Author Archives: Nancy Turner

An Assessment Librarian Reflects on 2015

It’s the new year, and a time of reflection. As for me, I’ve been thinking about this ‘new position (relatively) at Temple and changes since I began in 2014. I love what I do, and here are some of the … Continue reading

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Assessment Drives Decision-Making Process for Health Science Library’s Technology Offerings

Last year I profiled Cynthia Schwarz, Senior Systems & Technology Librarian on her assessment of computer use at the Ginsberg Health Services Library. She was using the software LabStats to analyze the use of computers at the library – the … Continue reading

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Assessment in Atlanta

I recently attended the Southeastern Library Assessment Conference, a great forum that provides us an opportunity to hear about (mostly) academic library assessment activities in the Southeast and beyond. Several sessions related to a topic of special interest to libraries … Continue reading

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The Library in the Life of the User

I had the privilege last week of attending the OCLC Research Partners Meeting on  The Library in the Life of the User – We shared reports on the current state of user research, with a particular focus on qualitative methods … Continue reading

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Planning Assessment within the Institutional Context

Last week I was privileged to conduct an assessment workshop with two gurus in the field: Danuta Nitecki, Dean of Libraries and Professor, College of Computing and Informatics at Drexel University and Robert E. Dugan, Dean of Libraries at the … Continue reading

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Drexel’s Service Quality Improvement Initiative Reaps Benefits for Users

John Wiggins, Director of Library Services and Quality, has been engaged with implementing service quality at Drexel University Libraries since 2012. This more systematic attention to quality improvement was initiated by the dean, Danuta Nitecki, and John has steadily built … Continue reading

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A Culture of Assessment: The Bryn Mawr Example

This month I had the pleasure of visiting Bryn Mawr College as part of a staff development event hosted by the Assessment Working Group for Library & Information Technology Services (LITS). The group is convened this year by Olivia Castello, … Continue reading

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Improving the Discoverability of our Digital Collections

Doreva Belfiore, Digital Projects Librarian, invests much of her time improving access to digital collections and making these collections findable on the open web. I talked with her recently about how her work helps to enhance the discoverability of Temple’s … Continue reading

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Report from ARCS: Perspectives on Alternative Assessment Metrics

This month I had the good fortune to attend the inaugural Advancing Research Communication and Scholarship meeting here in Philadelphia. The best panels brought together researchers, publishers, service providers and librarians with contrasting, yet complementary perspectives on how best to … Continue reading

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Library Assessment Goings-on in the Neighborhood

Philadelphia-area librarians practicing assessment have a rich assessment resource here in our own backyard. The PLAD (Philadelphia Library Assessment Discussion) is a network of librarians who meet in person and virtually  to connect with and learn from one another. We … Continue reading

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