More Value Research from the 2013 ACRL Conference

 Posted by at 9:12 am  Communicating Value, General  No Responses »
May 222013
 

Whether or not you were able to attend ACRL in Indianapolis last month, you can check out lots of the great conference content through the proceedings, now available online. Here are a few contributed papers that present Value-related projects. The authors of these papers respond to the research agenda of the Value report in interesting ways.

Academic and Public Library Collaboration: Increasing Value by Sharing Space, Collections, and Services by Daniel Overfield and Coleen Roy

This project, from Cuyahoga Community College (CCC), is in the very early stages of working to demonstrate correlations between a popular reading collection and student engagement. CCC is collaborating with neighboring public library systems to install a small popular reading collection in the college library and hopefully increase student engagement. The CCC librarians plan to assess the impact and value of the popular collection by tracking circulation, visitor counts, and public library card applications. They believe that student success, student retention, and even graduation rates may be aided by the presence of a more diverse and interesting library collection. We hope to hear results from the project sometime soon!

Answering “How” and “Why” Questions of Library Impact on Undergraduate Student Learning by Derek Rodriguez

The author of this paper suggests that one of the most important questions asked in the Value report is “How does the library contribute to undergraduate student learning?” He presents the Understanding Library Impacts (ULI) protocol, which is designed to help libraries detect and communicate their impact on undergraduate student learning. There are two instruments in ULI: 1) a questionnaire to gather quantitative and qualitative data about student use of library resources, services, and facilities during academic work and 2) a “Learning Activities Crosswalk” that supports connections between library use and student learning outcomes. The ULI protocol has been used in ten library assessment projects over the past two years and examples from those projects are used in this paper.

Choosing and Using Assessment Management Systems: What Librarians Need to Know by Megan Oakleaf, Jackie Belanger, and Carlie Graham

The Value report highlighted the need for libraries to assess their information literacy instructional activities and programs and to demonstrate how their instructional activities contribute to student learning as well as the wider educational and research missions of their parent institutions. As a result, many academic libraries now face the challenge of assessing student learning and determining the best ways to collect, manage, and report assessment data. In order to support these efforts, the Value report highlights the potential usefulness of assessment management systems, or AMSs.

The aim of this paper is to inform librarians about various features and uses of AMSs in order to help them participate in conversations about the adoption and use of AMSs at their own institutions. Previous work on this topic within the LIS field has identified a number of significant benefits that libraries can reap in using an institution-wide AMS. This paper endeavors to forward this conversation by providing a more detailed discussion of specific features of a number of commercial AMSs, and by offering examples of how these systems are being used by academic librarians. This paper provides librarians with key selection criteria for choosing an AMS and explores the benefits and challenges faced by libraries and their institutions in using AMSs.

 

If you know of more research on this topic, please let us know in the comments.

Demonstrating Value Through Assessment and Surveys

 Posted by at 2:24 pm  Communicating Value, General  No Responses »
May 122013
 

At last month’s ACRL conference, there were more than 50 sessions that focused on assessment and/or the value of academic libraries.  While it was not possible to attend all the presentations, there were a number of poster sessions that provided examples of how libraries are gathering information to present on their value.  I focused on several of the poster sessions that had been publicized as focusing on value in the ACRL conference program.

One poster, “Demonstrating the Value of Academic Libraries with the MISO Survey” presented information on data collected from over 80,000 respondents between 2005 and 2012.  The survey has just completed its eighth year.  In terms of full disclosure, our institution participated in this survey for the first time this spring.   The presenters for this poster session were from a variety of  institutions including Bryn Mawr, Earlham College, Lafayette College, Spring Hll College, University of Richmond, and Brandeis University. MISO stands for “Measuring Information Services Outcomes” and the web-based survey instrument includes questions that measure use for both library and IT services.  The survey instrument collects feedback from faculty, staff, and students on services to measure the frequency of use, what services are considered most important, as well as measuring satisfaction by the respondents.   By evaluating those services that are frequently used as well as those that are not, as mentioned in their poster, the survey can be used both for improving services and for strategic planning.  With high response rates from faculty and students, libraries can assess those services that are both high in use and high in satisfaction as well as those services that are less frequently used and/or have low satisfaction.  For libraries looking to find information on what services are of the most value to faculty, it will provide a measurement of those services that faculty value highly and also use frequently.  With the data, libraries should be able to craft messages on high use/high value services in terms of demonstrating their overall contribution to the institution as well as the value of their support for faculty.  Two of the questions addressed by the survey are:

  • What services and resources are important to our constituents, and how successfully do our organizations deliver them?

