Library Services Benchmarks 2016: Corporate Library Services in the Pharmaceutical Industry

Best Practices, LLC conducted this benchmarking to develop 2016 benchmarks for selected services and resources provided by libraries and information centers within the biopharmaceutical industry. Library and information center leaders can refer to this study to compare the scope, volume, cost, and delivery of library services at their companies with those at other organizations within the biopharmaceutical industry.

Study Snapshot

Best Practices, LLC engaged 17 leaders from 16 top biopharmaceutical companies through a benchmarking survey. More than half of the participants are at director level.

Key Findings

• Average Cost: Benchmarked libraries spent an average of $8.7 million to provide services and resources during the most recently completed fiscal year.
• People Allocation: Participants allocate the most FTE hours (average 23%) to electronic resource management, followed by reference and research at 20% and analytical & value added services at 19% respectively. Print-related services took only 3% of hours for benchmark participants. Several libraries indicated they no longer manage any print resources.

• Executive Summary, pgs.3-4
• Research Overview, pg.3
• Participating Companies, pg.4
• Key Findings, pgs.5-8
• Library Profile, pgs.9-15
• Library Services, pgs.16-23
• Human Resources, pgs.24-28
• Financial Resources, pgs.29-35
• Library Innovation, pgs.36-39
• Service Strategies, pgs.40-43
• About Best Practices, LLC, pgs.44-45

• Core Library Services Provided by Benchmark Participants
• Reference and Research Services
• Print/ Physical Collection Services
• Electronic Resources Management Services
• Information Technology/ Website Development & Management Services
• Knowledge Management & Internal Documents Services
• Other Services Provided
• Total Number of Full Time Equivalent Employees (FTEs) Providing Library/Information Services
• Percentage of Total Library FTE Hours Dedicated To Each Labor Category
• Percentage of the FTEs Providing Library/Information Services Employed Within the Library and Within Any Other Corporate Functions
• Professional Credentials among Library Staff
• Total Cost of Providing Library Services & Resources
• Cost Per Potential & Actual User
• Cost Recovery Methods Used by Participating Libraries
• Average Expected Rate Increase for Renewal Agreements with Vendors on an Annual Basis
• Types of Concessions Expected from Vendors When Committing to Multi-year Agreements
• Strategy-Contract Renewal Discussions Timeline
• Key Areas of Innovation Developed by Participants to Improve Service Delivery or Expand Outreach
• Key Strategy Areas