For immediate release:
February 16, 2010
For more information, contact:
David Green
Association of Research Libraries
202-296-2296
david@arl.org
Washington DC—The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) Statistics and Measurement Program is offering a full-day workshop on Value and Impact with Stephen Town, Director of the University Library & Archives, University of York (UK).
The aim of the workshop is to explain, illustrate, and engage with potential methods of value and impact measurement, drawing on UK and other international academic library experience.
At the end of the workshop participants will have developed a broad personal and institutional perspective of this area of library performance measurement, and be in a position to make choices on approaches relevant to their local context. The workshop is aimed at academic library directors and senior staff, and staff with either interest or specific responsibility in assessment or performance measurement.
The day will include consideration of impact measurement in the morning session, drawing on the SCONUL VAMP project and its impact measurement tool, and allow time for consideration of how this method might be applied in participants' libraries. In the afternoon the field of value measurement will be reviewed, again allowing time for consideration of how tools and techniques might be applied locally. The workshop style will be a mix of lecture, case studies, discussion and participant group work to provide experience with use of value and impact tools.
Stephen Town is Director of Information and University Librarian at the University of York, UK, including responsibility for the Libraries, Archives, and Computing Services. Prior to joining York, Stephen worked for Cranfield University, and has also been active in teaching, research, and consultancy within the UK and internationally. Stephen was, until recently, Chair of SCONUL’s Working Group on Performance Improvement and has led projects on benchmarking, information literacy measures, LibQUAL+®, and value and impact measurement for SCONUL. Stephen is a member of international conference and journal editorial boards in the evaluation field, and has presented and written widely on assessment topics.
The workshop is based on Stephen’s experience and research in the field of value and impact measurement, and on a successful program created for a group of Australian university libraries developing an impact and value project. Stephen Town is a member of the 2010 Library Assessment Conference Planning Committee – an event scheduled to take place Oct 25–27 in Baltimore, MD.
Date: Monday, June 28, 2010
Time: 9:00 a.m.–3:00 p.m.
Location: Washington DC
Fee: $125 (fee does not include lunch)
Register: http://www.formstack.com/forms/?848837-rtF4r5hyBv
LibQUAL+® is a suite of services that libraries use to solicit, track, understand, and act upon users’ opinions of service quality. These services are offered to the library community by ARL. The program’s centerpiece is a rigorously tested Web-based survey bundled with training that helps libraries assess and improve library services, change organizational culture, and market the library. LibQUAL+® is located on the Web at http://www.libqual.org/.
The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) is a nonprofit organization of 124 research libraries in North America. Its 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 http://www.arl.org/.