1. Measurement and Assessment of Library Programs and Services Eileen E. Hitchingham Dean, University Libraries Virginia Tech (hitch@vt.edu) The Changing Face of Libraries SOLINET 2002 Atlanta, GA May 2, 2002 Measurement and Assessment of Library Programs and Services Eileen E. Hitchingham Dean, University Libraries Virginia Tech (hitch@vt.edu) The Changing Face of Libraries SOLINET 2002 Atlanta, GA May 2, 2002

2. Q: How many statisticians does it take to change a light bulb? A: One -- plus or minus three Statistics means never having to say you're certain. In God we trust... All others must bring data Did you hear about the statistician who had his head in an oven and his feet in a bucket of ice? When asked how he felt, he replied, "On the average I feel just fine." Sources:GARY C. RAMSEYER'S FIRST INTERNET GALLERY OF STATISTICS JOKES, http://www.ilstu.edu/~gcramsey/Gallery.html, Statistics?!, Don’t Make Me Laugh! http://www.keypress.com/fathom/jokes.html

3. To Show or To Know? or To Know? Library Statistics...

4. The University Library Ptolemaic Information System Faculty Grad UGrad Sack, J. Open Systems for Open Minds: Building the Library Without Walls (College & Research Libraries 47(6): 535 -44, 1986

5. VT Community of Users Copernican Information System University Libraries Other Information Sources The Web

6. Assessment at VT Libraries This year every position description in the library notes that the staff member is responsible for collecting and using data to support continuous process improvement Assessment goals at the library: –to better understand the wants, needs, and information seeking behaviors of our user community so that we can provide them with information collections and services that support their research, teaching, learning and outreach goals –to benchmark our processes and services against other libraries so that we can consider emulating operations that appear likely to contribute to making us more effective or efficient, and –to continuously improve the processes and services associated with acquiring, organizing, providing access to, preserving, and assisting users in working with, information resources.

7. Examples of What We Collect OPAC searches Circulations In-house use of materials Library Visits Reference interactions Storage items used Interloan data from ILLiad Web hits, pages, etc. Peer group data Instruction Evaluations LibQUAL+ TM

8. OPAC searches (Nov - Feb, kw and boolean counted as of Nov 99)

9. Circulations (Nov - Feb, initial and renews)

10. OPAC Searches and Circulation (Nov-Feb)

11. Circulation Rates at Service Locations (Jul - Feb, initial checkouts and renews)

12. Circulation at Main Desk (Jul - Feb, initial checkouts and renews)

13. Internal Use of Materials

14. Library Visits and Uses Jul-Nov

15. Web Pages Delivered From Library Web - October (October data, excludes Digital Library and ILLiad)

16. Storage: Items Requested and Items in Storage

17. Storage: Types of Items Requested

18. ILLiad Everywhere Evaluation (Fall 2001 Customers)

19. Illiad: Number of Journals Titles Needed to Deliver a Percentage of 32,664 Articles

20. Rethinking Operations and Staff Assignments First Qtr

21. Staff Resources by Service Area

22. Instruction and Outreach Data

23. Projected Total Library Expenditures

24. LibQUAL+ TM 2001 2002 is third year of LibQUAL+ TM Participants include ARL, ACRL, medical libraries, community colleges Measures user perceptions of library services 3 questions overall satisfaction, satisfaction way treated, satisfaction with access to collections 25 questions address service issues of library as place, affect, personal control, access to collections Measures minimum acceptable service, perceived level of service, desired level of service

25. General Satisfaction Questions - 2001

26. Gap score Affect: Desired minus Perceived LibQUAL+ TM 2001

27. Gap score Personal Control: Desired minus Perceived

28. Gap score Library as Place: Desired minus Perceived

29. Gap scores Access Collections: Desired minus Perceived VT LibQUAL+ TM 2001

30. Gap scores Access Collections: Desired minus Perceived VT and All LibQUAL+ TM 2001

31. THANKS!