2015 Canadian Library Assessment Workshop
Date: October 14 – 16, 2015
Location: Toronto, Ontario
The Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL) is committed to supporting and developing outcomes-based measures to assist libraries in moving beyond inputs and outputs in order to better demonstrate library impact on research, teaching and learning. Through the delivery of assessment-related programming, information sharing, and support for relevant research, CARL supports members as they use outcomes-based evidence to establish the research library’s return on investment or other measures of its value.
It is with this strategic initiative in mind that CARL and Ryerson University invite you to participate in the Canadian Library Assessment Workshop (CLAW) which will take place in Toronto on October 15 & 16, 2015. This workshop will be of interest to all academic and research libraries engaged in assessment. The program is comprised of 2 to 3 hour workshop style sessions with topics such as:
- Linking your assessment plan to the Library’s strategic plan
- Data collection for decision making
- Data visualization
- Assessing the unbundling of the big deal
Participants will leave the workshop with tangible and practical ideas to take back to their libraries. Registration is limited.
> CLAW Program Committee
- Liz Hayden (Chair), Assessment Librarian, University of Ottawa
- Debbie Green, Reference Librarian, University of Toronto
- Katherine McColgan, Manager, Administration and Programs, Canadian Association of Research Libraries
- France Paul, Directrice des services techniques, Université de Sherbrooke
- Carisa Polischuk, Assessment Analyst, University of Saskatchewan
- Dana Thomas, Evaluation and Assessment Librarian, Ryerson University
- Consultant: Vivian Lewis, University Librarian, McMaster University
> At A Glance
| October 14, 2015 |
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| 8:00 – 16:00 | Google Analytics Workshop |
| October 15, 2015 |
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| 8:00 – 9:00 | Assessment 101 Newcomer Breakfast |
| 9:15 – 10:15 | Keynote: Demonstrating value with evidence |
| 10:30 – 12:30 | Linking the Assessment Plan to the Library Strategic Plan |
| 12:30 – 14:00 | Lunch round tables |
| 14:00 – 17:00 | Unbundling the Big Deal |
| October 16, 2015 |
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| 8:30 – 11:30 | Data Driven Decision Making: Getting There |
| 11:30 – 13:00 | Lunch |
| 13:00 – 15:45 | Concurrent Sessions Guerilla Assessment or Assessment for the Rest of Us |
| Data Visualization | |
| 15:45 – 16:00 | Heading up to the Balcony: Taking a Strategic and Enterprise-Wide Approach to Assessment Planning. |
> Full Programme
| Wednesday October 14, 2015 | |
| 8:00 – 8:30 | Registration |
| 8:30 –10:15 | Using Google Analytics (PDF)This course is designed to help new and intermediate users who are using Google Analytics to increase and improve the efficiency and effectiveness of website interactions, track user behaviour, and analyze the reach of our resources. Participants will learn to exploit GA’s capabilities to produce relevant analysis & meaningful reports about your site’s visitors
Course participants will be guided through the Google Analytics features most relevant to reference and web librarians, and receive links to resources to support the hands-on exercises. This workshop will be a combination of hands-on demonstrations and instructor-led presentations. Participants will use their own Google Analytics account to analyse individual data during this workshop. June Li, CLICKINSIGHT Ryerson Library 2nd Floor, Information Learning Commons Lab
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| 10:15 – 10:30 | Break |
| 10:30 – 12:00 | Using Google Analytics (continues) |
| 12:00 – 13:00 | Lunch (on own) |
| 13:00 – 14:30 | Using Google Analytics (continues) |
| 14:30 – 14:45 | Break |
| 14:45 – 16:00 | Using Google Analytics (continues) |
| 18:00 | Dinner on own – Dine around sign-up sheets will be available |
| Thursday October 15, 2015 | |
| 7:30 – 9:00 | Registration |
| 8:00 – 9:00 | Assessment 101 Newcomer Breakfast (PDF)Library Assessment basics including best practices, training and professional development opportunities, how to organize assessment activities at your library, and some real-life examples from the field.
Cara Commons, Ted Rogers School of Management |
| 9:00 – 9:15 | Welcome Remarks |
| 9:15 – 10:15 | Demonstrating value with evidence (PPT)Academic libraries are increasingly being called upon to demonstrate the value that library services and collections contribute to the University. It is no longer just assumed that library services are integral to fostering successful teaching and research – direct links need to be made. This need to demonstrate value is one reason that assessment librarian positions have risen in popularity over the past few years. This presentation will explore the increasing need for librarians to have research and assessment skills and why such skills are so crucial to demonstrate value to others and build knowledge within our profession.
