Article
Educating Assessors: Preparing Librarians with Micro
and Macro Skills
Rachel Applegate
Chair, Department of Library
and Information Science
School of Informatics and Computing
Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis
Indianapolis, Indiana,
United States of America
Email: [email protected]
Received: 3 Feb. 2016 Accepted:
24 Mar. 2016
2016 Applegate. This is an Open Access article
distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons‐Attribution‐Noncommercial‐Share Alike License 4.0
International (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/),
which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium,
provided the original work is properly attributed, not used for commercial
purposes, and, if transformed, the resulting work is redistributed under the
same or similar license to this one.
Abstract
Objective – To examine the fit between libraries’
needs for evaluation skills, and library education and professional development
opportunities. Many library position descriptions and many areas of library science
education focus on professional skills and activities, such as delivering
information literacy, designing programs, and managing resources. Only some positions,
some parts of positions, and some areas of education specifically address
assessment/evaluation skills. The growth of the Library Assessment Conference,
the establishment of the ARL-ASSESS listserv, and other evidence indicates that
assessment skills are increasingly important.
Method – Four bodies of evidence were examined for
the prevalence of assessment needs and assessment education: the American
Library Association core competencies; job ads from large public and academic
libraries; professional development courses and sessions offered by American
Library Association (ALA) divisions and state library associations; and course
requirements contained in ALA-accredited Masters of Library Science (MLS)
programs.
Results – While one-third of job postings made some
mention of evaluation responsibilities, less than 10% of conference or
continuing education offerings addressed assessment skills. In addition,
management as a topic is a widespread requirement in MLS programs (78%), while
research (58%) and assessment (15%) far less common.
Conclusions – Overall, there seems to be more need for
assessment/evaluation skills than there are structured offerings to educate
people in developing those skills. In addition, roles are changing: some of the
most professional-level activities of graduate-degreed librarians involve
planning, education, and assessment. MLS students need to understand that these
macro skills are essential to leadership, and current librarians need
opportunities to add to their skill sets.
Introduction
Over the last
twenty years, libraries in general and academic libraries in particular have
experienced a significant pro-assessment (evaluation) cultural wave. This is
something that is becoming the norm in academic accreditation in general, and
in the library field specifically. The question is whether current
practitioners and current students have the opportunities to acquire the
relevant assessment skills, which are different from what can be called the
“practice” set (such as information assistance and instruction, information
organization) and general professional values (such as knowledge of legal and
ethical contexts and advocacy).
In this study, the
word “evaluation” is used throughout. In higher education, the word
“assessment” is generally reserved for a specific subset of evaluation: the
assessment of student learning outcomes. When assessment of other areas (such
as student affairs) occurs, it is generally termed “evaluation.” Evaluation is
also the more commonly used term in K-12 education and social services
contexts. Evaluation is distinct from research. According to the definitions
for the use of human subjects in research, research aims to produce
“generalized information.” In America, the Code of Federal Regulations states
that, “Research means a systematic investigation, including research
development, testing and evaluation, designed to develop or contribute to
generalizable knowledge” (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2009).
Evaluation, on the
other hand, is used for internal, organizational purposes, such as
demonstration of value to stakeholders, improvement of existing functions, and
design of new services, which have been collectively described as “the
gathering of information for managerial decision-making” (Applegate, 2013, p.
1). For instance, an analysis of whether mathematics resources can support a
new doctoral program in mathematics at University A is evaluation. An
exploration of how mathematics researchers access scholarly communication would
be research. The distinction between evaluation and research lies primarily in
the ends to which the data is put, rather than in the specific techniques used
to conduct the evaluation or research.
Higher education
has placed increasing value on evaluation in accreditation, both
institution-wide and for professional specializations. Educational associations
seek to demonstrate the value of their work. The Council for Higher Education
Accreditation’s statement on the value of accreditation (2010) spells out the
goal of “promoting accountability and identifying successful improvement
efforts” (p.2). This followed changes in federal regulation based on the Higher
Education Opportunity Act of 2008 and enacting regulations from 2010 and 2011
(Higher Learning Commission, 2014). State and federal governments are keenly
interested in accountability, given the significant funds given directly to
institutions or indirectly through student aid and loans, as shown in the
Accrediting Agency Recognition Criteria, U.S. Department of Education (2014).
