Library Web site ROI

[Gay Lepkey]

I am looking for substantive examples of ROI / Cost-Benefit analyses of
library and/or archive Web sites or non-profit organization sites, which
either have been Internet or print published.

Existing library and archive Web sites run the gamut between Information
pages (electronic business cards) to complex Web sites providing both
information and services.  All of them cost money and organizational
resources to design, publish and maintain.  Few, if any, either seek to
recover costs from site users or market other products as commercial,
e-commerce sites commonly do.

If, as current management theory would have it (eg. Hallows.
Information systems project management. c1998), intangible benefits are
not benefits at all, then on what basis are ROI / C-B analyses of NPO
Web sites to be arrived at?  According to Hallows, a benefit either
saves money for an organization or generates profits.

Queries:

1. Are hard numbers available for NPO Web sites?
2. If Web sites attract users, does an increase in users statistics
result in funding increases?
3. Are there any measurable benefits to providing information and
services free of charge to site visitors from outside of the
organization's jurisdiction?
4. Why do libraries and archives publish and maintain Web sites often at
great expense?
  a. Because it can be done?
  b. Because everyone else is doing it?


Gay Lepkey
MLIS Program
Faculty of Information & Media Studies (FIMS)
University of Western Ontario
London, Ontario