October 12, 2016 Meeting of Library Assessment Committee

1. Review agenda

• Jen-chien Yu shared an email from COUNTER about total usage and distributed logging included aggregated usage data and gap analysis for databases.
• Jen-chien Yu shared the program for the upcoming Library Assessment Conference to see what events the committee would like to hear about afterwards.
• Jen-chien Yu shared presentation slides about data dashboards and data warehousing. This might help the committee come up with ideas for the open Library Assessment Grant by helping us answer questions about collections and usage.

2. Committee Updates

• Committee updates from all members are available in the shared Box folder.
• Erin Kerby is curious about doing assessment on signage and wayfinding in the libraries.
• The committee discussed ways of making grant projects into action items and how to maintain a spirit of assessment while using grant-funded projects to make improvements to the library.

3. Funding request for attending the Library Assessment Conference 2016 (Arlington, Virginia, Oct. 31 – Nov. 2)

• Three funding request applications were submitted. Two employees were awarded $1,000 each to help with travel costs. They will both be presenting at the conference.
• The committee discussed pros and cons of adding something to the rubric about how funding requests might be affected by whether or not the employee is making a presentation at the event or conference. For now, no changes were made on this item, but the committee seemed positive about adding a word limit to answers on the grant application so that applicants will have a better idea what amount of information is required.
• Since the Library Assessment Conference happens only every 2 years, it was suggested that the committee partner with Dan Tracy in order to compile a list of other similar events and conferences for committee members to attend or pay attention to.

4. Review member updates

• Jen-chien Yu is working on ARL survey updates. She showed the committee how instruction statistics are collected and reported here, as well as showing some of the other stats for FY16. She is going to share her ARL survey data notes with the committee. This prompted a discussion of DeskTracker and how it affects this statistic collection for ARL and others.
• Alex Cabada talked about his work with statistics derived from library space and equipment usage info, such as the number of wifi connections from one location to another.

5. Project Ideas for 2016-2017

• One suggested project was developing best practices for recording and reporting DeskTracker data, including establishing “off-desk” reporting locations. This could include a library-wide training on things like strategies for recording data during busy desk hours, or developing a guide or presentation to be included at the next annual reference retreat.
• Another suggested project was to compile a list of assessment organizations, conferences, training opportunities, toolkits, etc. to promote professional development across the library. This would also provide a forum to talk about LAC grant-funded projects. It could take the form of an internal brown-bag style event to discuss assessment initiatives on campus.
• Since the committee often discusses the pros and cons of DeskTracker, it was suggested that we could better define our criteria for an improved statistical tracking solution. We all want an alternative, but the library’s needs should be better defined and identified, i.e. what do we want from a new system?
• The student employment application app could be improved for the benefit of library HR, managers, and students. Since students are hired campus-wide, this initiative could be a extremely helpful one. Jason Strutz will demo the current application app at the next meeting.

6. Updates (Round-robin)

Jen-chien Yu (chair), Erin Kerby, Alex Cabada, Jason Strutz, Susan Braxton, Cindy Ingold, Jamie Carlstone, Becky Smith, Em Justiss (graduate assistant)

October 12, 2016 Minutes