February 10, 2021 Meeting of Library Assessment Committee

Community Agreements

• Listen Actively: Try to understand others before being understood.
• Step In, Step Back: Step up and use your voice or Step Back and make space for others.
• Speak from Your Own Lived Experience: Use “I” statements and refrain from telling other people’s stories.
• Invest In Yourself and Invest in Each Other: Honor our shared space and keep time in mind.
• Think Beyond Binaries: Hold multiple perspectives at once.
• Stories Stay, Lessons Go: Confidentiality and personal privacy.
• Repair Harm: Seek space to repair harm when we mess up.

1. Library Assessment Updates (20 min.)

• Library Assessment Forum
• Library Assessment Specialist search
• Many campus-wide survey projects this spring
• 2021 Library Service Satisfaction Survey (tentative dates: March 9-29). Sample size: 5,000 (URM:50%, White: 40, Asian: 10%)
• Spring 2021 Sweeps Week (March 8-14)
• FY20 statistical survey work ongoing
• Love Letter/Break Up Letter
  • Study page – https://www.library.illinois.edu/geninfo/valentines-day-ux-study/
  • Graphics – https://uofi.app.box.com/s/rm9uclx3yp0oa4y4a1q3plqcodhy9gfv

2. Library Assessment Committee Grant Program (20 min.)

• Review the voting and counting process.
• Annual budget
• Incentives, OPRS/IRB, OBFS

3. Breakout room (15 min.)

• Review the instrument in box. What questions can we recommend to the project coordinator?
• Record recommendations from your breakout room in Box (use the Comment function).

Jen-chien Yu, Kirsten Feist, Peg Burnette, Megean Osuchowski, Geoffrey Ross, Erin Kerby, Rebecca Smith, Yali Feng, Ruthann Miller, Shuyong Jiang, Tricia Lampron, John Laskowski, Lindsay Taylor

(1) Library Assessment Updates

• Discussion: Should we host a Library Assessment Forum this year?
  • In previous years, the forum was hosted in March. Everyone has a very full plate right now with the pandemic. David Ward is also hosting upcoming instruction events that include assessment topics.
  • Is holding the forum a charge of the committee?
    • No. It was a brainstorm idea of the committee three years ago.
  • What would we present? In previous years, grant recipients would present on their studies. What would the timing be? There is an AP forum scheduled in April.
    • May could be a better month for hosting than in previous years: people are operating online right now so end-of-year location shift will not be a factor. Online events are bringing more people in, because they can come and go from the event in the virtual environment.
  • Supportive of having event this year; assessment is a popular topic right now.
  • The forum could provide a way for people to connect ongoing projects which we may not know about because working virtually (not sharing space).
  • Supportive of forum if speakers can be found.
  • Zoom fatigue is a real concern, but the assessment forum has been a popular event in previous years.
    • We have been very good about timing the event in previous years, usually right before spring break.
  • We are all stretched very thin right now to finish other obligations of this semester.
  • Diversity and COVID topics would be appropriate and popular for the forum.
• Library Assessment Specialist search is ongoing
  • Post the position to listservs or forward listing and encourage people to apply
• 2021 Library Satisfaction Survey
  • Dean & cabinet are interested in getting this kind of data again
  • Jen-chien Yu, David Ward, John Laskowski, and Lindsay Taylor are on the IRB application
  • Added photo submission to the survey from previous semester’s discussion about gathering student data through photo/video
• Sweeps Week will be coming up soon (March 8 – 14)
• Valentine Love Letter/Break Up Letter UX Study (John)
  • Re-trying this study from last year but with more time to promote; increased response has been collected already
  • How do people find out about the study?
    • Posting on social media (twitter, instagram, facebook, reddit) + the website spotlight; department libraries are encouraged to advertise with personalized graphics
    • Unit heads have approved use of these graphics
  • Originally we asked for full letters, but we’re encouraging tweets/short response

(2) Library Assessment Committee Grant

• Jen: Thank you to committee members for quickly turning around two grant applications
• Some notes/changes about the committee grant process:
  • Jen will only send a call for votes and one reminder to remain neutral
  • Include the Assessment GA [currently Lindsay] in voting response email to ensure vote counts are accurate and transparent
  • Members agree with changes
• To respond to budget concerns, there is approximately $10,000/year to give out
  • Typically will not give out more than 1/3 of budget to a single project
  • Jen has checked with business office and continues to manage funds
• Concerns about the amount of money spent on transcription services
  • Jen can send a sample of transcription done by professional services. Writing out word by word in the interview/focus group is complicated and mistakes/errors can effect data. The asks from our current grants are typical and were advised.
    • Possibility of employing undergrad/graduate student, but there’s an overhead cost of training the student on transcription, though it is a good learning experience.
  • It looks expensive at first, but from experience, transcription is very time consuming/labor intensive for research teams
  • $100/hour of interview is a good budget for human transcription
• About study incentives: $50 was commented as too much for an incentive
  • Usually $50 is more reasonable for a drawing
  • For international students, remember the IRS requires withholding 1/3 of the incentive
  • OBRS can create amazon e-codes for any unit on campus to use for incentives
    • We might utilize this for the library, we’re not sure if it can be used for international students yet
    • Also some students boycotting amazon
  • To avoid taxes, thinking about giving out items (cups, hoodies, etc.)
  • Incentivizing participation would be a good LAC Forum topic
  • Some studies offer charitable donations as incentives

(3) Discussion about Upcoming Student Affairs Survey

• Jen will be meeting with student affairs to discuss potential of additional library questions on upcoming campus survey. Q9 is the only question to ask about library services in previous question set. Committee reviewed questions in box.
  • Q9 isn’t going to give us useful data; suggest asking “how often do you use the library? – once/week, etc.”
  • In Q9, loaning out physical items and catalog is not included as a library service
    • We have some of our stats about the physical items and catalog, but it would be nice to ask students about how they feel about the library: “what’s your experience with the library?”
    • We might know the catalog and checkout stats, but we don’t know who is looking at the results and using them to understand students’ relationship to library services
      • Results from the last survey were sent to faculty/course instructors and spread more broadly by the provost office
  • Survey is long, but not necessarily comprehensive of campus services
    • Survey focuses on student affairs services
  • Note the $5 Amazon gift card incentive, but international students are not included in this survey
  • Are any responses of Q11 reflective of the library?
    • We don’t get to see raw data for this survey
• If there are any other questions or comments for the survey: send to Jen or the committee