Call for Chapter Proposals
http://bit.ly/LibraryAssessmentCookbook
Editor – Aaron W Dobbs
Send proposals to: Aaron Dobbs aaron@thelibrarian.org
ACRL has approved Aaron’s proposal to create a Library Assessment Cookbook. Depending on the number and variety of proposals, there will be 5 to 7 sections of 5 to 10 recipes each which describe achievable library assessment projects.
Working Book Title: The Library Assessment Cookbook: 50+ recipes for effective assessment. (Chicago: ACRL, Spring 2016) (proposal process at end of email)
The goal of this cookbook is to offer practical projects with suggestions for measurable, useable, useful assessment projects. Many libraries have no idea what to assess or what can be assessed. This cookbook will offer hopefully useful ideas and options for library assessment projects. The ultimate goal is a cookbook which any librarian or library administrator can flip open, select a recipe, and adapt a project for their local situation.
The usefulness of this cookbook depends on Assessment Chefs (you) proposing and providing tested, workable project plans which can make assessment easier for librarians and more useful for stakeholders. Recipes focusing less on input measures, more on output measures, and especially on outcome measures will receive extra weight.
Recipes proposed will guide the development of the sections, with a loose initial organization as follows:
Introduction to Library Assessment
o What it comprises
o Why it is so important
o What areas can be assessed
o Including broad Literature Review covering the topics above
- Five to Ten Sections of five to ten recipes (three to five pages per recpie)
- (introductions for each section including re-summarizing introduction for each section with additional lit review and strategies for incorporating these assessments into planning and reporting processes)
o Collection Assessment
o Instruction Assessment
o Outreach Assessment
o Personnel Assessment
o Space Assessment
o Strategic Planning Assessment
o Etc. (additional areas dependent on recipes proposed)
- Summary of Library Assessment
o How to frame assessment measures for planning
o How to frame assessment measures for reporting
o Working with stakeholders to identify appropriate measures
If you are interested in proposing a recipe (or several recipes), the recipe proposal format will be something like the following:
Name & Contact Information
- Quick Summary of Assessment Experience Related to Recipe
- Proposed Recipe Title, Outline, & a couple paragraphs describing the project and its uses
If you would like to introduce or summarize a particular section where you have had good experience, please email Aaron (aaron@thelibrarian.org) with your background in that assessment area and outline what you would like to convey in your introduction or summary.
To recap the recipe proposal process:
- Recipe Proposals Deadline : due by 8/6/15
o Name & Contact Information
o Quick Summary of Assessment Experience Related to Recipe
o Proposed Recipe Title, Outline, & a couple paragraphs describing the project and its uses
- Recipe Acceptance Notification : 8/20/15
- Completed Recipes : due from Authors by 10/15/2015 (earlier is fine)
- Send Proposals to : aaron@thelibrarian.org
Email your proposals (in an attachment, preferably) to Aaron Dobbs (aaron@thelibrarian.org) by August 6, 2015. If your proposal is accepted, the final recipe will need to be submitted to by October 15, 2015. My challenge is to have the Library Instruction Cookbook available by ALA Midwinter 2016. My more realistic goal is to have the cookbook available by ALA Annual 2016.
Please email me with any questions!
-Aaron W. Dobbs, Scholarly Communications & Electronic Resources Librarian, Shippensburg University of PA, aaron@thelibrarian.org