"How have users of our library changed as a direct result of their contact with our collections and services?" --from the Preface
This book will help you to not only answer this question, but also prove your findings. Walking you through the process of assessing if and how well students and library users are learning from educational resources, two expert academic library experts team up to provide An Action Plan for Outcomes Assessment in Your Library. This comprehensive plan, the first of its kind and specifically for librarians, provides data collection tools for measuring both learning and research outcomes that link outcomes to user satisfaction. After all, it is the users who will benefit from learning, and so their experiences are integral to the way libraries measure their services and performance.
This practical, how-to manual, with detailed case studies from actual outcomes assessment programs, will prepare you to:
<ul>
<li>Plan an outcomes assessment strategy for your library that is in line with accrediting guidelines</li>
<li>Execute your plan by identifying user needs, collecting and analyzing data, and presenting your findings</li>
<li>Measure the value of the services you are providing and identify areas for improvement</li>
</ul>
Armed with hands-on tools and real-life examples, you will be inspired to get a handle on how successful your services are in the context of what your students and users need and want. Included are policies of major accrediting bodies for higher education, guidelines developed by the Association for Research and College Libraries, and a chapter that applies academic library outcomes assessment to public libraries.
Libraries can maintain accreditation and funding, assess student and user learning, and determine the library's role in graduate and faculty research as they demonstrate their effectiveness using outcomes assessment. This innovative action plan provides tools and data collection instruments that is based on the latest research and adaptable to any type of library.

Action Plan for Outcomes Assessment in Your Library

Hernon, Peter

Dugan, Robert E.

Business & Money

ALA Editions

Book by Peter Hernon, Robert E. Dugan, Joseph R. Matthews

Getting Started with Evaluation

Matthews, Joseph R.

Reference

Both the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) and the Public Library Association (PLA) provide important data services. For library managers and administrators, the key to the data's usefulness is knowing how to extract and apply the most relevant information to managing a library and improving accountability. A companion volume to the authors' earlier book Getting Started with Evaluation, this guide illustrates how to use the data to support value, collection use, benchmarking, and other best practices. This important resource
<ul>
<li>Identifies key metrics in ACRLMetrics and PLAmetrics</li>
<li>Demonstrates how to perform techniques for developing and using metrics</li>
<li>Offers exercises that illustrate how to produce meaningful metrics and reports, accessible via a free web portal</li>
<li>Shows how to move towards outcomes assessments while simultaneously embracing value</li>
<li> Includes numerous examples to guide readers through the data services' web interfaces screen-by-screen</li>
</ul>
Managers at academic and public libraries, administrators, and library trustees will find this book a vital tool for accountability and advocacy.

Managing with Data: Using ACRLMetrics and PLAmetrics

Academic and public libraries are continuing to transform as the information landscape changes, expanding their missions into new service roles that call for improved organizational performance and accountability. Since Assessing Service Quality premiered in 1998, receiving the prestigious Highsmith Library Literature Award, scores of library managers and administrators have trusted its guidance for applying a customer-centered approach to service quality and performance evaluation. This extensively revised and updated edition explores even further the ways technology influences both the experiences of library customers and the ways libraries themselves can assess those experiences. With a clear focus on real-world application, the authors
<ul>
<li>Challenge conventional thinking about the utility of input, output, and performance metrics by suggesting new ways to think about the evaluation and assessment of library services</li>
<li>Explain service quality and customer satisfaction, and demonstrate how they are separate but intertwined</li>
<li>Identify procedures for qualitatively and quantitatively measuring both service quality and satisfaction</li>
<li>Encourage libraries to take action by presenting concrete steps they can take to become more customer-centric</li>
<li>Offer a range of customer-related metrics that provide insights useful for library planning and decision making, such as surveys and focus groups</li>
</ul>This book shows how to nurture an environment of continuous improvement through effective service quality assessment.

