This article looks at Project Outcome, a toolkit designed for public libraries to assess the impact of their programs and services. It is a collection of short patron-focused surveys. Idea is to measure things that public libraries have in common, and it then allows for comparisons between libraries. Soon, academic librarians decided they wanted in on this, and ACRL (Association of College and Research Libraries) partnered with PLA (Public Library Association) to create a version for academic libraries. Part of why I am reading this now is that our library is working to adapt it as we move to a more simplified way to assess our library services, in particular reference and instruction services. Survey options include immediate surveys designed to be done after a service and follow-up surveys to be done some time after a program. For us here at the moment, we are interested in doing immediate surveys. In my unit, this would be post-library instruction surveys of students in a class.
Some notes from the article:
What this paper does:
"This paper describes the task force's work to establish standard learning outcome measures for academic libraries, initial field-testing results, and how Project Outcome can create opportunities for growth and change" (1) .
What the outcomes are based on:
"These key outcomes are based on social theory that performance is more adequately measured when capturing the outcomes of knowledge, attitude, and behavior change (Schrader and Lawless 2004)" (2).
The Project's definition of outcome:
"Project Outcome has defined an outcome as: 'a specific benefit a patron receives from a library program or service. They can be quantitative or qualitative and are expressed as changes that individuals perceive in themselves'" (5).
The focus of the Project Outcome tools is "on generating useful actionable new knowledge (practical, local, applied, 'good enough') for improvement. . . "(6).
Article includes table with activities, some suggestions for use, and sample survey questions.
Concerns, from their key findings from field-testing:
"Interest or need for assessment does not always translate into practice. Both survey fatigue and lack of time (users' or librarians') can make librarians reluctant to administer surveys, even if the results may be useful" (13).
Our campus is notorious for survey excess (I am sure we are not the only campus, but surveying is pretty heavy here), and survey fatigue among students is a significant issue that is rarely acknowledged as yet another survey goes out from some campus unit. In our case, by doing small surveys at the end of class sessions we hope to get better response and catch the students on the spot so to speak. We hope it will be easier to collect meaningful data to help us keep improving and growing our programs, as well as appease the higher ups.
Citation for the article:
Ackermann, Eric, Sara Goek, and Emily Plagman, "Outcome Measurement in Academic Libraries: Adapting the Project Outcome Model." Library Assessment Conference, 2018 (link to PDF document).
