Lib-Value: Values, Outcomes, and Return on Investment of Academic Libraries, Phase III: ROI of the Syracuse University Library

Bruce Kingma is a Professor in the School of Information Studies and Whitman School of Management at Syracuse University; e-mail: [email protected]. Kathleen McClure is Systems Librarian at the Okefenokee Regional Library System, e-mail: [email protected]. © 2015 Bruce Kingma and Kathleen McClure, Attribution-NonCommercial (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) CC BY-NC. This study measures the return on investment (ROI) of the Syracuse University library. Faculty and students at Syracuse University were surveyed using contingent valuation methodology to measure their willingness to pay in time and money for the services of the academic library. Their travel time and use of the online library was measured to determine the environmental value of the academic library. The economic and environmental value of the Syracuse University library show an ROI of $4.49 returned to the university for every $1.00 spent each year.