Engineering librarians at Texas A&M University in College Station partnered with the university's College of Engineering to provide information assistance to students participating in Aggies Invent, a series of 48-hour design competitions conducted in the college's makerspace. To assess the impact of librarian-student consultations, the…

A growing number of studies have reported that using open educational resources benefits students, but few studies have investigated academic impacts of adopting library-sourced eBooks as the course textbook. This mixed-methods study utilizes the Open Education Group's COUP Framework (Cost, Outcomes, Usage, Perceptions), which has previously been…

St. John Fisher College's Lavery Library's Access Services and Systems departments began a pilot project in which students with overdue fines tested usability of library Web sites in exchange for fine waivers. Circulation staff promoted the program and redeemed fine waiver vouchers at the Checkout Desk, while Systems staff administered testing and…

This article uses the case study of developing a collaborative "out-of-hours" virtual enquiry service by members of the Northern Collaboration Group of academic libraries in the north of England to explore the importance of communication and collaboration between academic library services in enhancing student learning. Set within the…

When looking for ways to improve library services, we considered what data sources were readily available to us and how we could harvest and use this data. We investigated three years of chat reference statistics at Central Michigan University, a large research institution, to gain a better understanding of our patrons' chat behavior. We then…

This article describes how York University analyzed the results from its 2010-11 implementation of the Measuring the Impact of Networked Electronic Services for Libraries survey to measure value of investments in e-resources. The results were assessed through two variables: e-resources used by faculty when carrying out funded and non-funded…

A study was conducted to determine the impact of the use of audiobooks with struggling readers in a school library audiobook club. The participants met weekly in the school library with the school librarian and researchers to discuss audiobooks and make reading recommendations to their peers. Standardized test data as well as pre- and post-study…

Four hundred and fifty-three patrons responded to a 1976 library use survey conducted at California State College at Dominguez Hills to assess present effectiveness and identify areas of concern for use in planning. The study found that some library patrons use the local public libraries because they are more convenient, while others use larger…

Two measures of effectiveness for university libraries are constructed. The Primary Measure of Effectiveness, defined over the total population of users, considers the number of material and information items desired by the users, the number of satisfactorily answered inquiries, and the number of users. For the Secondary Measure of Effectiveness…

In many ways, science classrooms and school library media centers are parallel universes struggling with their own reform issues and with documenting their own positive impacts. As the trend toward data-driven decisions grows in the school setting, it is increasingly important for every component of the learning environment to have demonstrable…

Arguing that user studies and performance measures provide two major approaches to evaluating the effectiveness of library services, this occasional paper presents an overview of the literature, examines the goals and approaches in user studies and performance measures, and provides suggestions for increasing the potential benefits of both by…

An appendix to a study that attempts to measure the service capabilities of public libraries, either in relation to the needs of their communities or to the standards adopted by the profession. (Author)

The basic rationale for this study was that attempts to measure the service capabilities of public libraries, either in relation to the needs of their communities or to the standards adopted by the profession, are hampered by the lack of criteria of quality or effectiveness. It was recognized that new measures were needed to gauge effectiveness…

Sixty-six public libraries selected by random sample, substitutions and participation requests, tested Rutgers University 1970 Performance Measures Manual to gather information on the evaluation and improvement of public libraries. Selection was based on geographic location and budget categories. Following instructions for manual's use at…

In 1988, four studies were conducted to evaluate changes in the behavior and the knowledge of child nutrition on the part of participants in the Texas Nutrition Education and Training Program (NET). The NET Program operates synergistically with reimbursement elements of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Child Nutrition Programs to improve…