University Library
Assessment of Assessment Report
October 28, 2008
Directions:
The following questions are meant to help you reflect upon the program assessment that was completed for 2007-2008.
Your reflections will provide important information regarding how well we are doing on program assessment as a
university. Please send your responses electronically to bonnie.paller@csun.edu. by Oct. 28, 2008. Thank you very much.
1. Were faculty other than yourself involved in the assessment process?
Yes/No
2. If yes, please describe in what ways, e.g. faculty assessment committee, working with department curriculum
committee, connected to college or institutional assessment individuals or committees, etc.
 Survey reports and data were discussed at library faculty meetings, including the Library Instruction
(Curriculum) Committee, Bibliographers’ Meeting, and with individual librarians responsible for
outreach and freshmen seminar library instruction.
Yes/No
3. Did the 2007-8 assessment plan completely inform the assessment process?
If not, why not? Please describe unexpected problems or events which occurred.


4. Did assessment activities include samples of student learning at a beginning, midpoint, and advanced
level?
We studied information competency test results of fall 2007 semester UNIV 100 students in a
pretest given prior to library instruction and posttest given after their assignment was turned in;
therefore, we considered these students at the beginning level of information competence.
Assessment Instruments and Measures
5. Please describe each of the assessment instruments or measures used for each of the assessment activities.
 Information competence SLOs: UNIV 100 freshmen seminar online information competence
pretest/posttest
 Outcomes for services that support learning, teaching, and research: 2008 CSU Quality Improvement
Program Library Satisfaction Survey
 Outcomes for collections that support learning, teaching, and research: 2008 CSU Quality
Improvement Program Library Satisfaction Survey
6. In retrospect, did the assessment instrument provide evidence for the skill, ability, or knowledge (SLO) being
measured?
 UNIV 100 freshmen seminar online information competence pretest/posttest: Yes, but only at the
knowledge level not performance level in that the test is multiple choice.
 2008 CSU Quality Improvement Program Library Satisfaction Survey: Yes, but only at a surface level
in that we were using a test standardized to all CSU libraries; therefore, it did not ask about our
specific service points or collections, except what was provided in the open-ended comments.
7. If more than one measure was used for the same assessment activity, did you find that the instruments were
reliable, that is, they each gave the same evaluation of the same item assessed?
 NA
Yes/No
8. For each assessment activity, how large was the sample?
From what size or type of population was the sample taken?
 UNIV 100 freshmen seminar online information competence pretest/posttest is required of all
students enrolled in the freshman seminar, so it was a 100% population sample.
 2008 CSU Quality Improvement Program Library Satisfaction Survey was distributed online to a
randomized sample of 7,102 CSUN student, faculty, and staff emails out of the total CSUN
population of 38,272; 579 for an overall average of 8.2% response rate.
9. Would you want to change the choice of assessment instruments or features of chosen assessment
instruments?
 Yes, if we had direct access to transfer students, I would want to distribute the Information
competence survey to them and compare results with freshmen. I would also like to look at data
provided by research rubrics developed by faculty to assess writing assignments done by students
after having library instruction.
 To assess library collections and services I would like to have a randomized sample drawn from
student, faculty, and staff emails and re-distribute home grown surveys we conducted in the past
with convenience sampling to obtain more generalizable data.
Using the Assessment Results (Closing the Loop)
10. In general, did the assessment data indicate how well the students in the program are learning what you want
them to learn?
 For freshmen enrolled in UNIV 100, yes, but I would like to expand use of our pretest/posttest to other
classes.
11. How were the results used?
 Information competence curriculum for UNIV 100 was modified to address deficient areas revealed
in pretest/posttest; online tutorials to cover basic competencies were created/in process to provide
an additional format for learning.
 Best practices for library faculty outreach to departments were established; signs and web site
created/modified to publicize music and media collection.
 Signs promoting good library behavior and the availability of various library services created in
response to previous library satisfaction surveys.
12. Please describe additional important information not captured through the above questions. NA
Yes/No