your favorite and most useful measures

Laura Baker

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Jun 8, 2022, 7:35:46 PM6/8/22

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I'm not a new librarian, but I'm fairly new in my assessment role. Our library has never had an assessment librarian before and struggles to make data-based decisions despite acknowledging the need to do so. I feel like I spend a lot of time collecting data and making charts that don't actually figure into library decisions. From what I understand, that feeling may be common.

What are some of the most useful data you gathered for your library? Was it what you measured or the way you illustrated it? Is there anything that is consistently used or that you can point to and feel good about because it makes a difference? It doesn't have to be anything spectacular or for a special project. In fact, it might be the usual routine, just so long as it is seen as valuable and useful.

Laura

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Laura Baker
Librarian -- User Experience and Assessment
Abilene Christian University Library
221 Brown Library / ACU Box 29208
Abilene, TX 79699-9208

bak...@acu.edu
phone: (325) 674-2477
fax: (325) 674-2202
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Harker, Karen

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Jun 10, 2022, 11:32:00 AM6/10/22

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I think the key is to listen to what is being asked. What are the decisions that they have struggled most with? What information are they lacking? Do you have the data that would provide that information?

Also, find the most receptive decision maker and “adopt” them to be an advocate. If people have struggled to make data-based decisions and administration has dedicated human resources for assessment (you), then there is at least some interest.

Once you have their questions and you have an advocate, you can focus your efforts on the analysis. Provide only the information they need to make the decision they need to make. Best not to flood them with data and analysis that they didn’t ask for.

I hope this helps.

Karen R. Harker, MLS, MPH

Preferred Pronouns: she, her, hers

Collection Assessment Librarian

UNT Libraries

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Herzog, Andy M

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Jun 10, 2022, 11:32:04 AM6/10/22

to Laura Baker, arl assess

Hello,

I don’t necessarily have the same challenge as our institution does have leadership that values data-driven decisions. I am not sure if any of the following would be helpful, but sharing in case it might be.

There are many different assessment projects in the sea. I try not to embark on any unless I have a partner in the library. By partner, I just mean somebody with whom I develop the assessment with even if their involvement is just a conversation. I think connecting to your colleagues’ problems, questions, and goals is more important than particular assessments I have done. I sometimes schedule one-on-one meetings to discuss assessment questions. Another approach is leading conversations/brainstorming sessions about how to address what we see in the data. In 2019 after doing libqual, I first shared the data. Then, I led brainstorming sessions on how we could address what we see in the data. I wrote a blog post about what we decided to do but it doesn’t cover the process. https://libraries.uta.edu/news-events/blog/update-libqual More often though I focus on individual conversations. That being said, I have also done assessment projects where I wish the data was used more. 😊

As for useful data examples, I would say I have had good transaction with some of the visualizations I have done, but I don’t think it has to be a visualization to be useful. The first two are really more about showing impact than helping us make data driven decisions.

Hope everybody is having a nice summer.

Andy

Andy Herzog

Director of Assessment

UT Arlington Libraries

amhe...@uta.edu

From: Laura Baker <bak...@acu.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, June 8, 2022 6:36 PM
To: arl assess <arl-a...@arl.org>

Subject: [ARL-ASSESS] your favorite and most useful measures

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Jennifer Giordano

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Jun 10, 2022, 1:20:30 PM6/10/22

to Herzog, Andy M, Laura Baker, arl assess

The first two are really more about showing impact than helping us make data driven decisions.

I just want to highlight this point that Andy made at the end of their email, and the fact that data can still be useful and valuable, even if it isn't used to make decisions. I also sometimes struggle with getting the right data to the right person at the right time to be able to inform decision making, but I (and my library as a whole) have had success with using our data to demonstrate our impact and how the library is used by the community. We started putting together an annual report a few years ago, and a lot of the graphics throughout the report are infographics that highlight interesting things from our data-- things like equipment loans stats, no. of research questions answered, workshop attendance, consultation appointments, etc.

I also run our Undergrad Library Council, and I've sometimes used things like door count stats or research help stats to answer the students' questions about how/if/when our services are used. I've also thought about creating slides for our digital signage that show off some of these stats, but I haven't had a chance to try it yet.

Thanks,

Jen

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Jennifer H. Giordano
User Experience, Research, and Instruction Librarian
Brandeis University Library

My pronouns: she/her/hers

Smith, Gregory

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Jun 10, 2022, 5:21:35 PM6/10/22

to Jennifer Giordano, Herzog, Andy M, Laura Baker, arl assess

Laura,

I appreciate what Andy and Jennifer have already posted to the listserv. I happen to be in a library where I’ve been able to see a culture of assessment develop over the course of nearly 20 years. That has partly been the outcome of external pressure (our Institutional Effectiveness Office requires us to conduct and document assessment across each of 3 library divisions every year). More importantly, it has resulted from internal leadership that appreciates the value of data-informed decisions.