The American
Library Association’s (2009) Core Competences for Librarianship speak to the
responsibilities of graduate-level librarians and spell out the importance of
both research for understanding of practice, and evaluation for effective
management of libraries (ALA, 2009). There are eight core areas, of which two
(25%) mention evaluation; of 42 specific sub-points, four (10%) mention
evaluation.
Evaluation
received explicit prominence in the 2008 standards for accreditation of MLS
programs, and even more emphasis in the 2015 Standards (ALA Office
for Accreditation, 2008; 2015). From the preambles, both the 2008 and the 2015
documents state:
Systematic planning is an ongoing, active, broad-based
approach to… (b) assessment of attainment of goals, objectives, and learning
outcomes; (c) realignment and redesign of core activities in response to the
results of assessment…
The Curriculum
standard says:
(2008) II.7 The curriculum is continually reviewed and
receptive to innovation; its evaluation is used for ongoing appraisal, to make
improvements, and to plan for the future. Evaluation of the curriculum includes
assessment of students' achievements and their subsequent accomplishments.
Evaluation involves those served by the program: students, faculty, employers,
alumni, and other constituents.
(2015): II.5 Procedures for the continual evaluation
of the curriculum are established with input not only from faculty but also
representatives from those served. The curriculum is continually evaluated with
input not only from faculty but also representatives from those served
including students, employers, alumni, and other constituents. Curricular
evaluation is used for ongoing appraisal, to make improvements, and to plan for
the future. Evaluation of the curriculum includes assessment of students'
achievements.
And the Students
standard (both 2008 and 2015) says:
IV.6 The school applies the results of evaluation of
student achievement to program development. Procedures are established for
systematic evaluation of the degree to which a program's academic and administrative
policies and activities regarding students are accomplishing its objectives.
Within applicable institutional policies, faculty, students, staff, and others
are involved in the evaluation process.
The Institute for
Museum and Library Services (2008) emphasizes outcomes-based evaluation for its
grants directly, and through the Library Services and Technology Act funding to
states. Its Webography on evaluation contains
materials published in 1994 to 2004.
How do current and
future librarians educate themselves to meet the need to evaluate (assess)
library and information organizations? There is a micro-level of assessment
that consists of understanding specific tools, such as survey design and data
analysis, both generic (e.g., instructional testing) and library-specific
(e.g., bibliometrics). There is also a macro-level
that consists of understanding the role of assessment in managing libraries and
in communicating with libraries’ users and parent institutions and communities.
In sum, assessment
of libraries is something that a variety of stakeholders consider important. It
is important internally for effective management, and externally, funders,
donors, and governments expect it.
This descriptive
study examined the prevalence of micro- and macro-evaluation skills on two
sides: the job side, and the education side, for pre-service and in-service
librarians. By combining data to provide an overall view of this landscape,
this study lays the groundwork for further examination of the most effective
and efficient venues for achieving this essential competency for libraries and
information agencies.
Methods
This study
explores two descriptive, prevalence-related research questions.
For each research
question, a population, a random sample, or a purposive sampling of items made
up relevant data sets, and for each data set, qualitative coding was applied to
arrive at a quantitative measurement of prevalence. A summary of these data
sets can be found later in Table 1.
RQ-1 Positions:
Operationalization
There are two data
sets for this research question. One is idealized or prescriptive, while the
other is descriptive or actual. The first data set (Data Set A) is the set of
core competences and sub-points laid out in the ALA Core Competences. The
second data set (Data Set B) consists of a body of job position advertisements
retrieved from a random sample (n = 20 each) of member libraries of the
Association of Research Libraries (ARL) and the Urban Libraries Council (ULC),
as of spring 2014. This random selection of institutions, and using the
institution’s own job posting sites, has been shown to provide the best
representation of job ads, as opposed to using job-ad sites such as ALA JobList or the Chronicle of Higher Education (Applegate,
2010). All full-time jobs were included, regardless of whether they were
librarian-specific or required an MLS.
There were 20
Urban Libraries Council institutions selected by random number generation. Of
these, five had no current job openings. The New York Public Library listed 55
openings, while 15 other institutions listed 23 positions. Twenty Association
of Research Libraries members were selected by random number generation. Of
these, five had no job openings listed while the remaining 15 libraries had 50
jobs listings among them.
It is worth noting
that the Boston Public Library (BPL) is a member of the Urban Libraries Council
and also the Association of Research Libraries, and was selected in the ARL
random sample. New York Public Library (NYPL) is also a member of the ARL but
was selected in the ULC sampling. The analysis examined the ads with Boston
Public Library positions in the ARL group (as sampled) and another analysis
divided the libraries into three groups: public, public-research (BPL and
NYPL), and research.
