In thinking about cost benefits for installing a data retrival system I
developed a somewhat simplistic model that could be used to think about
public access.
Major point about public access and any other type of 'virtual museum', is
that the goal of the project must be clear. From that the measure of
success follows.
In the case of a database system, take the number of staff getting access
to the collection files, multiply it times the percent of their work that
requires access, and their hourly rate. That gives the cost of time to
access files. Then make an assumption about productivity improvement and
multiply the cost of time by it. That gives the amount of potential
savings, or the amount of additional work that can get done.
Example: assume 10 people, 30% of time (averaged), an average rate of $20
per hour, productivity improving by 40% in a fully implemented system.
10 * (.3 * 2040)= 6120 hours per year in collection access.
6120 * $20= $122,400 annually of the museums budget is spent in this
activity.
Now if productivity improves by 40%, the museum saves $48,960, or looking
at it another way can provide that amount more of service.
Assume that a museum spends $200,000 to implement and enter data for a
collections management system, the investment is recouped in less than
five years. And if it is done right, returns in productivity should be
seen in the first year.
Using this kind of analysis, it is easier to argue that capital
improvements aimed at productivity should not be put off until a grant is
found. One might even do what private businesses due: borrow $ to enhance
productivity, heaven forbid!
Now in the case of public access, look at the number of queries that the
museum now handles. How many of these are quesstions that are now handled
by staff? What is the cost to the instituion of the requisite staff time?
Take the number of queries that could be handled in a public access
system, multiply it by staff time and you'd get a rough measure.
IN the Dallas case, they should have a base line before installation;
obvioulsy the number of queries has gone up since then. But has they
number of queries that the curators have to handle themselves now gone
down? That would be a real interesting number. In any case if you use a
buck per inquiry the Dallas project so far is worth about 54k. If it has
saved 4k of questions that had to be answered by staff, and it cost the
museum say $10 per query in time ( more likely $25 +), that is $40,000 of
savings to the museum, a number that should get the controller's
attention.
If anyone who is developing AAM/MCN sessions would like me to develop
these ideas further, let me know. I'll be at both.
73
Ben Fuller
71161,[log in to unmask]
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