Competency N: assessments

“Core Competency N — evaluate programs and services based on measurable criteria.”

Introduction

Every institution or organization needs to be able to assess itself. We need to know how we’re doing, both what we do right and what can be improved. There are various ways to measure how successful programs and services are. Library user satisfaction can be measured by polls or surveys, but sometimes it is difficult to get patrons to participate. Return customers are an indication that we are serving the needs of these returning patrons. Gate counts are one way to see how many people come into the library, but one must question the accuracy; just today, we had a three year old whose mother chased him back and forth through the gate several times. Such quantitative assessments are helpful in estimating how many people come through our door, but not all of the people who come to our library are using our services. We have one family who uses one of our tables once a month to meet with their social worker. While I believe that this shows that this family feels our library is a safe space, none of the staff want to breach their privacy by asking them so that we can know for certain. We have people who park in our back parking lot and walk through both of our gates, using our library as a shortcut, to the businesses on the street in front. Mere numbers do not give an accurate measure of how many people use our library and for what purpose, let alone tell us if the people who do are satisfied with us. For that kind of qualitative assessment, we need to figure out a tool to measure customer satisfaction with the services we provide to them.

Evaluation based on results

Academic libraries have conducted research into student success outcomes based upon the frequency of library and library materials use in those students studied for the research. I wrote a paper on one such study (please see N_Evidence_1). The criteria measured was student GPA. Students who utilized the university’s academic library had higher GPAs than those students who did not. One university studied had to show a correlation between successful student outcomes and library services in order to have its budget approved one year. What my research in this area showed was that more research was needed in the area of libraries assessing their own services.

Assessment of needs in contemplation of improvement

In  the case of another university, an assessment was conducted not necessarily in order to evaluate its performance, but to decide if proposed changes in materials and services would be of more benefit to its students. They based the evaluation on surveys from students, faculty, and staff. Most of the respondents said that libraries needed more materials, updated materials, better customer service, and more or better access to computers and/or the internet. Some students suggested that the libraries do more promotion of their services and some said that better access to the physical library would be appreciated, perhaps as in extended hours. The university library responded accordingly. It will be interesting to see how the implementation of the plan based on the input from its constituents affects student learning outcomes at this university in the future (please see N_Evidence_2).

Evaluation of services

Sometimes patrons’ first encounter with a library’s services is their website. I evaluated a college library website and wrote a report on my findings (please see N_Evidence_3).  Some of the things I looked for were ease of access, currency and authority of information, interactive tasks, and accessibility of assistance in finding and using the information. I found the site very navigable and the 24/7 help desk/reference librarian was accessible via chat. What this investigation and subsequent report shows is my familiarity with assessment and evaluation of services.

Conclusion

Part of assessing services or materials in the context of an entire organization is knowing what to assess and what makes the quality of the materials or service or a program meet or better yet, exceed, the expectations of not only the institution itself, but its constituents as well. Quantitative measures like how many people show up for a program like story time only tell part of the story; we need to know what our community’s needs are and if we are meeting those needs with quality services. Surveys are one good way, if patrons participate. So is self-assessment or, when feasible, perhaps hiring independent, objective researchers to assess information outcomes and then improve where we lack from there.