Benchmarking with quality indicators: national projects

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to show the effectiveness of using performance indicators on a national scale Design/methodology/approach - The paper gives an overview of national projects and compares the methods used. Findings - The paper finds that groups of libraries have tried to find consensus on a common set of performance indicators for benchmarking purposes. The indicators chosen for such projects differ between countries and types of libraries. The paper shows examples where sets of indicators are used on a national or regional scale on a regular basis and compares the indicators used and the methods of benchmarking. Practical implications - The paper shows the difficulties of reaching an agreement when starting a common project and points to results and success of the projects and to problems that occurred in the benchmarking process. Originality/value - The paper acquaints libraries with existing projects and helps to find adequate methods for different purposes.