Accreditation agencies both institutional and professional (such as the American Library Association) have asked educators to demonstrate student learning outcomes for every academic program that they are assessing, and that they use the data gathered for continuous improvement of programs. This...

This case study demonstrates the positive changes that evolved from a series of assessment activities. It shows that even smaller libraries can conduct assessment, with the support of colleagues and the library administration. Librarians can take a proactive role rather than waiting for a...

This chapter documents the evolution of the application of evaluation methods to public library services for children and teens in the United States. It describes the development of age-specific output measures and the subsequent requirement by funding agencies for outcome evaluations that...

The chapter describes the Outcome-Based Evaluation (OBE) Initiative of the New York State Library (NYSL) from its start in 2003. Through extensive training, online support, and integration into statewide processes and grant projects, the initiative has brought OBE to New York State's library...

This chapter examines the challenges of developing and implementing a new national evaluation approach in a complex library funding program. The approach shifts a prior outcome-based evaluation legacy using logic models to one relying on nonlinear logic mapping. The new approach is explored by...

This chapter compares faculty self-assessment of teaching with student opinion of instruction in an online environment, in order to determine the level of agreement between faculty self-assessment and student assessment, in areas of overall program strength and directions for individual and...