Regarding the assessment ideas from the meeting minutes, I prefer those that go beyond assessment of library instruction. There are so many other aspects of assessment that we could discuss at the upcoming conferences that you mentioned:
–gathering evidence to support budgeting, staffing, hours, strategic planning, institutional effectiveness, etc.
–evaluating student satisfaction and preferences, particularly graduate students
–evaluating faculty satisfaction and preferences
–usability testing and studies
–electronic resources usage
–space assessment–observational/ethnographic studies
–assessment methodologies
–assessment in areas of the library that might not traditionally assess, like Special Collections
–measuring library impact on research, teaching, and learning
(ideas provided by Jennifer L. Jones, AIG Vice Chair)
Approaches to collecting assessment data
- 1-minute papers following instruction sessions
- Getting feedback from professors re students’ work following an instruction session
- Obtaining student artifacts from instructors to assess, i.e., with a rubric, for information literacy
Using assessment data
- Importance of using assessment data for budgeting and strategic planning decisions
- Not just for learning outcomes—SACS asks us to address other aspects of the library such as resources, staffing, etc.
Planning for COMO
- During the Academic Libraries Division meeting, many of the suggested programs were in some way related to assessment:
- Assessment (in general)
- RPG: Retention, Progression, and Graduation related to funding decisions
- Information Literacy instruction and assessment
- Gathering and Using student input
- Web analytics
- Partner with SELA institutions to join us on an assessment panel
(ideas compiled by Erin Nagel, AIG Secretary, from Jan 2012 GLA Planning Meeting)
My officemate, Joan Taylor, is the secretary of the GLA Reference Services Interest group. She shared with me some of the program ideas they were interested in for COMO which were related to assessment. If there is a potential for joint or collaborative sessions, then it seems this group would be interested. If nothing else, this helps show what others are interested in learning and discussing with regard to assessment.
How Do we Measure the Value of Reference Services?
While this topic deals with both statistics and assessment, questions and/or subtopic could be honed to one area or the other.
● Statistics
○ Getting value out of the numbers that we keep — not just collecting them — and deciding how best to apply them for services that reference provides.
○ Getting beyond the quantitative to the qualitative — the value of our services
● Assessment
○ Web analytics, forms of assessment, assessment tools
■ What assessment tools are created by various vendors?
■ How can we create our own assessment tools?
○ How do we define what is a good reference transaction?
○ Reference coordinator and Managers who do annual reports: How do we indicate
the value of reference services in our reports to administrators or the greater institution?
Regarding the assessment ideas from the meeting minutes, I prefer those that go beyond assessment of library instruction. There are so many other aspects of assessment that we could discuss at the upcoming conferences that you mentioned:
–gathering evidence to support budgeting, staffing, hours, strategic planning, institutional effectiveness, etc.
–evaluating student satisfaction and preferences, particularly graduate students
–evaluating faculty satisfaction and preferences
–usability testing and studies
–electronic resources usage
–space assessment–observational/ethnographic studies
–assessment methodologies
–assessment in areas of the library that might not traditionally assess, like Special Collections
–measuring library impact on research, teaching, and learning
(ideas provided by Jennifer L. Jones, AIG Vice Chair)
Approaches to collecting assessment data
- 1-minute papers following instruction sessions
- Getting feedback from professors re students’ work following an instruction session
- Obtaining student artifacts from instructors to assess, i.e., with a rubric, for information literacy
Using assessment data
- Importance of using assessment data for budgeting and strategic planning decisions
- Not just for learning outcomes—SACS asks us to address other aspects of the library such as resources, staffing, etc.
Planning for COMO
- During the Academic Libraries Division meeting, many of the suggested programs were in some way related to assessment:
- Assessment (in general)
- RPG: Retention, Progression, and Graduation related to funding decisions
- Information Literacy instruction and assessment
- Gathering and Using student input
- Web analytics
- Partner with SELA institutions to join us on an assessment panel
(ideas compiled by Erin Nagel, AIG Secretary, from Jan 2012 GLA Planning Meeting)
I’d love to see a session on ethnographic research–observational studies in particular.
My officemate, Joan Taylor, is the secretary of the GLA Reference Services Interest group. She shared with me some of the program ideas they were interested in for COMO which were related to assessment. If there is a potential for joint or collaborative sessions, then it seems this group would be interested. If nothing else, this helps show what others are interested in learning and discussing with regard to assessment.
How Do we Measure the Value of Reference Services?
While this topic deals with both statistics and assessment, questions and/or subtopic could be honed to one area or the other.
● Statistics
○ Getting value out of the numbers that we keep — not just collecting them — and deciding how best to apply them for services that reference provides.
○ Getting beyond the quantitative to the qualitative — the value of our services
● Assessment
○ Web analytics, forms of assessment, assessment tools
■ What assessment tools are created by various vendors?
■ How can we create our own assessment tools?
○ How do we define what is a good reference transaction?
○ Reference coordinator and Managers who do annual reports: How do we indicate
the value of reference services in our reports to administrators or the greater institution?