Annual Assessment Report to the University 2007-2008
Academic Year: 2007-2008
Liaison: Kathy Dabbour
Department: Oviatt Library
College: Oviatt Library
Program of this report: Oviatt Library
Note: If you have multiple programs for which it is difficult to compile one report, submit a separate report for each.
Answer each question for which you have information; otherwise leave blank. Be concise! The form fields are
limited to 3000 characters (roughly half a single-spaced page). Please use 10 point type.
1.
Give a brief overview of the significant assessment-related activities for the program this year. Particularly
focus on relevant information that is not captured in any of the questions below (e.g., unanticipated turns,
refining assessment tools, why changes to SLOs were needed, etc.).
To assess student outcomes for information competence and the impact of library instruction, UNIV 100
freshmen seminar students were given an information competence pretest administered online prior to a
weeklong library instruction program focused on basic library research and information competence skills. A
posttest was administered after the students' annotated bibliography or similar assignment was turned in and
results compared to assess the impact of library instruction as well as in-coming freshmen information
competence. The Library has been conducting these pretest posttest surveys for many years. Next year’s survey
will be modified to ascertain where freshmen attended high school to target feeder schools in addition to
Northridge Academy High School for preemptive information competence instruction.
To assess outcomes for library collections that support learning, teaching, and research the Library participated
in the CSU Quality Improvement Program Library Satisfaction Survey, distributed online to a randomized
selection of CSUN student, faculty, and staff emails in spring 2008. QIP is a CSU-wide program administered
by the Chancellor’s Office, and allows individual campuses to assess both the satisfaction and perceived
importance of various library operations, collections, and facilities. Since the survey addressed all of our
outcomes for services and collections and compares results to other CSUs, we decided to participate. It also
gave us an opportunity to work closely with campus administration, IT, and IR in order to undertake a truly
randomized sample survey rather than convenience sample surveys that were done locally in previous years.
2. If you have made any changes to your SLOs this year, please paste in the entire list here. This information will be
used to update the SLO webpage on the Assessment website. If you have made no changes, skip this question.
Not applicable
3. Fill in the chart. Please list the SLO or SLOs that you evaluated this year, the tool or tools that you used to evaluate each SLO (e.g, embedded questions,
rubric), and a brief summary of the results, focusing on how they met your expectations of student learning for this SLO.
SLO
Information competence SLOs:
1. Determine the nature and extent of the information
needed;
2. Access needed information effectively and efficiently;
3.Evaluate information and its sources critically;
4. Demonstrate understanding of the many economic, legal,
and social issues surrounding the use of information.
Tool or tools
UNIV 100 freshmen
seminar online
information competence
pretest/posttest.
Results
University 100 Pretest Posttest of Information Competence
Summary
Frequency and Percentage of Correct Responses
Pretest
Posttest
Variable
N
%
N
%
% Change
(+/-)
Q1: Keywords
189 47.4
152
49.5
2.1
Q2: News
276 69.2
201
65.7
(3.5)
source
Q3: Scholarly
38
9.6
53
17.3
7.7
journal
Q4: Journal
137 34.6
129
42.2
7.6
cite
Q5: Book cite
203 51.0
151
49.3
(1.7)
Q6: Book
345 86.7
284
92.5
5.8
catalog
Q7: Database
175 44.1
157
51.1
7.0
Q8: Boolean
305 77.0
265
86.3
9.3
logic
Q9: Bias
201 50.9
181
59.3
8.4
Q10: Internet
291 73.5
257
83.7
10.2
evaluation
Q11:
327 83.2
277
91.7
8.5
Plagiarism
Q12: Citation
195 49.2
208
69.6
20.4
elements
Average % Correct
56.4
63.2
6.8
Incoming freshmen continue to fail to recognize keywords, scholarly
journals, various citation formats, purpose of a library database, and
resource bias. However, posttest scores following library instruction
mostly went up. Areas they appear to already understand and still
improve on after library instruction include knowing the purpose of
the library catalog, Boolean logic, the importance of critically
evaluating Internet resources, and avoiding plagiarism.
See the Fall 2007 Library Week Pretest Posttest Results Report at
http://library.csun.edu/kdabbour/assessment.html#icprojects
Outcomes for collections that support learning, teaching,
and research:
The Oviatt Library . . .
