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Library Assessment ConferenceBuilding Effective, Sustainable, Practical Assessment
2016 WorkshopsPre- and post-conference workshops were held on Sunday, October 30 and Thursday, November 3. Sunday, October 30—Workshops (1:00 p.m.–4:30 p.m.) Thursday, November 3—Workshops (9:00 a.m.–12:30 p.m.) Introductory Data Visualization Using TableauLeaders: Rachel Lewellen (University of Massachusetts Amherst), Jeremy Buhler (University of British Columbia), and Sarah Murphy (Ohio State University) Sunday, October 30 (1:00 p.m.–4:30 p.m.) Fee: $100 Are you looking to add data visualization to your suite of assessment skills? This workshop will provide practical, hands-on training on Tableau, a powerful analytics and data visualization software with an intuitive drag and drop interface. Topics that will be covered include designing worksheets and dashboards, filtering data, creating groups, working with date and time data, quick table calculations, calculated fields, and more. At the end of this session, participants will be able to:
Please note: To maximize our learning time, participants must bring a laptop with a preloaded version of either Tableau Public 9.2 (free) or Tableau Desktop 9.2 to this workshop. Participants will also need to view select training videos prior to the session. Workshop Leader Biographies: Sarah Anne Murphy is currently coordinator of assessment for The Ohio State University Libraries. She earned an MLS from Kent State University in 2000 and an MBA from The Ohio State University in 2008. Sarah started using Tableau in the spring of 2012 after looking for a data visualization program to support her library’s assessment program and has never looked back. She has published two books and several papers related to library assessment and program evaluation, data-visualization, mentoring, and veterinary medicine libraries. Jeremy Buhler is assessment librarian at the University of British Columbia, a position held since 2011. In his work he takes small steps toward UBC Library’s assessment vision, a magic place where “existing data is accessible, presented with clarity, and used in creative new ways, […] and university administrators are confident that library decisions are based on the best available evidence.” In 2015 he led an initiative to implement Tableau Server at UBC Library. Rachel Lewellen is an assessment librarian at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, a position held since 2005. The UMass Amherst Libraries have been using Tableau since 2012 and Tableau Server since 2014. Rachel has built visualizations from a variety of data sources including circulation, interlibrary loan, reserves, gate counts, MINES, LibQUAL+, service desk statistics, headcount data, e-books, e-resources, ARL Statistics and more. Getting the Message Out: Creating A Multi-Directional Approach to Communicating AssessmentLeaders: Donna Tolson (University of Virginia) and Vivian Lewis (McMaster University) Sunday, October 30 (1:00 p.m.–4:30 p.m.) Fee: $100 Even the most important and interesting assessment work will be meaningless if no one knows about it. Unfortunately, good assessment data sometimes has minimal impact because it is shared in ways that make it hard to use, difficult to understand, or puts people to sleep! Round out your conference experience by learning effective techniques for presenting assessment data that resonates with your audience. Explore strategies for communicating the results of your work to colleagues, library leadership, institutional stakeholders, and others. Topics will include:
The workshop will include exercises and examples from two universities, with an emphasis on communicating data in meaningful ways to library and institutional leadership. Workshop Leader Biographies: Donna Tolson is the senior director for administration and planning at the University of Virginia Library, and was instrumental in completing a full reorganization in 2015 to align with new strategic directions of the University and higher education. She is deeply interested in how academic libraries connect with the culture and strategies of their institutions. In her previous role as Library Strategist, she worked with executive leadership to set strategic direction, lead assessment and data gathering efforts, and incubate new strategic initiatives. She has extensive experience with the Balanced Scorecard approach to strategic management, and has taught workshops on the Balanced Scorecard at all four previous Library Assessment Conferences. In prior roles, she gained operational experience running the University’s undergraduate library and led data services in the Scholars’ Lab and Geostat Center. Before joining the University Library in 2002, she worked for many years as a demographic analyst for the Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service. She holds an MA and BA in Sociology from the University of Virginia. Vivian Lewis is the university librarian at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. She came to McMaster in 1991 as a government information specialist. In 2003 she became the associate university librarian. She holds a master's degree in Library and Information Science from the University of Toronto and is a graduate of the Harvard Institute for Academic Librarians, the Frye Leadership Institute, and the ARL Research Library Leadership Fellows program. Her expertise in strategic planning, library assessment, and information literacy led the successful implementation and design of McMaster's award-winning Mills Learning Commons. Outcome(s) AssessmentLeaders: Martha Kyrillidou (QualityMetrics) Sunday, October 30 (1:00 p.m.