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Library Assessment: Why Today and not Tomorrow
Library Assessment Thessaloniki, Greece
June 13-15, 2005
Martha Kyrillidou, Association of Research LibrariesColleen Cook, Texas A&M University
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• Bangor University considers removing librarians posted by Blake on Thursday January 27, @07:30AM -753 hits Ms Information writes "News from the University of Wales Bangor in the UK. senior management no longer feel that subject librarians / academic liaison librarians are needed in the modern academic library. They have made restructuring proposals which include removing all bar one of the subject librarians and a tier of the library management, including the Head of Bibliographic Services. The university management thinks that technology has 'deskilled' literature searching. As far as I know, this proposal is unprecedented in the United Kingdom.In essence, there will remain 4 professional librarians serving a 'research-led' university of 8,000 plus FTEs and with 8 library sites. These will be the university librarian, cataloguing librarian, acquisitions librarian and Law librarian.Has anything like this happened anywhere that you know of? If so, what have been the effects?
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Today is
Tomorrow
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Rise of User-Centered Library Concept and the Culture of Assessment in the 1990’s
User-Centered Library • All services and activities are
viewed through the eyes of the customers
• Customers determine quality
• Library services and resources add value to the customer
Culture of Assessment • Organizational environment in
which decisions are based on facts, research and analysis,
• Services are planned and delivered to maximize positive customer outcomes
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Why Assess?
• Accountability and justification
• Improvement of services
• Comparison with others
• Identification of changing patterns
• Identification of questionable services
• Marketing and promotion
• Decisions based on data, not assumptions– Assumicide!
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Good Assessment Practices
• Focus on the user
• Diverse samples/representative groups of users
• Fair and unbiased queries
• Measurable results that can be used
• Criteria for success
• Employ qualitative and quantitative techniques
• Corroboration from other sources
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What Are We Measuring?
“Institutional assessment efforts should not be concerned about valuing what can be measured, but instead about measuring what is valued.”
A.W. Astin, “Assessment for Excellence, 1991
“What is easy to measure is not necessarily what is desirable to measure.
M. Kyrillidou, “An overview of performance measures in higher education and libraries”, 1998
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Effective AssessmentEasier Said Than Done
• Libraries in many cases are collecting data without really having the will, organizational capacity, or interest to interpret and use the data effectively in library planning.
• The profession could benefit from case studies of those libraries that have conducted research efficiently and applied the results effectively.
(Denise Troll Covey, Usage and Usability Assessment: Practices and Concerns, 2002)
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What data do YOU collect
• What
• Why
• How
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Impact of Information Technology Impact of Information Technology Upon LibrariesUpon Libraries
Costs
Access Restrictions
Scalability
User Behavior
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ARL Overall
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ARL Undergraduate
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ARL Graduate
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ARL Faculty
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Libraries Remain a Credible Libraries Remain a Credible Resource in 21Resource in 21stst Century Century
98% agree with statement98% agree with statement, “My … library , “My … library contains information from credible and contains information from credible and known sources.”known sources.”
Note. Digital Library Federation and Council on Library and InformationResources. (2002). Dimensions and Use of the Scholarly Information Environment.
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Changing BehaviorsChanging Behaviors
Recent Survey:Recent Survey:Only Only 15.7% agreed with the statement15.7% agreed with the statement “The “The Internet has not changed the way I use the Internet has not changed the way I use the library.”library.”
Note. Digital Library Federation and Council on Library and InformationResources. (2002). Dimensions and Use of the Scholarly Information Environment.
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Googlization
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“…everyone in class tried to get those articles on line and some people didn’t even bother to go to the stacks when theycouldn’t Google them.” Graduate Student NYT Online 6/21/04 (Katie Hafner, “Old search engine in the
the library tries to fit into a Google world”)
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The Internet Goes to College
Early data from ethnographic interviews– “I use Google because I heard it searches for more
things” (than other sources).– “I believe I can find anything on the Internet. There hasn’t
been anything I haven’t been able to find.” – “Because I’m lazy.”– Books have “so much information that no one can go
through it all.”– I use “the Internet first is because it is more convenient.”– I go to the library “because that’s what teachers like.” – “Google has gotten me through college.”
Source: Steve Jones, The Internet Goes to College, ARL Talk
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What It Means - Implications
• What might reliance on Google (or other sites) mean for the future?
QuickTime™ and a decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
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Emphasis on understanding the role and contributions of libraries to the teaching, learning and research missions of parent institutions and individual users
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… a revolution in making
Il est plus nécessaire d'étudier les hommes que les livres
—FRANÇOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD (1613–1680)
