Lex localis - Journal of Local Self-Government_11(1)_January

L EX LOCALIS - J OURNAL OF L OCAL S ELF -G OVERNMENT Vol. 15, No. 3, pp. 559 - 581, July 2017 Efficiency of Slovenian Public General Libraries: A Data Envelopment Analysis Approach A NDREJ S RAKAR , E VA K ODRIČ -D AČIĆ , K LEMEN K OMAN & D AMJAN K AVAŠ 1 Abstract In the article, we study financing and efficiency of Slovenian Public General Libraries. We employ a rich dataset of CEZAR – Centre for Development of Libraries for the years 2008- 2014 for 58 libraries and use data envelopment analysis and regression methods to study the efficiency of libraries over the years. Our main results show that the problems for the libraries in this period did not lie in the lowered efficiency but more likely in other system requirements. We also provide a grouping of libraries following clustering analysis and show it had significant effects on the performance of the libraries. Keywords: • public general libraries • Slovenia • financing • efficiency • clustering • data envelopment analysis C ORRESPONDENCE A DDRESS : Andrej Srakar, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Economics, Kardeljeva ploščad 17, 1109 Ljubljana, Slovenia, email: srakar@ier.si . Eva Kodrič-Dačić, Ph.D., National University Library, Turjaška ulica 1, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia, email: eva.kodric-dacic@nuk.uni-lj.si. Klemen Koman, M.Sc.,Institute for Economic Research, Kardeljeva ploščad 17, 1109 Ljubljana, Slovenia, email: komank@ier.si. Damjan Kavaš, Ph.D., Institute for Economic Research, Kardeljeva ploščad 17, 1109 Ljubljana, Slovenia, email: kavasd@ier.si . https://doi.org/10.4335/15.3.559-581 (2017) ISSN 1581-5374 Print/1855-363X Online © 2017 Lex localis Available online at http://journal.lex-localis.press.