Cost-Benefit Analysis: An Indicator for Economic Evaluation of Libraries and Information Centers

Information is a critical factor in information societies. By its very nature، it plays a key role as a valuable commodity in economic interactions. Libraries and information centers are the main centers for information exchange in order to sustain life in the information era. They are required to continuously assess information services economically based on standard indicators. Cost-benefit analysis (CBA) is a user-centered، systematic and quantifiable economic evaluation method which compares the benefits with costs a particular product or service. In libraries، CBA is a way to compare the positive outcomes with the expenditures. Besides، it is a method to evaluate relative advantages of different projects serving users in terms of allocating resources. And its results can lead to making the best decision for the optimal use of resources and reforming the library function. In this paper، regarding the features and capabilities of this evaluation method، the concepts، procedures، implementation، applications، components and major indices of cost-benefit analysis in libraries and information centers were explained and its advantages، limitations and procedures were discussed.