Rubric assessment of information literacy is an important tool for librarians seeking to show evidence of student learning. The authors, who collaborated on the Rubric Assessment of Informational Literacy Skills (RAILS) research project, draw from their shared experience to present practical recommendations for implementing rubric assessment in a…

School librarians serving diverse learning communities, such as the Chicago Public Schools, have always been aware of the need to seek out multicultural books as "mirrors [that] let readers see reflections of their own lives; windows [that] let them see others' lives." But until a colleague sent this author the document "10 Quick…

Curriculum design gurus Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe, authors of "Understanding by Design," coined the term "backwards design." They recommend educators to begin with the question: What would we accept as evidence that students have attained the desired understandings and proficiencies--"before" proceeding to plan teaching and learning…

This paper is an extension of the author's earlier work on developing management information services and creating a culture of assessment in libraries. The author will focus observations on the use of data in decision-making in libraries, specifically on the role of leadership in making evidence-based decision a reality, and will review new…

Since 2001, librarians at Oregon State University's Valley Library have been working to build a "teaching library" supported by a clearly articulated instruction program. From the start, we believed that we needed to assess the teaching library's impact, not only to determine the success or failure of our efforts but also to demonstrate…

This article presents interesting articles that explore several different areas of reference assessment, including practical case studies and theoretical articles that address a range of issues such as librarian behavior, patron satisfaction, virtual reference, or evaluation design. They include: (1) "Evaluating the Quality of a Chat Service"…

Discusses the importance of the response time of an online public catalog and its capacity to support multiple users without system degradation; outlines general requirements of an online catalog; explains the difference between menu and command systems; defines response time; and suggests ways of testing an online system accurately. (EM)

Evaluation in Library and Information Services has traditionally focused on quantitative measures of input and output. This trend has been generally reflected in the emerging efforts relating to the evaluation of electronic information services (EIS). Less well developed are qualitative approaches to evaluation of EIS. Issues that feature high on…

Describes a performance review instrument which utilizes a self-assessment approach to evaluate skills and behaviors applicable to management and supervisory roles. The technique's objectives are reviewed and steps in the review process are described, including the formulation of personal development objectives. (MBR)

This book, written by a number of library professionals, familiarizes the reader with the motives for and purposes of evaluation and the major contexts and models for evaluation and provides explicit examples how evaluation projects have been and can be carried out in a variety of library contexts. The strategies in this book grew from the S:OLE…

Too often school library media specialists shy away from program assessments and fail to seek out the opportunity to participate in the review of their school or district for accreditation purposes. On a smaller scale, but just as critical, is the school library media specialist's reluctance to be judged professionally as his or her fellow…

School library media specialists at all levels have been investing long hours in preparing and implementing lessons. They try to coordinate these lessons with teachers, and, in the best-case scenario, they collaboratively plan and deliver the instruction. The missing piece is an indication of whether or not students have actually been learning.…

This group of documents presents material on collection development and a list of collection intensity indicators from the Research Libraries Group (RLG), as well as examples of collection assessment techniques from seven members of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL). ARL member documents cover the assessment of art periodical,…

A series of articles explores the role and activities of school librarians, especially focusing on evaluation procedures. The topics discussed include librarians' and evaluators' perceptions of important evaluative criteria and a description of a performance based evaluation model. The last article describes working in an international school…

In this article, the author talks about e-zines, also identified as ezines. E-zines are online resources most commonly referred to as magazines or "zines" (print-world lingo for do-it-yourself publications) for short. Even though delivered over the Web, they are considered publications with small circulation and are primarily delivered over the…