  • How effectively do we communicate with our campus constituencies about our services and resources?

As a means of making improvements, the results should be able to provide data to show that changes may need to be made if  there are services that the librarians value highly, but faculty or students aren’t using.  This is where improvements in communication could provide an increase in underutilized services.

An additional feature of the survey is that MISO allows participating institutions to collect data on their campus and compare their results with the peer institutions who participate in the annual survey.  It is not the same group of institutions every year.  However, as a tool it not only measures satisfaction, but also can help identify trends.  You can see a copy of the poster presented at ACRL at

http://www.misosurvey.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/MISO_ACRL_Poster_FINAL.pdf

 

More details about the MISO survey will be found at the general information page for ACRL -

http://www.misosurvey.org/acrl/

 

There were a number of excellent posters and sessions on work being done by libraries to both use the Value report and to collect data to help demonstrate value.  Other posters will be featured in future blog postings.

 

Teams Selected for ACRL Assessment in Action Learning Community

 Posted by at 11:00 am  Uncategorized  1 Response »
Apr 092013
 

Assessment in Action Program LogoACRL has selected 75 institutional teams from a pool of 98 applicants to participate in the first year of the program Assessment in Action: Academic Libraries and Student Success (AiA). The program is made possible by the Institute of Museum and Library Services and carried out in partnership with the Association for Institutional Research and the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities. The teams, representing all types of institutions, come from 29 states and 3 Canadian provinces. For a list of currently confirmed institutions, see the AiA program webpage.

In their applications each institution identified a team, consisting of a librarian and at least two additional team members as determined by the campus (e.g., faculty member, student affairs representative, institutional researchers or academic administrator). They also identified goals for their action learning projects.

“The top applications were distinguished by the team composition, their readiness and the quality of their project goals. We also looked for strong institutional support to help the teams see their projects through to completion.” said Terri Fishel, vice chair of ACRL’s Value of Academic Libraries Committee and library director at Macalester College. “The application reviewers sought action learning projects with the greatest potential to contribute to the greater library and higher education community.”

The proposed topics of selected institutions include:

  • Do students who attend information or media literacy sessions attain higher grades than students who did not?
  • How does students’ work with special collections materials affect their ability to think critically and develop intellectual curiosity?
  • Do re-admitted students (who have appealed dismissal) improve their academic performance and persist at a higher rate due to mandatory meetings with a librarian for research assistance?
  • Does our new library/learning resource center facility have an impact on the student community, contributing to student enrollment and excitement about completing skills sessions and library orientations?
  • Do library contributions to a program for at-risk students (empowering them by connecting more deeply to local community issues through faculty partnerships and learning projects) enhance research, critical thinking, problem solving, and analytical skills? Are library efforts to support this program helping to increase student success and retention?
  • Are library interventions to increase students’ media fluency skills effective at improving their digital storytelling abilities?
  • In what ways does library participation in a targeted sophomore year program lead to higher graduation and retention rates, improved student engagement and satisfaction, as well as post-graduation success?
  • What is the impact of embedding librarians in our student scholar program?

To ensure project results are disseminated to the broader community, each institutional team will submit a final report and each librarian team leader will prepare and deliver a poster at the 2014 ALA Annual Conference. The AiA program, part of ACRL’s Value of Academic Libraries initiative, employs a blended learning environment and a peer-to-peer network over the course of the 14-month long program, which runs from April 2013-June 2014. The librarians will participate as cohort members in a one-year professional development program that includes team-based activities carried out on their campuses. An important component of the AiA program is establishing a learning community where librarian team leaders have the freedom to connect, risk and learn together.

“I am thrilled to be working with such a diverse group of institutions pursuing these very interesting project ideas,” said Lisa Hinchliffe, co-chair of ACRL’s Value of Academic Libraries Committee, a lead facilitator in the AiA program and professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. “The program facilitators are strongly committed to establishing an environment which supports collaborative learning and shared competence. We can’t wait to get started!”

Learn more about the AiA program at the ACRL 2013 conference during the session Update on Value of Academic Libraries Initiative from 1:30 – 2:30 p.m. on Friday, April 12.

AiA is a three year program. ACRL will be selecting 100 additional institutions to participate in the 2014-2015 class. Stay tuned for an announcement in January 2014 with more details on how to apply for the next round.

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