The following is an example of how a comprehensive quantitative assessment of library instruction might be conducted:
Central Connecticut State University won a Davis Educational Foundation grant in the fall of 2020 to ensure sustainability of its MSC-based assessment program by by increasing faculty participation throughout the process, building a library of valid assignments aligned to ten student learning outcome rubrics, increasing the number of student artifacts scored against the rubrics, and collaborating with a local community college in order to track transfer students' learning outcomes. The following documents are used in this process. Additional documents will be added to this page in the future.
The faculty who have participated in the Information Literacy assessment process so far have been from different academic departments, including FYE, WRT110 (basic freshman writing composition with embedded librarians), criminology, social work, bio molecular science, and our one-credit library sciences/information literacy course.
Assessing the inclusion of articles in student research papers requires the cooperation of at least one faculty member and possibly the local Institutional Research office. Librarians cannot assess this outcome without access to student artifacts. So the first step in pursuing this type of assessment if to build relationships with the partners needed for the project. Once those relationships exists, librarians can gather bibliographies from targeted student assignments, in a manner that complies with Institutional Research standards. If possible it can be helpful to collect a sample of bibliographies submitted prior to the teaching of a library session, to serve as a baseline to measure changes in student research behaviors.
In assessing the work of graduate students, librarians could assess the inclusion of articles that can be found in library databases through a survey of graduate students' published works. This could be done without the involvement of faculty or the local Institutional Research office, though relationships with graduate faculty might be helpful in calling the library's attention to their students' publications.
Below are a variety of approaches to assessing research appointments.
Note that in addition to other helpful demographics that could be captured about research appointments, it is particularly important to log whether the appointment was with an undergraduate or graduate student. Research appointments with these two populations can be drastically different, requiring different levels of library resources and time, making it important to be able to track them separately.
Below are a variety of approaches to assessing how the library is contributing to scholarly activities.
In addition to assessing undergraduate and faculty research, as noted in the question above about article usage, it can be helpful to routinely survey graduate students' published works.
Libraries use different ways to collect interaction statistics. These methods range from the simple (paper tick sheets at the desk), to online forms (Microsoft or Google Forms that are exported to Excel or Google Spreadsheets), to the purchase and use of professionally developed, desk statistic tracking programs (Gimlet and Desk Tracker Basic for example).
Some libraries, particularly those with smaller budgets and staffs, seem to prefer the Microsoft or Google Forms option. These forms can be easier for libraries to update as libraries adjust them based on what is and is not working. Being able to export the results from these forms to an Excel or Google spreadsheet allows more interoperability with the other statistics that libraries collect (such as door counts, library instruction statistics etc.).
The exception to this assessment approach may be LibAnswers for our our online chat interactions. This system has a robust statistical interface that allows for basic assessment as well as more detailed assessment options such as historical data and the ability to make comparisons.
Note that in addition to other helpful demographics that could be captured about reference interactions, it is particularly important to log whether the interaction was with an undergraduate or graduate student. Reference interactions with these two populations can be drastically different, requiring different levels of library resources and time, making it important to be able to track them separately.
The tracking and assessment of this reference data allows libraries to identify issues and possible actions:
Additional Resources
Taking a fresh look: Reviewing and classifying reference statistics for data-driven decision making