Library Services Assessment Plan
2006
Use the form below to describe your assessment plan for the services your department offers.
Include this form in your Instructional Plan and describe the plan in the narrative of your
instructional plan.
List the specific services
Describe how each specific service helps
offered by your
students master any or all of the four college
department.
competencies
1. Transaction Services.
Check-out and renew
materials (in person, by
phone & online); check out
course reserve materials; sell
printouts, computer disks,
and other items; check out
laptops; provide library cards
(both in person & online).
2. Online & Electronic
Services. On-campus &
remote access to online
subscription databases;
computers for research or
word-processing; specialized
computer-aided-instruction
programs; online catalog for
access to library’s
collections; specialized
assistive technology
workstations; audio-visual
equipment; photocopiers;
troubleshooting assistance in
support of all electronic
services.
3. Information & Instruction
Services. Credit-based
Library 10 Information
Research course; in-class
tailored instruction sessions
for 150+ classes annually;
research instruction &
assistance at the Reference
Desk; campus-wide
directional & informational
assistance at all service
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1. Many of the library’s transaction services directly
reinforce students’ personal responsibility by
requiring loaned materials to be returned on time or
generate overdue fines. Indirectly, all of our
transaction services help facilitate countless
educational pursuits and therefore support
communication, critical thinking, and global
awareness.
2. Online and other electronic resources provide
direct conduits to sources of research information and
study materials used by most campus instruction
programs, thus helping students improve their critical
thinking and global awareness competencies.
3. The Library 10 course and the in-class instruction
sessions represent direct instruction in critical
thinking and the many subject areas represented
within global awareness. Assistance at the
Reference Desk is instruction-based, intended not to
answer a student’s information need so much as to
teach students how to use electronic tools and
thinking processes to independently and confidently
satisfy their own future information needs, thus
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points; extensive web pages
for organized access to local
& remote information.
4. Collection. Acquire,
process, and provide access
to collection of books, videos,
and other materials of
sufficient breadth and
currency to support
instruction programs;
collection liaison activities
with faculty; provide online
tools for accessing collection
including catalog and various
material-specific lists; provide
institutional repository of
materials in College Archives
collection.
5. Service Management.
Sufficient open hours and
staffing for library to meet
campus needs; track &
assess volume &
effectiveness of all services;
safe & functional
environment; ensure
processes and services
conform to current industry
standards and available
technologies.
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contributing directly to critical thinking and
communication skills.
4. The library’s physical and electronic collections are
intended for direct support of the institution’s
instruction mission, and provide students with
countless opportunities to hone their critical thinking
skills as well as their global awareness of countless
topics.
5. Providing adequate staffing and sufficient open
hours increases the availability and accessibility of
the library’s resources to students. Tracking and
assessing library services enables the library to
provide services that are useful to current students,
adequate for the volume of demand, and represent
minimal inherent service barriers. In facilitating and
contributing to overall library service availability, our
service management efforts strongly support all core
competencies.
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Assessment of Services:
List the services you will
assess under each year of
the 5 year Instructional
Planning Process
Year One
Service:
General services survey
(instrument attached)
Describe the Assessment Process your
department will use to evaluate each service and
its outcomes. Include the assessment tool you
plan to use and the criteria to evaluate success.
If using a rubric, attach it to the end of this form.
Instead of a top-down approach, we decided to
initiate a series of open library meetings, attended by
both faculty and classified staff, to identify non-classrelated services and assessment options. Services
were identified, grouped in clusters described earlier
in this form, & contributions to core competencies
identified. A survey was selected as the assessment
method, & the group developed a general survey
instrument to conduct an initial broad review of library
services. In Fall 2005 & Spring 2006, the survey was
made available at both Library exits, & over 100
responses were collected during 3 days of each
semester. Survey questions were intended to
measure satisfaction with the specific activities a
patron was engaged in, as well as self-assessment
questions addressing several core competencies.
Staff will assess results based on question responses
and frequency of problem areas mentioned in written
comments.
Library 10 ongoing efforts
Year Two
Service:
Repeat general survey
Library 10 instructors hold regular meetings every
semester, during which problems, changes, and new
instruction elements are discussed. The results of
these meetings, plus any identified ambiguities in the
Library 10 workbook and feedback based upon
patterns of student errors or confusion, are folded into
the following semester’s workbook. This process is
repeated every semester.
The general services survey will be repeated every
year. We will compare new results to earlier results,
and discuss at regular library staff meetings.
Begin identifying specific
services to survey or
otherwise obtain additional
information about. Possible
areas:
- library collection
- website review
- computer use
- catalog usability
Subsequent areas to survey or otherwise analyze will
be determined by the results of the general survey,
as well as library staff perception on high-impact
areas to survey: areas which contribute most strongly
to the core competencies, or areas which benefit
large numbers of students. Once specific areas are
chosen, the open group meeting process described
above will be repeated, to select assessment method
and develop tool to use in evaluation.
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Year Three
Service:
In-class instruction sessions
Repeat general survey
Pursue other service area as
identified in year two
Year Four
Service:
Repeat general survey
To assess course-related instruction sessions,
librarians who conduct most of these sessions will
begin meeting to discuss evaluation options,
including T. Smalley’s existing online feedback
evaluation tool. Once options are selected, we will
attempt to assess either comprehensively or a
sampling of sessions. Results of the assessments will
be consolidated and reviewed.
See year two.
Pursue other service area as
identified in year two
Year Five:
Service:
Repeat general survey
Pursue other service area as
identified in year two
See year two.
Assessment Evaluation
The regular open meeting format used for the initial
identification of library service areas to assess
worked extremely well, and so will be repeated for
most future assessment efforts. The process allowed
for both faculty and classified staff participation,
contributions from multiple areas and specialties in
the library, and helped us produce efforts that all
participants could understand, support, and explain to
other library staff. Our target will be to conduct these
meetings periodically every semester, open to all
library staff, for the selection of subsequent service
areas to assess and the tools to use to assess them.
Describe the process the
department will use to
evaluate assessment
results. Include:
What meetings will be
held?
When?
Who will be involved?
What will be discussed?
What process will be used
to implement any
improvements needed to
services?
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FLEX week department meetings will continue to be
used to present results of the most recent
assessment efforts to all library staff, and for
identifying and prioritizing any specific service
improvements. Service improvements will be
implemented either by directly changing the impacted
process, or by documenting and communicating to
staff the desired workflow or process change.
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