There were a total
of 128 jobs identified. The researcher then coded each job at one of three
levels of evaluation skills or responsibilities using coding level descriptions
developed prior to coding. That is the coding represented an a priori categorization rather than a
grounded content analysis.
RQ-2 Education:
Operationalization
This part of the
study draws on three data sets concerned with education for professionals.
Data Set C: Professional Development
Courses or Sessions Offered By the American Library Association
This data set
consists of professional development courses or sessions offered by divisions
of the American Library Association as of spring 2014. This set included all
online courses, all webinars, and listed ALA Annual meeting sessions. The
“archives” were not accessed. These sessions were coded as either including or
focusing on evaluation, or not.
Examples of
sessions coded as “Evaluation-No” included:
Examples of
sessions coded “Evaluation-Yes” included:
Data Set D: State Library Association
Conference Presentations
The data set
consists of sessions presented at state library association conferences. These
were taken from a purposive sampling of seven states for 2014 and one state for
both 2013 and 2014, for a total of eight conferences.
A total of 476
sessions were included. These sessions were coded as Evaluation-No, or into one
of two Evaluation-Yes groups, either Results or Techniques. The line between
Results and Techniques was somewhat fuzzy and some analysis combines them.
Evaluation-No:
These were primarily how-to and update programs. They included professional
techniques (“Basics of Preservation,”), content (“Mysteries Set in Florida,”),
management (“Revolutionize Your Library with Strong Partnerships!”), and the
community (“Conversations with the Montana State Library Commission.”)
Evaluation-Yes-Results:
For these programs, it appears that data was gathered, but the primary focus of
the session was on what the data told the researchers and evaluators what to do
next.
Example sessions:
·
Parents, Alumni
and Libraries: What Customers Really Believe about the Library
·
Turning the
Tables: Assessing Student Worker Satisfaction in Peer- Staffing Models
·
Rethinking
Reference: If it's Broke, Fix it!
·
Patrons on
Performance: The Library Web as Users See It
·
Redefining
Outreach: Creating a Perception of Person Accessibility
·
Outsourcing? An
Evaluation of Vendor Assistance in Tech Services
·
Hispanic Americans
and Public Libraries: Assessing Health Information Needs and Working Together
in an E-Health Environment
Evaluation-Yes-Techniques:
These sessions were specifically about how to conduct evaluation/research and
data collection techniques, or, sometimes, explanations of why it should be
done. In these cases the focus was on gathering data, not on why the data is
gathered. Example sessions include:
·
How to Listen to
Your Patrons: Maximizing Value and Outcomes Through Community Insight
·
Excel With Excel
·
Google Analytic
with How-to-Directions
·
Listening to Your
Patrons: Tools and Approaches for Gathering Insight From Your Community
·
You've Got Data,
Now Use It: Innovative Methods for Better Understanding Public Library Use
Data Set E: Courses That Are or Were
Required In ALA-Accredited Masters of Library Science Programs
This final data
set consists of courses that are or were required in ALA-accredited MLS
programs. These were examined at two time periods, 2005 and 2014, as reported
to the Association of Library and Information Science Education (ALISE). The
first time period was selected as occurring before the spike in emphasis on
evaluation in the late 2000s discussed in the literature review; the second was
the most recent data available at the time of the study. Three types of courses
were captured, those about research, evaluation and management. Management was
included because of the tight integration of evaluation into the
administration/ management section of the ALA competencies. There were 48
degrees reported in 2004 and 50 in 2014. If a university offered multiple accredited
degrees, the requirements for the degree that closest to a general “master of
library science” were examined.
Results
In 2014, both
skills and needs represent about 10% of opportunities and requirements.
RQ-1: What is the
prevalence of evaluation skills or responsibilities in library-based positions?
This research
found that approximately 10-30% of positions expect evaluation skills or
include evaluation responsibilities, with no difference by type of library
(public or academic/research). In data set A, the ALA professional competencies
mentioned some aspect of evaluation in 2 of 8 competencies (25%), and 4 of 42
sub-points (10%). In terms of job postings evidenced in data set B, out of 123
total jobs posted, 32% had at least some mention of an evaluation role. For 15%
of postings, the mention was minor or in passing, 15% had a more explicit
mention, but at less than half of listed responsibilities, and for 2% (2
positions) it was the major role (more than half of duties) for that position.
