Call for Proposals: Share Your Qualitative Assessment Methods
March 2, 2026 – The CARL Assessment Community of Practice (CoP) invites members to contribute to an upcoming session scheduled for May 1st, 2026, 12:00 pm – 1:30 pm ET, focused on practical approaches to assessing library services, resources, and spaces.
Members are encouraged to submit brief, informal presentations (under 10 minutes) sharing either:
- A method used to assess library services, resources, or spaces to better understand how they meet the needs and behaviors of your user community; or
- A method used to gather insights into user needs and behaviors to inform the design or redesign of services, resources, or spaces.
These approaches generally fall under qualitative, ethnographic, or UX-based methods, and might include (but aren’t limited to) interviews, focus groups, questionnaires, observation studies, touchstone tours, and similar techniques.
If you’re interested, we invite you to submit a proposal for a short, informal presentation (under 10 minutes) sharing your experience. This is meant to be a casual, conversational opportunity to talk about the method, what you learned, and what you might do differently if you were to apply the method again.
Alternatively, rather than propose your own presentation, please feel free to request that we cover a particular method or a particular focus of assessment (i.e., assessment of a specific service, type of resource or space.)
Please submit your proposal (with estimated time allotment) or suggestion to Linda Bedwell by April 3rd, 2026.
About the Assessment Community of Practice
Started in 2025, the purpose of the Canadian Library Assessment Community of Practice (CoP) is to engage library workers based in CARL and non-CARL research libraries, who have a strong interest or functional responsibilities in assessment, and provide a forum to discuss issues, initiatives, challenges, and opportunities for collaboration.
To join this community of practice and stay informed about the group’s upcoming events and ongoing activities, subscribe to ASSESSMENT-COP-CARL-L, the Canadian library assessment discussion list.
