LOEX Conference Proceedings 2011

Document Type

Evaluating for Excellence: Assessing Library Instruction

Publication Date

12-2013

Abstract

In keeping with the requirements of Texas Tech University's current strategic planning initiative, assessment, and in particular student-learning assessment, has become a crucial step in the process of continuously developing and improving the Libraries' Information Literacy program. This presentation reviews developments in the program, training for the librarians who participate in the program, the outreach and collaboration efforts to expand the program, and the important role that assessment plays in the process of discovering student needs, improving content, teaching, learning, and the operation of the program. The emphasis is on assessment as a catalyst in the process of continually improving the Information Literacy program.

The program has been using various types of assessment for several years. Pre- and post-assessment surveying used in the library skills credit course has proved to be a useful tool for measuring student learning. However, librarians involved in the program are taking an experimental approach to assessment and are committed to assessing the various parts of the program using a number of techniques that seem to have the potential for being effective in providing useful findings. In doing this, they will address such issues as how to identify new kinds of techniques appropriate for assessing the program and assisting it in reaching its goals and vision for the future, and how to incorporate this experimental approach to assessment into the yearly cycle of planning, developing, marketing, implementing, assessing, and reviewing.

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