Category Archives: service assessment

Springtime Refresh at Ambler

Continuous improvement is a kind of assessment that we don’t usually think of as assessment per se – there are no statistics, there isn’t a formal plan for data collection, and our efforts may not result in a report to … Continue reading

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An Agile Approach to Assessment

Last week I had the pleasure of talking with Emily Toner, our Technology Projects Librarian, about how she works with developers in Library Technology Development to conduct ongoing assessment of their work on the Blacklight project. (Blacklight is the software … Continue reading

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Improving Temple Libraries’ System for Systematic Reviews

Stephanie Roth, Biomedical and Research Services Librarian at the Health Sciences Libraries, doesn’t always think of herself as doing “assessment.” But my conversation with her about the evolving service and education she’s doing with Systematic Reviews is a good example … Continue reading

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Learning about Our Users: The Website Use Survey

Cynthia Schwarz, project manager for the Libraries’ Web Environment Redesign Project, contributed this post. She reports on the results and next steps of the team’s user survey conducted last month, providing us with a healthy return of 460 user responses. … Continue reading

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Notes from the Field: Collections and Collective Action

Last week I participated in a symposium on the changing mission of academic libraries. While not directly related to assessment or strategic planning, those practices are implicit as we explored together “the mission of academic and research libraries in the … Continue reading

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Assessment Community of Practice Focus: Faculty Survey on Undergraduate Instruction

Last week’s Assessment Community of Practice meeting focused on findings from the Ithaka S+R faculty survey, particularly those related to Undergraduate Instruction. Twelve librarians participated and we were lucky to be joined research project team members  (Rebecca Lloyd, Annie Johnson, … Continue reading

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Communities of Practice: People, Spaces, Services

Last Wednesday 20+ library staff members came together to talk and learn about usability testing conducted here at Temple University Libraries. This discussion, part of our Assessment Community of Practice,  covered a range of topics, from how usability testing is … Continue reading

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When Numbers Fail Us

The recent election demonstrated in a powerful way the limits of data, in this case a multitude of polling numbers, towards understanding, or planning, for our  future. As an assessment librarian who counts on numbers to tell a story, I … Continue reading

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Finding the Sweet Spot for Library Instruction

This month’s issue of The Journal of Academic Librarianship features the research findings of Barbara Junisbai, M. Sara Lowe and our own Natalie Tagge, Education Services Librarian at the Ginsburg Health Sciences Library.  Natalie and I talked about her compelling … Continue reading

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Speaking of Scholarly Communication: Interviews with Faculty

Last week staff from Reference & Instruction, Access Services, the Press, Digital Scholarship Center, Special Collections,  Digital Library Initiatives, and Library Administration gathered for a conversation to share findings from a series of interviews we librarians had this past spring. … Continue reading

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