Denise Koufogiannakis, MLIS, PhD |
| 10:15 – 10:30 | Break |
| 10:30 –12:30 | Linking Assessment Plan to the Library Strategic Plan (PDF)Struggling to see if your finely crafted strategic plan is measuring up?
This workshop will help you develop an assessment plan to find out. The workshop will provide both a theoretical background and practical advice on developing an assessment plan that links to the organizational plan. Participants are encouraged to bring copies of assessment plans and/or strategic plans from their home institutions that will be used in the session’s activities. Lorie Kloda, Assessment Librarian Cara Commons, Ted Rogers School of Management |
| 12:30 – 14:00 | Lunch round table discussions |
| 14:00 – 15:15 | Unbundling the Big Deal (PDF) (PDF)In the past year, four Quebec university libraries – the libraries of the Université de Montréal, Université du Québec à Montréal, Université Sherbooke and Université Laval – undertook large-scale operations for analyzing their periodical collections. To do so, the four institutions called upon Vincent Larivière, associate scientific director of the OST and assistant professor at the School of Library and Information Science of the Université de Montréal to advise them on the methodology to adopt and on performing the analysis. For a number of years, Vincent Larivière has been studying the various impact factors and their relevance in determining the value of scholarly journals. The methodology he has worked on helps identify, for each institution, the core of electronic periodicals that are most valued by the respective communities.
The workshop will be divided into three parts:
For more information: New era for the collections at the Université de Montréal’s libraries (PDF) http://www.bib.umontreal.ca/collections-nouvelle-ere/ Assessing periodicals that are essential to teaching and research in the UQAM’s faculties and schools http://www.bibliotheques.uqam.ca/evaluation Vincent Larivière, professeur Stéphanie Gagnon Directrice des collections Arnald Desrochers Cara Commons, Ted Rogers School of Management |
| 15:15 – 15:30 | Break |
| 15:30 – 17:00 | Unbundling the Big Deal (continues) |
| Evening | Dinner on your own – Dine around sign-up sheets will be available |
| Friday October 16, 2015 | |
| 7:30 – 8:30 | Breakfast |
| 8:30am–10:00am | Data Driven Decision Making: Getting There(PPT) (PDF)We collect a lot of data at the library for various purposes (ARL, CARL, accreditation, service level assessment, usage statistics, etc.) and from various sources; but is this data being used to help make decisions or simply to fill in surveys? What data is being collected automatically through our various systems?
In this workshop, we will introduce a method to be more strategic in the collection, analysis and use of data. Together, we will work through a five part strategy for how to tackle data collection for each decision required of your assessment plan (which is linked to your library’s strategic plan). The goal is to learn to leverage the benefit that the data represents. For best results, come with an issue from your assessment plan that you need to make a decision about. Liz Hayden, Assessment Librarian Mattamy Athletic Centre |
| 10:00 – 10:15 | Break |
| 10:15 – 11:30 | Data Driven Decision Making (continues) |
| 11:30 – 13:00 | Lunch
Pickle Barrel |
| 13:00 – 14:30 | Concurrent Sessions |
Guerrilla Assessment or Assessment for the Rest of Us. (PPT) (PDF)
This workshop will explore how to inform decision using quick guerrilla assessment such as whiteboard polls, observation, focus groups and user testing.We will also talk about how to bolster your decisions by repurposing existing library activity data in ways other than the purposes for which they are collected. We will discuss when guerrilla assessment is appropriate and what methods suit what purposes? We will talk about the surprising secondary benefits of guerrilla assessment. And we’ll discover how we can finally use the good information that is in all those library stats we collect year, after year, after year. And yes, you will have to talk to some people! Debbie Green, Reference Librarian, Lisa Gayhart, User Experience Librarian Student Learning Centre Data Visualization (Recording) Want to step up your visualization game? Sick of staring at Excel charts? This workshop explores why visualizations matter in library assessment and how to tell a story with them. We’ll talk about what makes visualizations effective, and introduce tools and resources to help you on your path to becoming the next Alberto Cairo (spoiler alert: he’s one of the resources!). The presenters will review some of their previous data viz work, and explore why certain visualizations took off and others fell flat. Participants will engage in hands-on visualization activities; it’s recommended that those who are bringing a laptop install Tableau Public. Jeremy Buhler, Assessment Librarian Kathleen Reed Student Learning Centre
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| 14:30 – 14:45 | Break |
| 14:45 – 15:45 | Concurrent sessions (continue) – Guerrilla Assessment – Data Vizualization |
| 15:45 – 16:00 | Heading up to the Balcony: Taking a Strategic and Enterprise-Wide Approach to Assessment PlanningVivian Lewis, University Librarian McMaster UniversityStudent Learning Centre |