1. Collects and provides access to a variety of primary
and secondary print, manuscript, media, and
electronic resources to support the curricular
information needs of students and faculty.
2. Collects and provides access to a variety of primary
and secondary print, manuscript, media, and
electronic resources to support the research needs of
students and faculty.
3. Actively engages in outreach to collaborate with
faculty on the development of library collections to
support curricular and research needs.
2008 CSU Quality
Improvement Program
Library Satisfaction
Survey
Library Collections: Average Scores for Satisfaction
Sorted by Importance
Satisfaction Importance
(Scale=1-5) (Scale=1-4)
Collection
Mean=3.93* Mean=3.48*
Electronic resources (e.g.
Academic Search, JSTOR, etc.)
4.08
3.70
Journals, Print/Electronic
Accessibility of the library's
information sources at your
home or office
Usefulness of library website for
meeting your
coursework/research needs
Library books
3.97
3.67
4.25
3.66
4.10
3.62
3.89
3.50
Electronic library books
DVD, CD, or other media
3.73
3.55
3.32
3.05
Library faculty proactively select a variety of library materials to
meet the curricular and research needs of CSUN students and
faculty. Electronic resources, with the exception of e-books, scored
higher in satisfaction and importance, which was expected, due to
their relative ease of access and breadth and depth of subject
coverage. Books scored lower in satisfaction but higher in
importance, confirming earlier studies that students assume the
library’s collection are not up-to-date, but they still value books.
Given the Library’s lack of augmentation to its base book budget,
this is expected. DVD, CD and other media scored below average in
satisfaction and importance, which was not expected.
*Mean scores were calculated based on totals for both services and
collections.
Outcomes for services that support learning, teaching,
and research
The Oviatt Library . . .
1. Provides courteous, capable, and responsive service
that demonstrates professionalism and pride in our
work.
2. Creates a physical environment conducive to study
and research.
3. Provides open hours that takes into consideration
both the schedules of our students and faculty and
the realities of budgetary constraints.
4. Provides skillful and engaging individualized pointof-use instruction, both in-person and virtual, that
helps students develop their information
competence skills.
5. Actively engages in outreach to collaborate with
faculty to develop assignments and instructional
experiences that develop students' information
competence skills.
6. Provides skillful and engaging classroom
instruction, which helps students develop their
information competence skills.
7. Facilitates searches for needed information by
maintaining the efficient organization of and timely
access to the Library's print and manuscript
collections, including course reserves.
8. Facilitates searches for needed information by
maintaining the efficient organization of and timely
access to electronic resources via its Web pages,
including course reserves.
9. Facilitates use of audio/video resources by
maintaining the efficient organization of and timely
access to media resources, including collections,
equipment, and the University Video Network.
10. Facilitates effective use of information by providing
equipment (i.e., computers, printers, copiers, etc)
and software to extract needed information from
either online or print formats.
11. Provides timely access to resources of other
2008 CSU Quality
Improvement Program
Library Satisfaction
Survey
Library Services: Average Satisfaction and Importance
Sorted by Importance
Satisfaction
Importance
(Scale=1-5)
(Scale=1-4)
Service
Mean=3.93*
Mean=3.48*
Library access during
4.29
3.63
weekdays
4.07
3.57
Courtesy
Helping you locate and
retrieve information effectively
4.02
3.56
and efficiently
3.56
3.54
Cleanliness of restrooms
3.75
3.53
Noise level
Library access during
3.96
3.51
weeknights
4.02
3.50
Lighting
Library access during
3.69
3.49
weekends
4.04
3.48
Oviatt Library catalog
Overall Library and Library
4.02
3.46
Services
3.97
3.44
Cleanliness of Library
Adequate desk space to work
3.93
3.42
Climate control (Heating,
ventilation, air conditioning)
Services to obtain books and
articles from off-campus
sources (Interlibrary loan,
etc.)
Copiers
3.95
3.41
3.87
3.39
3.49
3.37
Printers
Comfortable seating
3.58
3.62
3.37
3.34
Helping you evaluate the
accuracy and validity of
information you retrieved
3.80
3.27
libraries via inter-library loan and/or document
delivery, as appropriate, to supplement Library
collections.
