Library Assessment in Higher Education

by Joseph R. Matthews

Written specifically to address the library's role in education, this book provides guidance on performing assessment at academic institutions that will serve to improve teaching effectiveness and prove your library's impact on student learning outcomes―and thereby demonstrate your library's value.

Academic libraries are increasingly being asked to demonstrate their value as one of many units on campus, but determining the outcomes of an academic library within the context of its collegiate setting is challenging. This book explains and clarifies the practice of assessment in academic institutions, enabling library managers to better understand and explain the impact of the library on student learning outcomes, teaching effectiveness, and research productivity.

Providing essential information for all college and university librarians, this volume discusses and summarizes the outcomes of research that has been conducted to investigate assessment within the context of higher education. This updated second edition incorporates additional research, examines new trends, and covers groundbreaking advances in digital assessment tools as well as the changes in the amount and forms of data utilized in the assessment process. The chapters address assessment from a campus setting and present data that demonstrate the value of the library within that setting in terms of learning, research, and overall impact. In sum, the book presents librarians with up-to-date, practical guidelines for planning and conducting assessment.

Genres: Nonfiction, Librarianship, Library Science

240 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2007

Reviews

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a good primer on assessment for me. I did feel that a lot of it didn't apply to me, however, because I am a small institution and the chapters on publication/research/tenure weren't necessary for my job. If you don't have a lot of time, I'd recommend reading the following chapters only:

Chapter 4 - Assessment of Student Learning Outcomes
Chapter 5 - Assessment of the Library's Contribution to Student Learning Outcomes
Chapter 11 - Planning Assessment
Chapter 12 - Implementing Assessment

I did get some solid ideas on ways to (and not to) assess our library's performance, including the idea of calculating our "ROI" according to the use of our resources. I think this will certainly help me on my way to learning to better assess library use/efficacy.

[Catie Carlson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Matthews's book is a much needed bridge from Oakleaf's Value of Academic libraries for those that are unsure in the assessment field. He provides examples of how others have begun to assess the library in various contexts and provides areas where we as library professionals could still do more research. The book focuses on outward assessment of library roles by tying outcomes to library mission statements and university goals with many references to Oakleaf's report. The last two chapters will be the most useful for those seeking to start assessing the context of the library to improve services. Beware to all those seeking classroom assessment though, this is not the book for you.