Conversely, the majority 68% of listed positions had no mention at all of
evaluation or data responsibilities. This included professional librarian
positions, such as “librarian” or “public services librarian II.” Other
mentions were relatively meager.
There was a huge
range of levels of responsibility in the descriptions, and they did not seem
related to whether evaluation was present. Two very different positions coded
at the same “minimal” level for evaluation activity were “staff
secretary—compiling and reporting statistics” and “library services manager….
Cost effectiveness, monitor expenditures, continually benchmark approaches.”
The two positions for which evaluation was the primary role included one
primarily “librarian” (University of Houston: Assessment and Statistics
Coordinator) and one of a professional support person (New York Public Library:
Business Analyst).
When analyzed by
type of institution, positions at public-research libraries (Boston Public
Library and New York Public Library, members of both the Urban Libraries
Council and the Association of Research Libraries), and research libraries (ARL
libraries excluding ULC dual-members) were the only institutions to list
primarily-evaluation positions. However, these institutions were also slightly
more likely to have descriptions that had no mention of evaluation: research
institutions listed 75% with no mention; public-research listed 68%, and public
(ULC excluding ARL dual-members) institutions listed only 63%.
Table 1
Data Sources by
Research Question
Research Question |
Data Set |
N (total), sample type, and date |
RQ-1: What is
the prevalence of evaluation skills or responsibilities in library-based
positions? |
||
|
A: ALA Core
Competences |
8 core
competency sets 42 specific
sub-competencies Population 2009 |
|
B: Job postings
at ARL and ULC institutions |
128 job postings Random sample Spring 2014 |
RQ-2: What is
the prevalence of opportunities for education for librarians in evaluation
skills? |
||
|
C: Professional
development courses offered by ALA divisions |
341 sessions Population Spring 2014 |
|
D: Professional
development sessions at state library association conferences |
496 sessions Purposive sample
of 8 conferences 2013 and 2014 |
|
E: Required
courses at ALA-accredited MLS programs |
48 programs, 67 courses; 50 programs, 74
courses; Population 2005 and 2014 |
Table 2
Level of
Evaluation Responsibility in Job Advertisements
|
Type of Library |
||||
Evaluation in
described duties |
Public |
Research |
Public |
Research |
Total |
None |
50 |
34 |
64% |
76% |
68% |
Minimal |
11 |
7 |
14% |
16% |
15% |
Less than half |
16 |
3 |
21% |
7% |
15% |
More than half |
1 |
1 |
1% |
2% |
2% |
Total |
78 |
45 |
RQ-2: What is the
prevalence of opportunities for education for librarians in evaluation skills?
For professional
development, less than 10% of offerings involved evaluation skills. For
pre-professional education, “research” and “management” are common requirements
but evaluation is less present. Data set C reveals that, as of spring 2014,
there were 341 programs offered by 11 ALA divisions: all online-recorded, live
webinars, and conference sessions listed as “continuing education,” of which 24
(or 7%) were about evaluation generally or about a specific evaluation
technique. Out of 11 divisions, five had relatively few professional
development courses/sessions listed (42 total sessions) of which none were
about evaluation. YALSA had a large number of offerings at 38, of which only
one was about evaluation. For the other divisions, the range of evaluation as a
percentage of courses ranged from 6% to 18%. Notably, the management-related
division Library Leadership and Management Association (LLAMA) had the highest
percentage at 18%.
Data set D
includes seven states’ professional conference programs, found using a maximum
variety purposive sampling varying by state size, region of the country, and
presence or absence of graduate library programs. One state (North Carolina)
had two years examined (2013 and 2014). Out of 496 total sessions discovered,
only 29 (approximately 6%) had some relation to evaluation, either in terms of
reporting results, or of teaching evaluation techniques.
Graduate education
for librarians typically consists of a wide variety of optional courses and
some required courses. The balance between required and optional depends on the
goals of individual programs, but the programs are unified here by the common
factor of accreditation by the American Library Association. ALISE statistics
cover most accredited libraries schools, though there are some gaps in the data
for some programs in some years (Association of Library and Information Science
Educators, 2010, 2014). Programs are asked to describe course requirements for
their accredited degrees. Both management and research course requirements
remained stable when compared at two different points in a ten-year period,
with 71 (72% of) programs requiring training in management and 58 (60%)
requiring research methods. Evaluation had a noticeable increase, with a low of
10% of programs in 2005 to 16% of programs in 2014.
