2017 Canadian Library Assessment Workshop

We find ourselves at an important, and conflicted moment in academic libraries, “stuck” between an ethos of compliance—a need to demonstrate our value to stakeholders through processes of accountability and audit—and one of critical engagement—a desire to situate such practices within broader socio-political and economic contexts as a means to critique, destabilize, and change them. It is no accident that these two contradictory ethos co-exist—one gives rise to the other (Drabinski, 2017). The issue that remains however, is how to negotiate a path between them. Some of the questions I’d like us to grapple with during this interactive keynote include: What logics underlie the focus on assessment and user experience? To what extent does our current focus on measuring inputs, outputs, and outcomes and creating memorable user experiences normalize corporate values in higher education? How might we engage critically with these practices to better align them with our professional values and the academic mission of the university?

Biography

Karen Nicholson is Manager, Information Literacy, at the University of Guelph, a faculty member with the ACRL’s Information Literacy Immersion programs, and a Ph.D. Candidate (LIS) at Western. Her research focuses on information literacy, neoliberalism, and higher education, and she is co-editor (with Maura Seale) of The Politics of Theory in the Practice of Critical Librarianship (Library Juice Press, forthcoming). https://works.bepress.com/karen_nicholson

Half-day workshops

Analyze This! Coding Qualitative Data
Shailoo Bedi – University of Victoria
Ruby Warren – University of Manitoba

Are you drowning with heaps and heaps of qualitative data? Are you suffering from paralysis of analysis? Determining where to begin when coding qualitative data can be a daunting task. This workshop will provide hands-on experience with coding various forms of qualitative data including transcription texts, photographic images, and other visual artifacts.

Purposeful Data Visualization With Tableau
Ebony Magnus – Southern Alberta Institute of Technology
Jeremy Buhler – University of British Columbia

This workshop will provide a practical introduction to creating visualizations with Tableau. Using standard library data sets participants will learn to create interactive visualizations and dashboards while considering the importance of purposeful communication of data.

1.5-hour workshops

Beyond Numbers: Powerful Assessment Strategies in a Library Learning Commons (Worksheet)
Julie Mitchell, Nick Thornton, Jeremiah Carag – University of British Columbia

Using examples from UBC’s library-based Learning Commons, this workshop focuses on assessment of front line services and learning support programs, and on organizing and communicating data. Participants will develop a framework for assessing their own learning support programs and learn how the model could apply to other library activities.

Observe, Reflect, Learn! Developing a Peer Teaching Observation Program in your Library
Zoe Fisher – University of Colorado, Denver

This workshop is ideal for those who want to develop or reinvigorate peer teaching observation programs. Participants will learn to develop procedures for peer teaching observations, to create a rubric that identifies the qualities of excellent teaching, and to assess the efficacy of a peer teaching observation program.

Using Design Thinking to Assess Space in a Library
Rhiannon Jones – University of Calgary

Design thinking helps us design the library around users rather than bending users to fit the library. This workshop will explore how academic libraries can use design thinking to market services, reconfigure spaces and optimize student and faculty engagement.

Statistics Demystified: Understanding When and Why to Use Statistics in Assessment Work (Worksheet)
Lise Doucette – Western University

Statistics can be essential to appropriately describe and interpret data, but it’s not always easy to know when and how to use them. This workshop is an opportunity to discuss and learn when and why statistics should be used and what statistics can tell you.

Beyond Numbers: Tracking Academic Library Geospatial Interactions With Patrons and the Public and Their Subsequent Publications
Daniel Brendle-Moczuk – University of Victoria

Much is written about providing GIS services in libraries, but little on their assessment and evaluation over time. This workshop will focus on organizing and recording interactions with patrons in order to assess services and validate the effectiveness of providing GIS services in an academic library.

Using Service Blueprinting as a Tool for Service Assessment (Worksheet)
Kyla Everall, Lisa Gayhart – University of Toronto

Service Design is a way to understand, develop, and assess services from a user perspective. This workshop will provide a hands-on introduction to the service blueprinting framework, a tool used to identify service gaps and pain points in order to improve services by addressing the root issues.

No Brainer? Avoiding Evidence-Based Error Making in e-Resources Assessment
Klara Maidenberg – University of Toronto
Dana Thomas – Ryerson University

Things are not always what they seem! Walking participants through various indicators of value used to assess electronic resources, this workshop emphasizes some notable limitations of these sources and suggests best practices for ensuring accurate interpretation of quantitative and qualitative indicators.

Collection Development in the Digital Age
Vincent Larivière – Université de Montréal

With the advent of the digital age, collection development shifted from individual journal selection to purchasing journal bundles, in which publishers provided access to their entire collection. This came at a price: over the period of 1986 to 2011, subscription costs increased fourfold in North American university libraries. This has left several libraries unable to afford these so-called “big deals”, who have reverted to individual journal subscriptions. This workshop will present a methodology developed at the Université de Montréal to assess journal usage, based on downloads, citations, and survey data.