Outcome‐based evaluation

Outcome‐based evaluation is increasingly used for digital library projects. The point of outcome‐based evaluation is to establish a project’s effectiveness with its target audience. Although many small‐scale human‐oriented project outcomes do not readily lend themselves to survey or statistical analysis, other research methods can be used to evaluate the amount and quality of a project’s effect. Anthropology offers not only a suite of observational methods, but standards for persuasiveness that apply equally to academics and to legislators.