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Assessment

Assessment | UNL Library Statistics | Assessment Resources

Resources

UNL CAMPUS RESOURCES & TOOLS

• Office of Research Responsibility
• Research Involving Human Subjects
• Responsible Conduct of Research
• Institutional Research and Planning (IRP)
• University-wide Assessment, Office of Undergraduate Studies
• IRP Index of Data

CONDUCTING RESEARCH @ UNL

• Bureau of Sociological Research (BOSR)
• Survey, Statistics and Psychometrics (SSP) Core Facility
• Nebraska Evaluation and Research (NEAR) Center
• Department of Statistics Helpdesk
• Usability Testing at the University of Nebraska

NATIONAL LIBRARY STATISTICS & MEASURES PROJECTS

• ARL, Statistics Interactive Edition
• NCES, Academic Library Statistics Program
• ARL LibQUAL, Measuring Service Quality in Academic Libraries
• Forum on Library Statistics and Performance Measures
• ARL Statistics & Measurement
• ClimateQUAL™: Organizational Climate and Diversity Assessment

RESEARCH METHODS COMMONLY USED IN LIBRARIES

1. SURVEY
   A research instrument consisting of a series of questions and other prompts for the purpose of gathering information from respondents.
   1. Conducting Surveys
      1. How to conduct a Survey
      2. Survey and Questionnaire Design
      3. Questionnaire Construction
   2. Survey Tools
      
      1. Qualtrics
      2. SurveyMonkey
      3. Zoomerang
      4. QuestionPro
      5. Flashlight
2. FOCUS GROUPS
   A form of qualitative research in which a group of people are asked about their attitude towards a product, service, concept, advertisement, idea, or packaging.
   1. Conducting Focus Groups
      1. How to Conduct a Focus Group
      2. Introduction of Focus Groups
3. USABILITY
   
   1. A technique used to evaluate a product by testing it on users.
   1. Research-based Web Design & Usability Guidelines
   2. Usability - Wikipedia
   2. Usability Tools
      1. Silverback (MAC)
      2. Morae
4. INTERVIEW
   A direct, face-to-face conversation between a representative of the research organization (the interviewer) and a respondent or interviewee.
   1. Conducting Interviews
      1. General guidelines for Conducting Interviews
5. TRANSACTION LOG ANALYSIS
   Most online systems will keep a log of online transactions, recording user inputs and outputs from the system. The logs can be analyzed to determine what users are accessing or searching, what path they take, and the results.
   1. Log Analysis Tools
      1. Analog
      2. Web Trends
      3. Google Analytics
6. OBSERVATION
   A method of data collection in which the situation of interest is watched and the relevant facts, actions, or behaviors recorded.

STATISTICAL SOFTWARE & RESOURCES

Carrying out assessment activities often requires the use of software to manipulate data.

1. Software
   1. UNL SAS Workshops
2. Tutorials & Online Texts
   1. Online Statistics: An Interactive Multimedia Course of Study
3. Consulting @ UNL: Statics, Data Collection & Data Analysis
   1. Statistics consulting
   2. Bureau of Sociological Research (BOSR)
   3. Survey, Statistics and Psychometrics (SSP) Core Facility
   4. Nebraska Evaluation and Research (NEAR) Center
   5. Department of Statistics Helpdesk

WEBLIOGRAPHY

• A Bimonthly Report on Research Library Issues and Actions from ARL, CNI, and SPARC, no. 303, December (2007) "Assessment," http://www.arl.org/bm~doc/spec303web.pdf
  Complete Document: http://www.arl.org/bm~doc/spec303book.pdf.zip
• ClimateQUAL™ Highlighted in Proceedings of 2009 ACRL National Conference [PDF] (May 29, '09) http://www.climatequal.org/bm~doc/kyrillidou_climatediversityassessment.pdf
• Amos Lakos and Shelley Phipps. 2004. Creating a Culture of Assessment: A Catalyst for Organizational Change http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/portal_libraries_and_the_academy/v004/4.3lakos.html
• ACRL: Assessment Bibliography http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/acrl/issues/infolit/bibliographies/assessmentbibliography.cfm
• Miami University Students in the Masters of Technical and Scientific Communication Program. (2002). Usability testing: Developing useful and usable products. Retrieved April 23, 2007 from: http://www.units.muohio.edu/mtsc/usabilitytestingrevisedFINAL.pdf
• Nielsen, J. (n.d.) How to conduct a heuristic evaluation. Retrieved April 23, 2007 from: http://www.useit.com/papers/heuristic/heuristic_evaluation.html
• Arsham, H. (2005). Questionnaire design and surveys sampling, 9th edition. Retrieved June 30, 2006 from: http://home.ubalt.edu/ntsbarsh/stat-data/Surveys.htm
• Silverman, G. (n.d.) How to get beneath the surface in focus groups. Retrieved June 30, 2006 from Market Navigation, Inc. Web site: http://www.mnav.com/bensurf.htm.
• Research and Methodological Foundations of Transaction Log Analysis http://www.igi-global.com/downloads/excerpts/8282.pdf
• Usage and Usability Assessment: Library Practices and Concerns by Denise Troll Covey (DLF report) http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub105/pub105.pdf
• Research Methods Knowledgebase http://www.socialresearchmethods.net/kb/contents.php

CONTACT:

Elaine L. Westbrooks, Associate Dean of Libraries
ewestbrooks2@unl.edu
402.472.2526