February 9, 2022 Meeting of Library Assessment Committee

Community Agreement

• 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 (5 min.) 

• LibInsight trial will be mid-February to mid-March (major data collections: reference/directional, gate count/head count, instruction statistics)
• Assessment examples in Box [https://uofi.box.com/s/52mfmpv1onycnir5rbyh4hsntl9naoy9]
• FY21 library statistical surveys (ACRL/IPEDS/ARL) local work in progress
• Updates from members

2. Update on the review of unit annual reports (5 min.)

• https://www.library.illinois.edu/staff/administration/services/annualreports/fy2021-unit-annual-reports/
• 4 teams of two members each. Each team reviewed 6 annual reports.
• Piloted a rubric with 4 items: Faculty Engagement, Relationship Building/Liaison Work, Alignment with the University Strategic Plan, and Alignment with the Library Strategic Framework.
• Performed a quasi-SOAR analysis

3. LAC 2021-2022 committee project

• Pandemic effects on collection – thinking about collection assessment: does increased digital usage have further effects? Is it continuing, etc. ? How can the success of those resources be measured beyond usage stats?
  • Has print use bounced back? What is happening with ebook use?
  • Assess the COVID impact on selector’s collection behavior.

4. Thoughts/Questions/Reflections 

• Recent LAC grant review

Jen-chien Yu, Kirsten Feist, Erin Kerby, Rebecca Smith, Ruthann Mowry, Belinda Bolivar, Alex Deeke, Mary Ton, Amy Fry, John Laskowski, Lindsay Taylor

This meeting started with a break-out room social activity for five minutes.

1. Library Assessment Updates

• LibInsight trial is mid-February to mid-March. Lindsay and Belinda will attend a demo session.
• Jen showed recent sample assessment reports in the LAC Box
  • Focus on Handout Incorporating Program Theory and Implementation Fidelity in CAS Self-Study [slides 17-20]
  • Example of library signage: do signs change behavior?
• ACRL/IPEDS/ARL statistics collecting is currently ongoing
• Upcoming conversation with Stephanie Wheeler, who coaches the UIUC women’s wheelchair basketball team, will ask if team athletes would be willing to do an activity to assess the accessibility of the library’s physical spaces
  • Have the contractors of the new building spaces talked to DRES?
    • Some discussion about ADA compliance versus Universal Design and the cost factors involved

2. Update on Unit Annual Reports reviewing

• The goal of this review is not to assess quality or value of reports, but the process and formatting
• The review process:
  • 4 teams of 2 LAC members, teams assessing 6 reports each
  • Focus on 4 items, per direction of the Dean and David Ward
    • Faculty Engagement
    • Relationship Building/Liaison Work
    • Alignment with the University Strategic Plan
    • Alignment with the Library Strategic Framework
  • Teams met afterwards to do a SOAR (strength, opportunity, aspiration, result) analysis
• Review conclusions:
  • Open-ended-ness is a strength, which can be tailored to each unit’s experience
  • Reports document each unit’s history, annual progress, overview of work within each department
  • Reports can be helpful in connecting each unit to their domain of the strategic plan
  • Most reports follow the Dean’s template, but some deviate and are created for a more general audience
  • “Who is the audience of the reports?” is part of the ongoing discussion

3. LAC 2021-2022 committee project

• After the brainstorm committee meeting in October, Jen, Belinda, Lindsay & Amy have met to focus project further into an actionable committee project
• Collection analysis at UIUC involves many units, people, & data
• Goal is to create a platform to invite experts to answer:
  • What data do we have available?
  • How do we access the data?
  • What are some use cases for this data?
• The end goal of this conversation will hopefully lead to multiple individual projects & user stories stemming from the session
• Discussion about the annual Library Assessment Forum as a platform for this:
  • Potentially co-host with the Collection Development Committee
  • Potentially involve special collections
    • Talk about tracking the digitization arc to show importance of digitization
  • Long-term project potential to continue this as training in the future
  • Long-term project potential in continuing to track this data over the years (esp. around the pandemic)
• Potential date for the forum is Thursday, March 24 (pending forum speakers)
  • Avoid: March 29 (AP Forum), March 12-21 (Spring Break), and April (outreach month)
• LAC members can send any suggestions for date, speakers, or topics to Jen

4. LAC Grant Process Feedback

• Since this is the first LAC grant process that some committee members have been involved in, feedback is welcome
  • Rubric is helpful for both applicant and committee voters
• What happens after grant is awarded? Do we ever find out about results of the project?
  • In the past, grant recipients have presented at the Library Assessment Forum
  • Other suggestions: Library Research Showcase, informal presentation in an LAC meeting, hosting a CoP (Community of Practice) meeting, or writing a blog-style summary