Benchmarking Library, Information and Education Services: New Strategic Choices in Challenging Times

Benchmarking Library, Information and Education Services: New Strategic Choices in Challenging Times provides the foundations of ongoing research in the development of collections and services. The book contributes to practical outputs of general benefit to the sector, including customers, clients or stakeholders, offering ideas for how to identify comparative strengths and weaknesses and improve or enhance present practices regardless of how well institutions currently perform. The centerpiece of the book is a description, report and analysis of a major international QB exercise that culminates in a set of good practice statements.

The benefits of the QB methodology are applicable to individual institutions. Because of the current global turbulence, individuals, leaders and whole institutions are keen to learn more about what is happening and how they can develop sustainable solutions to both immediate challenges and longer-term scenarios.  These include an analysis of third sector organizations, e-libraries, marketing information services, vocational training in higher education, the creative arts, and the role of partnerships in organizational openness.

David Baker has published widely in the field of Library and Information Studies, with 19 monographs and over 100 articles to his credit. He has spoken worldwide at numerous conferences and led workshops and seminars. His other key professional interest and expertise has been in the field of human resources, where he has also been active in major national projects. He has held senior positions at several institutions, including as Principal and Chief Executive of Plymouth Marjon University, and Emeritus Professor of Strategic Information Management. He has also been Deputy Chair of the Joint Information Systems Committee (Jisc). Until recently he was a member of the Board of Governors of the Universities of Northampton and South Wales. He is Chair of the Board of the Institute of Contemporary Music Performance. He is a leader in the field of library and information science.

Dr Lucy Ellis is Senior Associate of David Baker Consulting and Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Exeter, UK. She is currently working as a consultant with a number of HE and FE institutions to transform their governance, research and scholarly activity. Along with David Baker she is Editor-in-Chief of the Elsevier Major Reference Work Encyclopedia of Libraries, Librarianship and Information Science (Elseiver, 2025) and Series Editor for two Elsevier book series dealing with information structures in HE titled Digital Information Reviews and Advances in Information. Her background is as a lecturer, research scientist and project development consultant

Caroline Williams as University Librarian at The University of Queensland (UQ), Brisbane, Australia is responsible for leading UQ Library, with a focus on the student experience, modernizing library spaces, and support for research, including open access. Prior to UQ in the UK she was Director of Libraries at the University of Nottingham where she led a student-focused transformation strategy and oversaw an award-winning library building redevelopment and development of research data management (RDM) infrastructure. Other previous roles include Executive Director of Institute and Deputy Director of Mimas, a national data centre funded by the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC). She has also worked in a range of library roles at Manchester Metropolitan University, the Open University, and Nottingham Trent University. Caroline holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Education Research, MBA, MA in Library and Information Studies and BA (Hons). She has written and presented internationally on change management and digital transformation.

Since moving out of the sound engineering field, Cliff developed his career in the Polytechnic sector, rising through the Human Resources area (specializing in Staff Development), becoming Director of HR, and then Polytechnic Secretary (incorporating Company Secretary and Clerk to Governors). This, in turn, became University Secretary, a role he fulfilled for 10 years. In 1995, Cliff left to become a freelance management consultant for HE, and one of his early projects was to take on the development and management of a benchmarking programme, on behalf of the Association of Commonwealth Universities. He ran this programme successfully for 24 years, involving universities from around the globe. He also undertook a broad range of consultancy work for individual universities and HE organizations (such as the Leadership Foundation and the Higher Education Academy, now Advance HE). Cliff’s other interests include working as a Licensed International Tennis Official. (He worked as a Chair Umpire at Wimbledon for 20 years before concentrating on his role as a Chief Umpire and Referee.)