Practical Evaluation Techniques for Librarians

Practical Evaluation Techniques for Librarians PDF Author: Rachel Applegate
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN:
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 226

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Book Description
Evaluation is essential to library management: it provides the data that underlies informed and effective decision-making. This book is a one-volume, how-to guide to library evaluation techniques, planning, and reporting. Library professionals—regardless of whether they operate in a school, public, or academic library setting—need to have effective evaluation skills in order to be accountable to stakeholders and to effect informed improvement. Practical Evaluation Techniques for Librarians provides information and guidance that is highly useful and accessible for all librarians looking to intelligently manage the strengths and weaknesses of their library as well as communicate its value to its stakeholders. Rather than focusing on data-gathering methods appropriate for researchers, the book concentrates on data collection at the local level that enables informed managerial decision-making. It describes and compares techniques that can be used with any level or type of resource—staffing, software, and expertise, for example—in any size library. Author Rachel Applegate makes it clear that accountability is everywhere and imperative, and any librarian can learn the simple techniques to benefit from evaluation.

Practical Evaluation Techniques for Librarians

Practical Evaluation Techniques for Librarians PDF Author: Rachel Applegate
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN:
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 226

Get Book Here

Book Description
Evaluation is essential to library management: it provides the data that underlies informed and effective decision-making. This book is a one-volume, how-to guide to library evaluation techniques, planning, and reporting. Library professionals—regardless of whether they operate in a school, public, or academic library setting—need to have effective evaluation skills in order to be accountable to stakeholders and to effect informed improvement. Practical Evaluation Techniques for Librarians provides information and guidance that is highly useful and accessible for all librarians looking to intelligently manage the strengths and weaknesses of their library as well as communicate its value to its stakeholders. Rather than focusing on data-gathering methods appropriate for researchers, the book concentrates on data collection at the local level that enables informed managerial decision-making. It describes and compares techniques that can be used with any level or type of resource—staffing, software, and expertise, for example—in any size library. Author Rachel Applegate makes it clear that accountability is everywhere and imperative, and any librarian can learn the simple techniques to benefit from evaluation.

Practical Evaluation Techniques for Librarians

Practical Evaluation Techniques for Librarians PDF Author: Rachel Applegate
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1610691601
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 244

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Book Description
Evaluation is essential to library management: it provides the data that underlies informed and effective decision-making. This book is a one-volume, how-to guide to library evaluation techniques, planning, and reporting. Library professionals—regardless of whether they operate in a school, public, or academic library setting—need to have effective evaluation skills in order to be accountable to stakeholders and to effect informed improvement. Practical Evaluation Techniques for Librarians provides information and guidance that is highly useful and accessible for all librarians looking to intelligently manage the strengths and weaknesses of their library as well as communicate its value to its stakeholders. Rather than focusing on data-gathering methods appropriate for researchers, the book concentrates on data collection at the local level that enables informed managerial decision-making. It describes and compares techniques that can be used with any level or type of resource—staffing, software, and expertise, for example—in any size library. Author Rachel Applegate makes it clear that accountability is everywhere and imperative, and any librarian can learn the simple techniques to benefit from evaluation.

Collection Evaluation in Academic Libraries

Collection Evaluation in Academic Libraries PDF Author: Karen C. Kohn
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1442250658
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 205

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Book Description
Librarians have long used data to describe their collections. Traditional measures have simply been inputs and outputs: volumes acquired, processed, owned, or circulated. With the growth since the 1990s of cultures of assessment, librarians have sought statistics that are evaluative rather than simply descriptive. More recently, exponentially increasing journal prices and an economic recession have intensified the need to make careful purchasing decisions and to justify these to administrators. A methodical evaluation of a library collection can help librarians understand and meet user needs and can help communicate to administrators that the library is a good use of the institution’s money. Collection Evaluation in Academic Libraries: A Practical Guide for Librarians equips collections managers to select and implement a method or several methods of evaluating their library collections. It includes sections on four tools for evaluation: • Comparison to peer institutions • Core lists • Usage statistics from circulation and ILL • Citation analysis Chapters on each of these approaches present the advantages and disadvantages of each method, instructions on data collection and analysis—with screenshots—and suggested action steps after completing the analysis. With a unique combination of step-by-step instructions and discussions of the purpose and role of data, this book provides an unusually thorough guide to collection evaluation. It will be indispensable for collection development librarians and anyone looking to strengthen the culture of assessment within the library.