–4:30 p.m.) Fee: $100 Libraries have been engaged with outcome(s) assessment for three decades now, yet there is a sense that the set of skills for conducting effective outcomes assessment is lacking. This workshop will aim at strengthening these skills by identifying three key elements: desired outcomes, logic model development, and communication. Participants will identify and articulate the most important strategic outcomes for their organization and ways of assessing those outcomes. They will develop a logic model that demonstrates how their work increases the value of the identified outcomes. Furthermore, they will engage in communicating their model in persuasive and compelling ways. This workshop will engage participants from higher education and other cultural heritage organizations including libraries, museums and archives (LAM) through a set of highly interactive activities that identify how participants impact organizational outcomes. Workshop Leader Biography: Martha Kyrillidou is a management consultant specializing in strategic metrics, evaluation, assessment and R&D activities. For 22 years, she led the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) assessment programs where she developed a premier program in assessment. In addition to her own consulting practice, Martha is affiliated with Library Management Consulting, is a Research Associate at the iSchool at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and teaches Research Methods at Kent State University. She serves as the chair of the NISO Z39.7 Information Services and Use: Metrics & Statistics for Libraries and Information Providers - Data Dictionary, and is a member of the Organization Model Task Force for the Coalition to Advance Learning, an IMLS /Gates Foundation sponsored activity. Martha is on the planning committee of the 2016 Library Assessment Conference and co-chaired all the previous conferences. Her work has defined the growing and dynamic library assessment community of practice both in North America and internationally. She has worked in different cultures, presented in more than a dozen different countries and worked with hundreds of libraries across the globe. She specializes on user-focused assessment, digital library assessment, organizational assessment and assessing the assessment practice. She established QualityMetrics, LLC, and can be reached at http://marthakyrillidou.com. Learning Analytics, Academic Libraries, and Institutional Context: Getting Started, Gaining Traction, Going ForwardLeader: Megan Oakleaf (iSchool, Syracuse University) Thursday, November 3 (9:00 a.m.–12:30 p.m.) Fee: $100 Throughout academia, institutions are embracing learning analytics in order to improve student outcomes, increase institutional efficiencies, and develop competitive advantage. To this end, institutions have embraced the collection, analysis, and use of data to inform decisions and take actions. Some academic librarians have also engaged this approach in an effort to improve their understanding of users and contribute to their success. In academic libraries, learning analytics projects help librarians make a difference in student lives and, simultaneously, augment the value propositions of their libraries. However, many librarians need further grounding in the general definitions, concepts, and perspectives integral to learning analytics initiatives, as well as a detailed awareness of current learning analytics efforts at the institutional level, before committing to action in their libraries or on their campuses. This workshop is designed to provide librarians with an overview of learning analytics in academic libraries and higher education institutions, with an emphasis on the background necessary to ignite, embrace, or expand the deployment of learning analytics in their libraries and at their institutions. Participants will engage in hands-on activities, guided discussions, a brief Q&A panel with librarians already immersed in learning analytics projects, and other generative exercises intended to help them:
Workshop Leader Biography: Megan Oakleaf is an associate professor of library and information Science in the iSchool at Syracuse University. She is the author of the Value of Academic Libraries Comprehensive Review and Report and Academic Library Value: The Impact Starter Kit and has earned recognition and awards for articles published in top library and information science journals including College and Research Libraries, Portal, Reference and User Services Quarterly, and Journal of Documentation. Megan has presented at numerous conferences, including the American Library Association (ALA), Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL), Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U), and Association for the Assessment of Learning in Higher Education (AALHE) national conferences, Library Assessment Conferences, the IUPUI Assessment Institute, the Texas A&M Assessment Conference, and EDUCAUSE. Her research areas include outcomes assessment, evidence-based decision making, information literacy instruction, and academic library impact and value. Library Spaces: Approaches to Needs Assessment and Post-Occupancy AssessmentLeaders: Kim Duckett (Duke University) and Joan Lippincott (CNI) Thursday, November 3 (9:00 a.m.–12:30 p.m.) Fee: $100 This workshop provides an overview of a wide range of methods for assessing learning spaces in libraries. In an introduction, the presenters will provide context for assessment in higher education today, particularly trends related to teaching and learning. They will describe some specific tools, projects, and initiatives that participants can use in their own institution. Workshop leaders will share good practice from a variety of institutions and will introduce the participants to a number of resources including the Learning Space Toolkit and the Learning Space Rating System. The facilitators will describe a spectrum of techniques and their uses in various assessment contexts. In exercises focused on both needs assessment and on post-occupancy assessment, workshop leaders will facilitate opportunities for participants to think strategically about what they are trying to accomplish through assessment, how they will collect and analyze information, and what steps they plan to take when they return home. Participants will be encouraged, through a set of guided activities to:
At the end of the workshop, participants will be asked to share key ideas they want to pursue when they return to campus and some of the concepts they found most useful from the workshop. Audience: Librarians involved in or interested in assessing the need for or the effectiveness of spaces in libraries, including learning commons, multimedia centers, digital scholarship centers, and other technology-rich, student-centric and/or researcher-centric spaces. Practical Implications/Value: Participants will benefit from an overview of available approaches, tools, and methodologies for assessing library spaces and from rich discussion after working on some sample assessment activities. They will leave the workshop with specific resources and approaches for both needs assessment and post-occupancy assessment of library spaces to take back to their home institution. Workshop Leader Biographies: Joan K. Lippincott is the associate executive director of the Coalition for Networked Information (CNI). She has been an active speaker and writer on learning spaces, assessment, services for today’s students, digital scholarship centers, and mobile technologies. Her doctorate in higher education is from the University of Maryland and her MLS is from SUNY Geneseo. Joan has worked in the libraries of Cornell, Georgetown, GWU, and SUNY. Kim Duckett is the head of the research and instructional services department at the Duke University Libraries and a co-manager of Duke’s research space, The Edge. She was core contributor to the IMLS-funded Learning Space Toolkit and has been involved in space assessment efforts at Duke University and North Carolina State University. How to Use Altmetrics Data from the Social Web to Evaluate Collections, Boost Institutional Repositories, and Support Researchers at Your InstitutionLeaders: Rachel Borchardt (American University) and Stacy Konkiel (Altmetric) Thursday, November 3 (9:00 a.m.–12:30 p.m.) Fee: $100 New data from the social web (commonly called "altmetrics" and including information from social media, public policy, and more) can help librarians better understand how students, faculty, and the public are using library-based collections and services. This expert-led workshop will provide an overview to what altmetrics data is, how it is collected, and what it can and cannot tell us about the use of scholarship. Participants will gain hands-on experience with altmetrics tools that can be used in evaluation of collections, assessment of institutional repository content, and supporting faculty who wish to understand the impacts of their own research. By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:
Workshop Leader Biographies: Stacy Konkiel is the outreach & engagement manager at Altmetric, a data science company that uncovers the attention that research receives online. She studies incentives systems in academia and has written and presented widely about altmetrics and library services. Previously, Stacy has worked with teams at Impactstory, Indiana University Libraries, and University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries. Rachel Borchardt is the science librarian at American University in Washington, DC. Her research interests include the intersection of altmetrics, libraries, and scholarly impact, and she is an advocate for the role of librarians as leaders in the altmetrics landscape. She is the co-author of the book Meaningful Metrics: A 21st-Century Librarian’s Guide to Bibliometrics, Altmetrics, and Research Impact. |