Helping you understand
ethical issues and correct
practices for avoiding
plagiarism
Programs, workshops and
classes on locating and
retrieving information
Helping you organize and use
the information you found for
course projects or papers
Helping you formulate a
research question for a
project or paper
3.71
3.21
3.87
3.16
3.69
3.05
3.65
3.04
Library services and facilities contribute to student learning by
assisting students with their information needs, creating an
atmosphere conducive to quiet study, and providing equipment to
assist in research and document creation needs. Services that
respondents rated the least satisfactory but considered important
were not surprising: the cleanliness of restrooms, library hours on
weekends, and noise were problematic. Areas that scored above
average for both satisfaction and importance included library hours
during the week, lighting, the library catalog, the courtesy of staff,
and helping respondents locate and retrieve information effectively
and efficiently. Areas that were considered satisfactory but not as
important somewhat contradict responses to related questions:
Overall library and library services, cleanliness of library, adequate
desk space to work, and climate control. The areas needing further
analysis include those that scored below average on both satisfaction
and importance, which seems to imply these services could either be
eliminated or perhaps the respondents were not as familiar with
them, including: inter library loan, printers, copiers, seating, library
instruction, and information competence principles.
*Mean scores were calculated based on totals for both services and
collections.
1.
Completing the assessment loop. If this year’s activities included assessment of programmatic changes that were made based upon previous assessment
of this SLO, answer this question. Otherwise, skip to the next question. Fill in the chart to show how the programmatic changes based on assessment data
have impacted student learning.
SLO
Information Competence
Semester/year
change was
implemented
Spring/Summer
2008
Outcomes for collections
Spring/Summer
2008
Outcomes for services
Spring/Summer
2008
Brief description of change
Impact of change based on new assessment
results from this year
Information competence curriculum for
UNIV 100 were 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
TBD by fall 2008 assessment projects
currently underway
TBD by reports and materials circulation
statistics
TBD by comparing spring 07 to spring 08
survey results
2.
Based on faculty discussion of the assessment results of this year’s activities, what changes are being
considered to improve student learning in the program?




3.
Describe resource needs to improve and support student learning that you have identified based on your
assessment evidence.




4.
Based on information competence assessment data, the Reference & Instructional Services
Department’s Library Instruction Committee will undertake curriculum mapping to identify the 100and 300-level general education courses for which we provide library instruction to identify
overlapping efforts, what is missing, and later, map our curriculum to IC standards.
Based on collections outcomes assessment data, the Technical Services Department’s Bibliographers
are working to increase outreach efforts to the departments to increase faculty participation in
collection development decisions by adopting best practices.
Based on services outcomes assessment data, the public services areas are instituting customer service
training for all library employees to improve student satisfaction and perceptions of how well service
points are at assisting them with their library research needs.
Based on services outcomes assessment data, Library administration is working with campus facilities
personnel to improve cleanliness of the library to provide an atmosphere conducive to student learning.
Low student test scores on information competence point up the need for more instruction which means
more instruction librarians, particularly those that are fluent in instructional design and technologies to
augment an already demanding instruction program (26,826 students attended library instruction sessions in
2007/08).
Student satisfaction with the Library’s collections was not overwhelming. Comments from this year’s and
previous year’s surveys indicate that students do not find enough current books and journals on their topics.
Therefore, more money for library collections would support student use of the library.
As the Library’s archives grow in response to research demands for primary sources and the campus’
commitment to an institutional repository, the need for a full time digital archivist is imperative for the
curation of special collections and archives.
The physical environment of the Library repeatedly is an issue. More funds are needed from the University
for its overall care and upgrade to create a comfortable and pleasing learning environment for the students.
If anyone in your program has submitted a manuscript this year that includes assessment data from the program
or information about program assessment activities, please check the box and someone will contact you for
further information. You can also add information about publications in the form field if you wish.
M. Somerville, L. Lampert, K. Dabbour, S. Harlan, and B. Schader. (2007). Toward large scale assessment of
information and communication technology literacy: Implementation considerations for the ETS ICT literacy
instrument. Reference Services Review 35(1):8-20.
Lampert, L.D. & Dabbour, K.S. (2007). Librarian Perspectives on Teaching MetaSearch and Federated Search
Technologies. Internet Reference Services Quarterly 12 (No. 3/4 2007):253-278.