Table 3
Continuing
Education Offerings by ALA Division
Course/Webinar
Involves Evaluation |
No |
Yes |
Total |
Percentage Yes |
American Association of School
Librarians (AASL) |
6 |
6 |
0% |
|
Association for Library Services to
Children (ALSC) |
8 |
8 |
0% |
|
Association of Specialized and
Cooperative Library Agencies (ASCLA) |
7 |
7 |
0% |
|
Library Information Technology
Association (LITA) |
13 |
13 |
0% |
|
United for Libraries |
8 |
8 |
0% |
|
Young Adult Library Services Association
(YALSA) |
37 |
1 |
38 |
3% |
Association for Library Collections and
Technical Services (ALCTS) |
114 |
7 |
121 |
6% |
Association of College and Research
Libraries (ACRL) |
30 |
2 |
32 |
6% |
Reference and User Services Association
(RUSA) |
16 |
2 |
18 |
11% |
Public Library Association (PLA) |
55 |
7 |
62 |
11% |
Library Leadership and Management
Association (LLAMA) |
23 |
5 |
28 |
18% |
Total |
317 |
24 |
341 |
7% |
Table 4
State Library
Association Conference Sessions
Session Involves Evaluation |
No |
Yes-results |
Yes-technique |
Total |
Percentage yes |
New York |
69 |
1 |
70 |
1% |
|
Louisiana |
62 |
2 |
64 |
3% |
|
New Hampshire |
31 |
1 |
32 |
3% |
|
Alabama |
49 |
2 |
51 |
4% |
|
Montana |
48 |
2 |
50 |
4% |
|
North Carolina |
133 |
4 |
7 |
144 |
8% |
Washington |
28 |
1 |
2 |
31 |
10% |
Florida |
47 |
5 |
2 |
54 |
13% |
Total |
467 |
10 |
19 |
496 |
6% |
Table 5
Required Courses
for Master of Library Science Degrees
Courses |
2005 Number |
2005 Percentage |
2014 Number |
2014 Percentage |
Management |
34 |
71% |
36 |
72% |
Research |
28 |
58% |
30 |
60% |
Evaluation |
5 |
10% |
8 |
16% |
Programs |
48 |
|
50 |
|
Across programs a
management course was the most prevalent course requirement. Management courses
had titles such as “Library/Management/Administration of/in
Libraries/Information Organizations,” and frequently were by-type (academic,
school, etc.). Three others in 2014 were “Achieving Organizational Excellence,”
“Management and Systems Analysis,” and “Organizational Management &
Strategy / Management Without Borders.”
Almost all
research courses had simple titles of “Introduction to Research/Methods” or
“Research Methods.” Three others were “Contextual Inquiry and Project
Management,” “Designing Principled Inquiry,” and “Educational Research &
Measurement.”
Courses that were
counted as focusing on evaluation were included “Assessing Information Needs,”
“Evaluation of Resources and Services,” “Evaluation of Information Systems,”
“Evaluation Methods,” and “Library Planning, Marketing and Assessment.”
There was some
overlap between categories. The course “Management and Systems Analysis,” was
counted as a management course and as an evaluation course. “Research &
Evaluation for LIS” and “Research & Evaluation Methods” were counted in
both the research and evaluation categories. Also, in some programs, students
could take either research or evaluation courses.
Given that many,
and probably most, program requirements involve options and substitutions, with
differences by specializations, and also some variation in reporting, this is a
very fuzzy data set. Nevertheless, evaluation itself appears in required
coursework for at least some programs, and has had some slight gains over the
past 10 years.
Table 6
Overall Results by
Research Question
Research Question |
Results |
RQ-1: Need: What
is the prevalence of evaluation skills or responsibilities in library-based
positions? |
|
A-ALA Core Competences |
10-25% |
B-Open jobs at
ARL and ULC institutions |
32% |
RQ-2: Opportunity:
What is the prevalence of opportunities for education for librarians in
evaluation skills? |
|
C-Professional
development courses offered by ALA divisions |
7% |
D-Professional development
sessions at state library association conferences |
6% |
E-Required
courses at ALA-accredited MLS programs |
15% (Evaluation) 58% (Research) 71% (Management) |
Discussion
Within these data
sets, and accounting for their limitations, there appears to be a mismatch
between the need for evaluation (assessment) skills and the formal
opportunities for librarians (library staff) to obtain those skills. While few
library positions, even at very large systems and institutions, are solely
dedicated to evaluation activities, data collection and analysis is part of
about one-third of positions advertised at these libraries. However, less than
10% of continuing education opportunities, whether by state associations or by
American Library Association divisions, focus on evaluation skills (or
results).
