For immediate release:
December 21, 2007
For more information, contact:
Lee Anne George
Association of Research Libraries
202-296-2296
leeanne@arl.org
Washington DC—The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) has published Library Assessment, SPEC Kit 303, which provides an overview of ARL libraries’ current assessment activities and their development.
To assess, in general, is to determine the importance, size, or value of; to evaluate. Library staff assess operations by collecting, interpreting, and using data to make decisions and to improve customer service. They study internal processes, levels and quality of service, and library impact on institutional goals.
The number of assessment activities undertaken in libraries over the last decade has grown exponentially. Libraries of all kinds are looking more closely at how and how well they are serving their users. What may have begun as the occasional assessment duty assigned to the library staff member with the most interest or greatest statistical acumen, has blossomed at many institutions into a formalized library assessment position, committee, department, or all three.
Although this growing area of library management has become recognized as a legitimate use of limited budgets and time, there was not previously a good overview of precisely how library assessment activities are being implemented or developed. This SPEC Kit seeks to address that missing piece of the puzzle—to examine the current state of library assessment, as well as to provide a starting point for those seeking to develop a library assessment program at their own institutions.
This SPEC survey was distributed to the 123 ARL member libraries in May 2007. Of those 123 libraries, 73 (60%) completed the survey. Only one library indicated that it did not engage in any assessment activities beyond collecting annual data for the ARL statistics.
The survey results indicate that while a modest number of libraries engaged in assessment activities beyond annual ARL statistics gathering in the 1980s and earlier, the biggest jump in assessment activity occurred between 1990 and 2004. The overwhelming majority of responses indicate the impetus for assessment was service driven and user centered and came from within the library itself rather than from an outside source. Respondents’ top motivation for beginning assessment activities (63 respondents or 91%) was the desire to know more about their customers. Based on responses to a question about their first assessment activities, over half began with a survey, almost all of which were user surveys.
It is clear from the survey results that respondents use a wide variety of methods in their assessment endeavors. All respondents have gathered statistics, presumably at least ARL statistics, but every one of the methods listed in the SPEC survey has been used by at least one of the respondents at some point, either currently or in the past.
This SPEC Kit includes documentation from respondents in the form of job descriptions, assessment mission statements, plans, reports, Web sites, and organization charts.
The table of contents and executive summary from this SPEC Kit are available online at http://www.arl.org/bm~doc/spec303web.pdf.
SPEC Kit 303, Library Assessment
Stephanie Wright and Lynda S. White • December 2007 • ISBN 1-59407-795-1 • 194 pp. • $45 ($35 ARL members)
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Designed to examine current research library practices and policies and serve as resource guides for libraries as they face ever-changing management problems, each SPEC Kit contains a summary analysis, survey questions with tallies, pertinent documentation from participating libraries, and a reading list and Web site references for further information on the topic.
2007 SPEC Kit subscription (ISSN 0160-3582): $215 ARL member/$285 nonmember, six issues per year, shipping included (additional postage may apply outside North America).
The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) is a nonprofit organization of 123 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, and shaping a future environment that leverages its interests with those of allied organizations. ARL is located on the Web at http://www.arl.org/.