I concur with Andy’s observation that assessment should be planned and implemented in partnership with others. We’ve found value in keeping balance between longitudinal assessment (measuring some of the same things repeatedly) and exploratory assessment (looking at new things). One of the things that we’ve done well is to involve our library leadership (Dean and 3 Associate Deans) in the process of deciding what assessments to do each year and what actions we should take based on what we discover. We’ve had some really cool outcomes as a result of assessment—for example, dramatic improvements in student satisfaction. Not all of our assessment is formal. A lot occurs in the form of predictable decisions (e.g., “should we renew this subscription for another year?”) using cost-per-use data.

Some things that help to make all of this a reality are as follows:

· top-down support within the library and elsewhere in the university administration

· advantageous placement for the assessment librarian (we have a Director of Finance & Assessment who reports to me and has good access to the Dean)

· entrepreneurial culture around the institution (being willing to stop things that aren’t working and try new things)

I could say more, but it’s late on a Friday afternoon here in the Eastern time zone. Feel free to follow up if you want to pick my brain further.

—Greg

Gregory A. Smith '15
Associate Dean, Library Technologies & Collection Services
Jerry Falwell Library

(434) 592-4892

Liberty University | Training Champions for Christ since 1971

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Cowan, S M

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Jun 14, 2022, 3:19:59 PM6/14/22

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Sorry for stepping into this conversation late. I wondered where all the emails that were being referred to were (some Netflix-worthy parallel email universe?) – and then realized our server was directing them to Junk! (Just to keep me off-balance, not all of the emails in the conversation went to Junk 😊)

First – hey, Laura! Wonderful to meet another person doing this work. I think there are many more libraries without “assessment librarians” than there are those with. “Library assessment” is the work mostly of lots of great librarians doing assessment work on top of everything else. I remind myself (especially on the “slog” days) that it’s a privilege to have a title with lib. assessment in it!

So, seriously, great to meet you!

Reading this thread so far, lots of great advice, and lots of different experiences in this role (or whatever version of the role an institution has). I’m also our first assessment librarian by that name – and, like you, someone who’d been at it (working in an academic library, even doing assessment) long before the title arrived.

In our case, it’s not so much that there’s no will for data-driven decisions – as that “library assessment” is by nature so broad it includes everything, the kitchen sink, and the blender too. It can be challenging to feel like one’s making an impact in the more routine or consultative work (“hey, can you take a look at my survey?”) – and that routine/consultative work can take up time one wishes were available for Big Stuff.

Sorry – you asked a specific question and I’m blathering on. Here are my thoughts.

Several things I’ve/we’ve done that felt meaningful – in the sense that they “landed” and seemed to have impact:

This one’s simple – just a picture of staffing levels over time…back to when we joined ARL in fact. It’s like a mountain range in shape…rising up, then “jagged-shaped” (like a row of mountains), before falling again. It was a very straightforward thing to illustrate (a line chart shaded below the line) -but impactful in literally showing the Provost (included in the annual report) how our staffing levels hadn’t been this low since the late 60s – ouch!
The second straightforward-but-impactful picture was one that charted the “buckets” of expenditure over time (I think I did 10 years). Essentially, as our budget is really tight, and has gone down a bit (and even a small dip given inflation essentially adds up to a huge decrease), we have only three areas of spending: Salary + fringe (which is huge at UConn) + materials. “Other” operating expenditures are so small they’re hardly worth showing. The “story” to this was – given that salary/fringe are immovable objects (and fringe keeps rising), when our budget is capped or reduced, materials takes the hit. (I used stacked bars for this).

To add context – I did some peer comparison pictures too.

The other work that I think has been most impactful, especially these past 2 ½ years, has been inwardly focused. Given low staffing and changing leadership, we’ve been struggling some with morale. Pushing for us to run ClimateQUAL turned out to be very powerful for us – and it wasn’t just the “results” (data) that we got from it. Part of what it accomplished was the trust-building we had to establish to even run the survey successfully. I believe we’ve been able to build on that cultural shift (at least around staff-focused assessment) in several home-grown assessments we ran, all qualitative, during the pandemic: on services, on telecommuting, on alternative work arrangements, etc.

Using assessment to focus attention on the organization itself can be really empowering.

I hope any of that is helpful. Let us know how it goes! If you ever need to brainstorm “questions” (to drive assessment), I’m very sure there are many folks on this list who would be happy to jump onto WebEx/Zoom/Teams/etc. to talk. Sometimes it helps just to have a person or two to toss ideas around with.

Best and good luck,

Susanna

Susanna M. Cowan PhD MLS

Coordinator for Library Research & Assessment

UConn Library
369 Fairfield Way, Unit 1005 | Storrs, CT 06269-1005
lib.uconn.edu

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From: Jennifer Giordano <gior...@brandeis.edu>

Date: Friday, June 10, 2022 at 1:20 PM
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