Library Assessment For Mortenson Associates October 16, 2007

1. Library Assessment For Mortenson AssociatesOctober 16, 2007 Bob Burger, Professor Emeritus University of Illinois Library

2. Outline • Why assessment? • The assessment paradigm • Types of assessment • Assessment instruments • ARL New Measures Program • Building an Assessment Program • Culture of Assessment • Key challenges • The Customer Centered Library

3. Why Assessment? • Is our library accomplishing its goals and how well are we accomplishing them? • Are we a good library or a bad library? • How can we improve? • What is needed to improve? • Can we justify the expenditure of current resources? • How can we justify additional resources?

4. Why Assessment continued • Peter Drucker suggests several steps: • What is our business and what should it be? • Create clear goals and objectives. • Identify priorities, set deadlines, make individuals responsible for results. • Define measurements of performance. • Build feedback from results into their system. • Perform audits of objects and results and take corrective action when needed.

5. The Assessment Paradigm • Resources > Capability > Utilization > Impact • Resources: input measures • Capability: processing measures • Utilization: output measures • Impact: outcome measures

6. Assessment paradigm continued • Input measures: resources allocated (annual budget, size of collection, number of staff) • Process measures: transform resources into activities (quantify time or cost to perform specific task or activity such as ordering, receiving, cataloging) • Output measures: how inputs and processes utilized (annual circulation, number of reference questions answered, number of users served)

7. Assessment paradigm continued • Outcome measures: difficult to assess, relates to both individual served and to community

8. Types of Assessment • Satisfaction of the customer. • Satisfaction of the worker. • Workflow effectiveness and speed. • Service delivery effectiveness and speed. • Cost benefit analysis. • Legality of actions performed. • Social justice and ethics.

9. Assessment Instruments • Surveys • Focus groups • Web usability studies • Secret shopper • Specific testing • Best practices • Service level agreements

10. Assessment Instruments continued • Balanced Scorecard (an array of assessment tools in four areas) • Financial – How does the library look to stakeholders? • Customer – How do customers see the library? • Internal – In what areas must the library excel? • Innovation and learning – Can the library continue to improve and create value?

11. ARL New Measures Program • User satisfaction • Market penetration • Ease and breadth of access • Library impact on teaching and learning • Library impact on research • Cost effectiveness of library operations and services • Library facilities and space • Organizational capacity

12. ARL New Measures Program • LibQUAL+™ is a rigorously tested Web-based survey that libraries use to solicit, track, understand, and act upon users' opinions of service quality. • The DigiQUAL™ project is modifying and repurposing the existing LibQUAL+™ protocol to assess the services provided by digital libraries.

13. ARL New Measures Program • MINES for Libraries™ is an online transaction- based survey that collects data on the purpose of use of electronic resources and the demographics of users. • Collectively all three are under the name StatsQual • See http://www.arl.org/stats/initiatives/index.shtm

14. ARL New Measures Program • Assessment conference proceedings • http://www.libraryassessment.org/archive/

15. Building an Assessment Program • Leadership • Who does it (individual, committee) • Infrastructure (measurement and evaluation skills, data collection methods, sampling, analysis software) • Library culture (political process, positive deviance) • Environment and constituencies • Rewards and incentives

16. The Customer Centered Library • Allservices and activities are viewed through the eyes of the customers • Customers determine quality • Library services and resources add value to the customer User-centered libraries “collect data and use them as the basis for decision-making rather than rely on subjective impressions and opinions” (Stoffle, Renaud and Veldof, “Choosing Our Futures”, C&RL, 1996)

17. Culture of Assessment • Mission, planning and policies are customer centered • Performance measures and time frames in strategic planning documents • Assessment part of normal work processes; all staff encouraged to participate • Continuous communication maintained with customers through needs assessment and other measurements

18. Culture of Assessment • All library programs and services evaluated for quality and impact; assessment will focus on the processes, procedures, and services rather than on individual • Staff have the opportunity and resources to improve their skills to better serve users.

19. Library leadership role • Customer-centered • Strong support from University Librarian AND other library administrators and managers • Willing to commit resources/staff for assessment • AND PROVIDE TIME TO DO IT • Evidence of data-based decision making • “Walk the Talk”; make assessment visible in library • Help shape organizational culture

20. Key Challenges • Library leadership • Customer centered library • Organizational culture and structure • Identifying responsibility for assessment • Library priorities • Sufficiency of resources • Assessment skills and expertise • Analyzing and presenting results • Using results to improve libraries

21. Library Assessment • QUESTIONS? • COMMENTS? • Thank you for your interest and attention! • Bob Burger • rburger@uiuc.edu