Publisher's Synopsis
"How have users of our library changed as a direct result of their contact with our collections and services?"
--from the Preface
This book will help you to not only answer this question, but also prove your findings. Walking you through the process of assessing if and how well students and library users are learning from educational resources, two expert academic library experts team up to provide An Action Plan for Outcomes Assessment in Your Library. This comprehensive plan, the first of its kind and specifically for librarians, provides data collection tools for measuring both learning and research outcomes that link outcomes to user satisfaction. After all, it is the users who will benefit from learning, and so their experiences are integral to the way libraries measure their services and performance.
This practical, how-to manual, with detailed case studies from actual outcomes assessment programs, will prepare you to:
- Plan an outcomes assessment strategy for your library that is in line with accrediting guidelines
- Execute your plan by identifying user needs, collecting and analyzing data, and presenting your findings
- Measure the value of the services you are providing and identify areas for improvement
Armed with hands-on tools and real-life examples, you will be inspired to get a handle on how successful your services are in the context of what your students and users need and want. Included are policies of major accrediting bodies for higher education, guidelines developed by the Association for Research and College Libraries, and a chapter that applies academic library outcomes assessment to public libraries.
Libraries can maintain accreditation and funding, assess student and user learning, and determine the library's role in graduate and faculty research as they demonstrate their effectiveness using outcomes assessment. This innovative action plan provides tools and data collection instruments that is based on the latest research and adaptable to any type of library.
