This paper is best viewed as a .pdf document as it is quite long in length.. We have included below a section of the document. Please click the icon above in order to view the complete document.

Or click here

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

THE EXISTENCE VALUE TO THE HALLBANKGATE COMMUNITY OF THE CUMBRIA COUNTY COUNCIL LIBRARY LINK SERVICE

INTRODUCTION
Evaluation of cultural projects, organisations and services has been focussed around measurable indicators incorporated in value for money exercises, economic impact, and, participation/users numbers. Surveys of user perception and, quality of service are also employed. This is coupled with demographic analysis and deprivation indices to provide the measurable data to assist policy makers in making informed decisions concerned with the allocation of resources and delivery of strategic policy goals to meet community needs. Whilst this is important and useful, it is limited in scope and depth.

However, every community and organisation incorporates and relies on networks and it is this which forms the basis of measuring existence value. There is however an existence value history associated with the environment and Nelson in his paper, Does Existence value exist? (Independent Review, vol11, no.4, 1997) explains:“However, in a famous 1967 article in the American Economic Review, John Krutilla (1967) proposed a reconciliation. Krutilla suggested that the scope of economics should be expanded to include a new concept, which has come to be known as“existence value.” The enjoyment of life need not have as its limit things that can be seen and touched. Consumption, even as economists think about it, should extend to include the simple fact of knowing that a wilderness, endangered species, or other object in nature exists. Formally, the variables in a person’s “utility function” would not only comprise the amounts of food, clothing, and other ordinary goods and services consumed but also the various states of knowledge each person has of the existence of social and physical characteristics in the world. Implicitly at least, consumers would be willing to pay something for this form of consumption; hence the efforts by economists to estimate existence values in dollar terms (Mitchell and Carson 1989; Portney 1994).”

This is, however, primarily an economic argument concerned with reinterpreting the concepts of consumption; however it does touch on the notion of willingness to pay for the existence value of the environment. It is perhaps more important in signalling the recognition of the concept of existence. In terms of this study we are providing an assessment of the economic, social and cultural existence value to the community by evaluating, spend, networks, community relationships and cultural embodiment. Little attention is paid to networks within cultural contexts as a means of understanding organisations, communication, personal, stakeholder interaction and their relationships with others. The visualising and analysis of the personal interaction networks within and between organisations can provide valuable insights into how the organisation(s) actually function and who holds critical positions (stakeholders) within that network. Critical positions can be influenced by a wide variety of factors including a person’s or organisation’s formal role, geographical location, reputation and image projected to Nelson. 1997 Does existence value exist? Independent Review, vol11, no.4, 1997 others. As a result, it is often unpredictable as to whom or what organisation(s) will occupy key positions in any network. By mapping and visualising the networks it is possible to measure the levels of penetration and extent of interactions an organisation through its staff has achieved with stakeholders and the community. Social network analysis [SNA] is the mapping and measuring of relationships and flows between people, groups, organizations, computers or other information/knowledge processing entities. The nodes in the network are the people and groups while the links show relationships or flows between the nodes. SNA provides both a visual and a mathematical analysis of human relationships. For example two nodes are connected if they regularly talk to each other, or interact in some way.


For researchers who aim to measure the value of social networks through analysing the interaction between the network members, this interaction is measured and recorded based on the number of direct connections a node has. A member of the network that singularly connects a group of nodes to another group of nodes usually has high network metric significance as they are in a position to act as a gatekeeper who is capable of combining information, knowledge and ideas found in different places throughout the organisation. In many instances, when analysing social networks within a given organisation, peripheral nodes are often identified during the surveying stage of the process. This is a result of network members exchanging information outside the original stated network, with other people that are not currently mapped.

Individual network centralities provide an insight into the individual's location in the network. The relationship between the centralities of all nodes can reveal much about the overall network structure. A very centralized network is dominated by one or a few very central nodes. If these nodes are removed or damaged, the network quickly fragments into unconnected sub-networks. A highly central node can become a single point of failure. A network centralized around a well connected hub can fail abruptly if that hub is disabled or removed. Hubs are nodes with a high degree of betweeness centrality. A less centralized network has no single points of failure. It is resilient in the face of many intentional attacks or random failures -- many nodes or links can fail while allowing the remaining nodes to still reach each other through other network paths. Networks of low centralization fail gracefully. It is the combination of understanding networks, their reach, complexity and interactions with other forms of conventional data such as user surveys, provides the basis to assess the existence value of a cultural organisation in this case a library service to their communities This paper identifies and examines this alternative model; the evaluation of the social economic and cultural existence value of a cultural facility to its community including networks by first explaining the history of library links.

back to top