Whether you’re trying to decide how to allocate your library’s resources or make the best use of your space, formal assessment tools can guide your decision-making. This session will cover why formal assessments are more effective than anecdotal data, and will help you learn how to plan effective evaluations. You will learn how to use what you already know about your patrons, how to determine what information you still need, and how to formulate questions to get you there.

This webinar is the first in a three-part series bringing together research and practice from across library sectors, covering the ins and outs of creating, and implementing assessments that provide insightful, actionable data.

Presented by Kara Reuter, PhD, Digital Library Manager, Worthington Libraries (OH); and moderated and co-presented by Lynn Silipigni Connaway, PhD, Director of Library Trends and User Research, OCLC Research

Access Recording

•  View Webinar Recording (You will be prompted to login to our free Course Catalog.)

Webinar Attachments

• View slides (pdf) or slides with space for notes (pdf)
  
• View chat (xls)
• View captions (txt)
  

Related Resources and Links

• Webinar Series Learner Guide (doc) Use alone or with others to extend your learning. Includes extensive resource section.
• Part 2, Digging into Assessment Data: Tips, Tricks, and Tools of the Trade
• Part 3, Take Action: Using and Presenting Research Findings to Make Your Case
  
• Assessment, Evaluation & Planning, on WebJunction
• User Studies, on OCLC Research
• Research Methods in Library and Information Science (2017) by Lynn Sillipigni Connaway and Marie L Radford
• Data Culture Project a hands-on learning program designed to help organizations build capacity to work with data and to build a “data culture.” An initiative of DataBasic.io.
• Are You Ready to Dig into Assessment Data? a series update on WebJunction
• Rust never sleeps—not for rockers, not for libraries, a Next blog post by Lynn Connaway
• Advice from the Trenches: You’re Not Alone, a Hanging Together blog post by Lynn Sillipigni Connaway