Library evaluation has gone through several phases over the years, starting with inputs and outputs, then processes, and now a lot of attention is focussed on the use of outcomes for measuring effectiveness. The volume is a useful addition to the literature on the use of outcomes in library evaluation.
In the first section, called rather unhelpfully “The Broad View”, are three chapters: one on training staff to use outcomes for measuring impact in the New York State Library; one from the Institute of Museum and Library Services on its Grants to States Program that is now using nonlinear logic models to create an assessment framework; one by Virginia Walter on applying outcomes evaluation to library services for children. The IMLS chapter is interesting because it describes a new approach that has shifted from narrow methodological methods to looking at using administrative data to evaluate clusters of similar libraries.
The second section is called “Needs Analyses and Results” and has, again, three chapters. First comes a “success story” describing evaluation in a medium-sized academic library (which would actually be quite a large library outside the USA) as a whole process using LibQual+ data and follow-up surveys, right through to communicating with all stakeholders, and it could well serve as a template for other academic libraries to follow. The second chapter give us a case study from the University of Tucson on using assessment and evaluation in support of campus-wide research and grant activities. The third chapter does more to point to a need for research rather than really filling in any gaps, but quite rightly the authors point to a lack of literature on what students take away from their studies after they graduate, or to put it another way, it asks if libraries have any impact on lifelong learning.
In the third and last section are two case studies from the educational side of librarianship. They describe the use of online portfolios and in particular how students and faculty differ in their evaluations. One case study aims at enhancing the assessment of student learning outcomes in a timely way. The other analyses the level of agreement between faculty and students to see how useful this is for program evaluation.
The whole volume has a good index. A library could justify purchasing this as a single volume if it does not subscribe to the series.