The Evaluation and Measurement of Library Services

The Evaluation and Measurement of Library Services PDF Author: Joseph R. Matthews
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1440855374
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 481

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Book Description
This guide provides library directors, managers, and administrators in all types of libraries with complete and up-to-date instructions on how to evaluate library services in order to improve them. It's a fact: today's libraries must evaluate their services in order to find ways to better serve patrons and prove their value to their communities. In this greatly updated and expanded edition of Matthews' seminal text, you'll discover a breadth of tools that can be used to evaluate any library service, including newer tools designed to measure customer and patron outcomes. The book offers practical advice backed by solid research on virtually every aspect of evaluation, including quantitative and qualitative tools, data analysis, and specific recommendations for measuring individual services, such as technical services and reference and interlibrary loan. New chapters give readers effective ways to evaluate critical aspects of their libraries such as automated systems, physical space, staff, performance management frameworks, eBooks, social media, and information literacy. The author explains how broader and more robust adoption of evaluation techniques will help library managers combine traditional internal measurements, such as circulation and reference transactions, with more customer-centric metrics that reflect how well patrons feel they are served and how satisfied they are with the library. By applying this comprehensive strategy, readers will gain the ability to form a truer picture of their library's value to its stakeholders and patrons.

Collection Evaluation Techniques

Collection Evaluation Techniques PDF Author: Bonnie Strohl
Publisher: American Library Association
ISBN:
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 40

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Book Description


Evaluating Reference Services

Evaluating Reference Services PDF Author: Jo Bell Whitlatch
Publisher: American Library Association
ISBN: 9780838907870
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 236

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Book Description
With this handy new guidebook, reference luminary Jo Bell Whitlatch outlines practical methods for evaluating and delivering excellent reference service to the technology-savvy library user of today.

Collection Evaluation Techniques

Collection Evaluation Techniques PDF Author: Cynthia Stewart Kaag
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Book selection
Languages : en
Pages : 30

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Book Description


Handbook of Practical Program Evaluation

Handbook of Practical Program Evaluation PDF Author: Joseph S. Wholey
Publisher: Jossey-Bass
ISBN: 0787973882
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 600

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Book Description
The second edition of Handbook of Practical Program Evaluation offers managers, analysts, consultants, and educators in government, nonprofit, and private institutions a valuable resource that outlines efficient and economical methods for assessing program results and identifying ways to improve program performance. The Handbook has been thoroughly revised. Many new chapters have been prepared for this edition, including chapters on logic modeling and on evaluation applications for small nonprofit organizations. The Handbook of Practical Program Evaluation is a comprehensive resource on evaluation, covering both in-depth program evaluations and performance monitoring. It presents evaluation methods that will be useful at all levels of government and in nonprofit organizations.

Assessment as Information Practice

Assessment as Information Practice PDF Author: Gaby Haddow
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000510514
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 143

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Book Description
Assessment as Information Practice provides information about a range of collection and service-based assessment approaches that can be applied in different contexts to benefit institutions and the users they serve by enhancing quality, efficiency, and effectiveness. With contributions from practitioners and researchers in Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, and the United States, the chapters discuss practical and theoretical aspects of assessment in collecting institutions. Each chapter focuses on specific assessment approaches or contexts while providing guidance on method and use. The chapters can be read alone or as a series to gain an appreciation of assessment approaches, including assessment-oriented research; storytelling; design thinking; data visualisation; mixed methods assessment for digital resources; data for institutional repository assessment; bibliometric methods; and impact assessment. Assessment as Information Practice serves as a resource for practitioners involved in assessment activities. Detailing the processes and considerations that will contribute to more effective and sustainable assessment programmes, the book is also relevant to faculty, researchers, and students working in the information sector.

Snapshots of Reality

Snapshots of Reality PDF Author: Mary Snyder Broussard
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780838986899
Category : Academic libraries
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Snapshots of Reality is a practical book for instructional librarians. The chapters in this volume assume that classroom-based assessment does not have to take away from invaluable instruction time, nor does it have to be some overwhelmingly complicated task. Formative assessments are "bite-sized" assessments that help the librarian get a snapshot of the students' level of understanding in relation to the learning target(s). These mini-assessments are usually learning tools themselves and can be assessed quickly enough that the librarian can adjust his or her teaching on the spot to meet the immediate needs of their learners. This very practical book explores the adaptation of formative assessment theory into something that works for the library one-shot and more advanced instructor-librarian collaborations. It also includes 48 FAST (Formative Assessment Snapshot Technique) ideas and a guided planning template to help librarians seamlessly bring formative assessment into the library classroom. This book is appropriate for all types of academic libraries, school libraries with strong information literacy programs, and library and information school collections.