Assessing Service Quality: Satisfying the Expectations of Library Customers

Altman, Ellen

An academic library,s budget and expenditures demonstrate its accountability, effectiveness, efficiency, and sustainability to its institution. All library managers must understand and manage budgets, from planning through implementation, reporting, and conducting audits. Budgeters also need familiarity with the use of metrics, the ability to relate the use of the data gathered to improved performance and organizational efficiency, and automated management information systems to effectively tell their library's story and advocate for budgetary support. In its first eight chapters, with tables, figures, data application, and exercises throughout, Financial Management in Academic Libraries: Data-Driven Planning and Budgeting covers the various stages and topics involved in managing budgets: planning; the types of budgets used in academic institutions; the overall budgeting process as well as a specific process in program budgeting; managing a budget during the fiscal year and its aftermath; and providing reports on the budget. The ninth chapter introduces general concepts to help address budget reduction strategies, potential fraud, and financial best practices. And the final chapter elevates the discussion from financial management to financial leadership, the articulation of a detailed vision, and the realignment of the budget with the promises specified in that vision. Financial Management in Academic Libraries explores the connection between financial management and accountability, effectiveness, efficiency, and sustainability, and demonstrates how to capture them in a realistic, data-supported budget. Among the different units of an academic institution, the library has an advantage in that its managers can link these concepts to the library's infrastructure, its staffing, collections, services, and technology. Focusing on these components can enable everyone in the library to work to achieve organizational sustainability over time and advocate for their place in the institution.

Financial Management In Academic Libraries: Data-Driven

Assoc of College & Research Libraries

This essential guide places government information resources within the context of key issues and government structure to give users a clear understanding of federal publications available online. The authors discuss all three branches of the government and how to best access the types of information they disseminate.Prepared by one of the country's foremost experts on U.S. government information sources and his colleagues, this timely guide shows you how to efficiently find the information you need on the Internet. Going beyond a static directory approach, these authors place government information resources within the context of key issues and government structure to give users a clear understanding of the U.S. government publications available online. They explain how to conduct an efficient and effective search-how to use search engines or portals, how to identify the appropriate government body, how to search by selected subject or topic (e.g., statistics, maps, and geographic information systems), and how to use special search aides (e.g., one-stop shopping). The authors discuss all three branches of the government and the types of information resources they disseminate. Government services available through the Web are also cited. In addition, there is a chapter on government sites aimed at the youth, par

U.S. Government on the Web: Getting the Information You Need

Politics & Social Sciences

Shuler, John A.

Social Sciences

Libraries Unltd Inc

United States Government Information: Policies and Sources (Library and Information Science Text Series)

The first text to provide a comprehensive introduction to the information policies of the United States government and basic source material, this book provides students with an understanding of the underlying importance of policy and how it is formulated. It also shows how to locate information produced since the founding of the government in the 18th century, and traces policies and sources from that time to the emergence of electronic government resulting from the advent of the Internet. The discussion of finding aids and legislative history is reinforced with the inclusion of examples in the text as well as exercises. In addition to covering the three branches of the government, the text explains terminology and lists sources likely to provide relevant information on presidential communication and more. Chapters also cover the Freedom of Information Act and Declassified Records, administrative law, intellectual property, statistical sources, maps and geographical information systems, depository

Relyea, Harold C.

Cheverie, Joan F.

Economics

Libraries Unlimited

The definitive guide to U.S. government information on the Web has been expanded and updated with the latest information from the current administration, including material on the Department of Homeland Security, the Patriot Act, and the E-Government Act of 2002. Peter Hernon, one of the country's foremost authorities on government information, and his colleagues provide additional Web sites and offer valuable strategies for effectively accessing and using government information online.
More than a mere directory of Web sites, this authoritative work serves as a cardinal pointer through the government's labyrinthine structure and the myriad information resources available to the public, giving users a clearer understanding of U.S. government agencies and their online publications and services. An essential and regularly updated reference, this guide is a reliable roadmap to a vast and diverse field of important information.

Computers & Technology

Web Development & Design

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Dugan, Robert E.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Dugan, Robert E.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Dugan, Robert E.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Action Plan for Outcomes Assessment in Your Library

Getting Started with Evaluation

Managing with Data: Using ACRLMetrics and PLAmetrics

Assessing Service Quality: Satisfying the Expectations of Library Customers

Financial Management In Academic Libraries: Data-Driven

Getting Started with Evaluation

U.S. Government on the Web: Getting the Information You Need

United States Government Information: Policies and Sources (Library and Information Science Text Series)

United States Government Information: Policies and Sources (Library and Information Science Text Series)

U.S. Government on the Web: Getting the Information You Need