Quantitative Economic Models for Business Evaluation of Special Libraries

Abstract

In a time when artificial intelligence technologies, such as ChatGPT, are becoming a fundamental concept of the Semantic Web development, libraries face serious challenges of how to prove their value in the global information market, not only in the abstract, philosophical but also in the economic sense. This question is especially related to special libraries - information services that have to prove their contribution to accomplishing the goals of their parent organization and whose results represent groundwork for development plans and strategic decisions. This essay will show the evaluation of activities performed by special libraries in the historical context not only as a factor of development but also as a factor of persistence in the national library and information system. The paper presents how the two most important methods, Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) and Return On Investment (ROI), are applied in the evaluation of the success of special libraries, with examples of calculations.