Data-Driven Management and Interoperable Metrics for Special

While special collections and archives managers have at times recognized the importance of using data to drive decision making, translating this objective into reality and integrating data analysis into day-to-day operations has proven to be a significant challenge. There have also been obstacles to formulating quantitative metrics for special collections and archives and rendering them interoperable across institutional boundaries. This article attempts to focus a conversation around two is-sues: 1) the importance of quantitative analysis of operational data for improving re-search services in special collections and archives; and 2) the need for the profession to achieve consensus on definitions for quantitative metrics to facilitate comparisons between institutions. We will begin by exploring the value of assessing special col-lections user services through operational data analyses and reviewing case studies of institutions that have incorporated such analyses into their decision making and management practices. We will then proceed to a discussion of the benefits that can be gained from having interoperable standards for tracking user services metrics. Operational Data First, it is important to clarify what we mean by operational data—or, as it called in some contexts, administrative data. The Society of American Archivists (SAA) Glossary of Archival and Records Terminology is silent on these terms.2 Although the Glossary de-fines both administrative and operational records, these definitions are geared toward records collected by an archives, not the operational records of the archives itself.