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Closing the Loop: Evaluating Your Key Scholarly Communication Programs and Services

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August 7, 2014, in Seattle, image © Chris Tarnawski

Many libraries have been operating scholarly communication programs or providing scholarly communication services for several years. We have identified what is important to our communities. We have thought strategically about what services we might best offer. We have discussed how we might organize ourselves to deliver those services. How can we maximize the impact of the scholarly communication programs and services we offer? How do we know we’ve achieved our intended outcomes for our target audiences? What tools can help us begin to measure those outcomes?

This half-day workshop, offered by the ARL/ACRL Institute on Scholarly Communication (ISC) as part of the Library Assessment Conference, will provide participants with basic evaluation concepts and frameworks, introduce the vocabulary of evaluation, and suggest a step-by-step process for creating and implementing one’s own logic models or theory of change. Examples will be drawn from both the field of academic and research libraries and the wider nonprofit sector, to help attendees understand the broader concepts behind specific measurement tools. In the tradition of other ISC events, this workshop will emphasize active participatory learning and hands-on work. The session is appropriate both for those with some experience in program evaluation and those who are new to it.

Throughout the workshop, participants will have structured opportunities to reflect on how to apply what they are learning to scholarly communication program evaluation within their own institution, to share information and test ideas with other workshop participants, and to begin developing skills that can be used for program evaluation for activities in addition to scholarly communication.

As a result of attending this workshop, participants will:

  • Gain an understanding of basic evaluation concepts and frameworks
  • Become familiar with evaluation vocabulary and logic models
  • Begin to apply evaluation concepts to their own institutional scholarly communication programs

About the Facilitator

Catherine Brown head shotCatherine Brown joined the Chicago Public Library Foundation as its chief operating officer in 2013. She has more than 25 years of experience across the nonprofit sector in fund-raising, grant making, program design and evaluation, strategic planning, and internal and external communications. She created and ran her consulting practice Integrative Solutions from 2010 to 2013. From 1994 until 2010, Brown held positions of increasing responsibility at the McCormick Foundation, one of Chicago’s largest public charities. Prior to joining the foundation, she was the director of individual giving at the Lincoln Park Zoological Society in Chicago. Brown serves on the boards of Friends of Writers and the Center for New Community.

More Information and Registration

The workshop is being underwritten by the ARL/ACRL Institute on Scholarly Communication and being offered in conjunction with the Library Assessment Conference in Seattle, Washington. Registration for the conference is not required to register for the workshop.

Date & Time: Thursday, August 7, 2014, 8:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m.
Location: Seattle, Washington
Fee: $80
Registration will close on July 6, 2014, unless the workshop fills earlier.
To register for the workshop only, please send an e-mail to laconf@arl.org.
To register for the conference and workshop, visit the Library Assessment Conference website.


The Institute on Scholarly Communication (ISC) is jointly sponsored by the Association of Research Libraries and the Association of College and Research Libraries to promote the development of library-led outreach on scholarly communication issues. Hundreds of institute alumni form a community that provides peer support and professional sharing of information relating to campus outreach. The institute’s first signature event was an in-person immersive learning experience that prepared participants as local experts within their libraries and provided a structure for developing a program plan for scholarly communication outreach that is customized for each participant’s institution. The ISC has supported additional professional development activities and also provides a set of shared resources. It is on the web at https://www.arl.org/isc.

The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) is a nonprofit organization of 125 research libraries in the US and Canada. ARL’s mission is to influence the changing environment of scholarly communication and the public policies that affect research libraries and the diverse communities they serve. ARL pursues this mission by advancing the goals of its member research libraries, providing leadership in public and information policy to the scholarly and higher education communities, fostering the exchange of ideas and expertise, facilitating the emergence of new roles for research libraries, and shaping a future environment that leverages its interests with those of allied organizations. ARL is on the web at https://www.arl.org/.

The Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) is a division of the American Library Association (ALA), representing more than 11,500 academic and research librarians and interested individuals. ACRL is the only individual membership organization in North America that develops programs, products, and services to meet the unique needs of academic and research librarians. Its initiatives enable the higher education community to understand the role that academic libraries play in the teaching, learning, and research environments. ACRL is on the web at http://www.acrl.org/, Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/ala.acrl and Twitter at @ala_acrl.

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