Association
events, conferences, and courses are an important way for current information
professionals to keep up to date, especially when life-long learning is not
just a motto but an essential part of an information professional’s life (Long
& Applegate, 2008). There appears to be an opening for increased attention
to this area of education. This is also an area for a cumulative virtuous
circle. Experts in evaluation can present results and instruction in techniques
to a widening pool of practitioners who in turn
spread a culture,
capability, and commitment to the use of data in decision-making. Over the
years the ARL Library Assessment Conference has grown in prominence and size,
supplemented by the launch of the ARL-Assess listserv in 2014, and the
development of a public library assessment workshop.
Besides
professional continuing education, there is pre-professional preparation. That
is, programs of library and information science have the responsibility to
prepare graduates to perform, understand, and develop further in the principles
and practices of their profession. Library education at the graduate level has
had a high level of interest in or requirements for research-specific skills,
undoubtedly influenced by the place of the MLS degree as a graduate or
professional degree at universities. There is a perennial discussion about the
relevance of the MLS to professional practice, and this paper avoids entering
that broad debate here.
There is, however,
a specific issue that is relevant to understanding the place of evaluation
education in professional preparation: the distinction between research and
evaluation. Conceptually, are these the same, and pragmatically, does
coursework in research methods prepare a student to conduct
managerially-oriented assessment?
On the conceptual
question, the Assessment in Higher Education listserv ([email protected]) has a user population made up primarily
of people working at colleges and universities, in academic programs and also
in centralized assessment offices. One perennial question and debate in this
forum is whether evaluation or assessment is “research” as defined by the
federal government or the institution’s Institutional Research Board (IRB) or
other office for the protection of human subjects in research. Federal
definitions define “research” as generalized knowledge, and on campuses that in
turn can be operationalized as something to be published, presented, or
disseminated to an external audience. In contrast, non-research evaluation is
often treated as internally oriented: “If the investigator does not intend to
use the information for publication or presentation outside of the
investigator’s department or organization, the research will not contribute to
generalizable knowledge and IRB review is not required” (Indiana University,
2014).
This leaves a gap
in understanding the dissemination of methodology and of case-instances that
may contribute to a generalizable understanding. For example, suppose you
conduct a study with your math majors of their use of your e-book collection on
mathematics. This is for one’s own use in collection management. Yet, an
audience may want to know how to conduct such studies. Or another scholar may
want to know the status of e-books about mathematics and other science areas:
using the specific to illuminate the general. Methodologically, there can be
important and useful overlaps in research or evaluation data techniques and
data collection designs. Faculty in library programs that require or offer
research methods courses can use the practical importance of evaluation to
educate their students about the overall value of such courses: many library
students believe they will not conduct formal “research” so tend to think of
this as entirely theoretical.
This prevalence
study describes in part the role and place of evaluation in library practice,
showing the degree of importance accorded to assessments skill in institutions
and in library professional development. It forms part of a larger, ongoing
conversation about the preparation and function of MLS-educated librarians in
information organizations. The extent to which the MLS is managerial, evolving
in addition to, and perhaps away from purely technical professional skills, is
reflected in the description of evaluation as an essential component of
leadership (component 8C).
Conclusion
It is hard to
design a quantitative equation encompassing offerings and needs, where A equals
B, or even where A results in B, for the concerns under consideration in the
study. Even the percent or prevalence of evaluation mentions in courses or in
job ads are far from exact. The trend is clear, though, that there seems to be
more extensive need for evaluation skills than there are structured offerings
educating people in those skills. When LIS educators organize their programs of
study to prepare graduates to meet the needs of practice, they need to
thoughtfully consider what the core requirements are. Evaluation is
specifically mentioned and indeed emphasized in the ALA competences document,
and is reflected in new job position descriptions.
For existing
librarians, roles will change. Just as a wave of RDA and FRBR workshops,
webinars, and books were published to assist technical services librarians in
making the transition to newer forms of organizing information, opportunities
are needed to continually enhance the ability of library leaders to manage and
to meet external demands for accountability and improvement.
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