An Action Plan for Outcomes Assessment in Your Library - Softcover

Peter Hernon; Robert E. Dugan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0838908136 ISBN 13: 9780838908136

Publisher: ALA Editions,US, 2002

Synopsis

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.

About this title

Review

"An essential resource for academic librarians, this book is also highly recommended for librarians at larger public libraries."

"This timely resource is excellent as a concise review of the assessment movement with specific applications for academic and public libraries... This is an essential resource for both academic and public libraries. Academic libraries in particular should consider this book as a working tool long before the regional accreditation self-study begins."

"Academic librarians involved in assessment will find it invaluable."

..".a valuable contribution to the as yet embryonic literature concerned with ways of determining the outcomes of library services... Readers should be grateful to Hernon and Dugan for combining their unique expertise to help that debate forward as well as for many wise and practical recommendations in the book."

"As the authors promise, this book does provide the framework and definition of what outcomes assessments should include and how other academic libraries and institutions have gone about doing them."

About the Author

Peter Hernon is a professor in the Graduate School of Library and Information Science of Simmons College in Boston. He is the award-winning author of 37 books including Delivering Satisfaction and Service Quality and Assessing Service Quality, which received the Highsmith Library Literature Award in 1999. Hernon is editor-in-chief of the Journal of Academic Librarianship, coeditor of Library & Information Science Research, and founding editor of Government Information Quarterly. Robert E. Dugan is director of the Mildred F. Sawyer Library at Suffolk University in Boston. He has worked in libraries for more than 27 years serving as associate university librarian, state librarian, public library director, and reference librarian. Dugan is the author of more than 40 articles on information policy and the use of technology and has coauthored two books, including U.S. Government on the Web.

About this edition

• Publisher: ALA Editions,US
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0838908136
• ISBN 13: 9780838908136
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 191