averaged a 40% user penetration rate of company employees using library resources, while small organizations successfully serve only 33% of their company.

• Staff Allocation: Corporate librarians are a source for reference and research support for biopharma employees with over one-third (36%) of their hour spent performing those tasks.

• Almost one-fifth (20%) of staff hours are spent on electronic resource management.

• Scope of library services and resources provided at benchmark organizations
• Structure of library services organization
• Reporting relationships of library services organization

• Library user base penetration – Total benchmark class
• Library user base penetration – Large organizations vs. Small organizations
• Adoption of strategies to improve library service delivery or expand outreach
• Effectiveness of adopted strategies
• Library service availability (in hours)
• Provider of reference and research services to the library
• Provider of print/physical collection services to the library
• Provider of electronic resources management services to the library
• Provider of IT/website development and management services to the library
• Provider of knowledge management and internal documents services to the library
• Role of Supplier Management/Procurement group in site license negotiation for library resources
• Future focus of corporate libraries

• Library usage metric totals
• Strategies used or in planning to be used to improve library service delivery or expand outreach
• Effectiveness of adopted strategies
• Effectiveness vs. adoption of strategies to improve library service delivery or expand outreach
• Effective strategies for large, medium, and small organizations to improve library service delivery or expand outreach

• Total number of FTEs (full-time equivalent employees) performing library services for benchmark organizations; Percentage of internal/corporate staff and external/contractor staff performing library services
• Professional credentials of library FTEs
• Percentage of total library FTE hours dedicated to each of the listed labor categories
• Future training and development programs to hone new staff skills

• Total cost of providing library services and resources
• Library cost break-up
• Items on which corporate libraries spend more than 20% of their library budget
• Cost recovery methods used by libraries to recover costs for their services and resources
• Chargebacks for library services or resources
• Management of electronic content budget
• Benchmark companies' total revenue for the most recently completed data year
• Value of company size: Company revenue vs. Library organization cost
• Cost of engagement: Library user base penetration vs. Library organization cost
• Impact of company size: Company revenue vs. Library budget as a percentage of organization revenue
• Funding and access: Library user base penetration vs. Library budget as a percentage of organization revenue
• Cost of engagement: Library user base penetration vs. Number of FTEs employed
• Library spend benchmarks: Average library spend per FTE; Average library spend per user

• Industry representation of benchmark corporate libraries