Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Contributors
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Keynote address: Involving the customer in library planning and decision making
- 3 Denmark's Electronic Research Library: evaluation of services through user surveys and usability tests
- 4 Beyond the guidelines: assessment of the usability and accessibility of distributed services from the users’ perspective
- 5 Online services versus online chaos: evaluating online services in a Greek academic library
- 6 The Hellenic Academic Libraries Consortium (HEAL-Link) and its effect on library services in Greece: the case of Aristotle University library system
- 7 Information seeking in large-scale resource discovery environments: users and union catalogues
- 8 A ‘joined-up’ electronic journal service: user attitudes and behaviour
- 9 Climbing the ladders and sidestepping the snakes: achieving accessibility through a co-ordinated and strategic approach
- 10 The impact of library and information services on health professionals’ ability to locate information for patient care
- 11 We know we are making a difference but can we prove it? Impact measurement in a higher education library
- 12 Proving our worth? Measuring the impact of the public library service in the UK
- 13 Outcomes and impacts, dollars and sense: are libraries measuring up?
- 14 Longitude II: assessing the value and impact of library services over time
- 15 The use of electronic journals in academic libraries in Castilla y León
- 16 The integration of library activities in the academic world: a practitioner's view
- 17 Monitoring PULMAN's Oeiras Manifesto Action Plan
- 18 Enabling the library in university systems: trial and evaluation in the use of library services away from the library
- 19 Towards an integrated theory of digital library success from the users’ perspective
- 20 The role of digital libraries in helping students attend to source information
- 21 A DiVA for every audience: lessons learned from the evaluation of an online digital video library
- 22 Usability evaluation of Ebrary and OverDrive e-book online systems
- 23 Tearing down the walls: demand for e-books in an academic library
- Index
11 - We know we are making a difference but can we prove it? Impact measurement in a higher education library
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 08 June 2018
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Contributors
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Keynote address: Involving the customer in library planning and decision making
- 3 Denmark's Electronic Research Library: evaluation of services through user surveys and usability tests
- 4 Beyond the guidelines: assessment of the usability and accessibility of distributed services from the users’ perspective
- 5 Online services versus online chaos: evaluating online services in a Greek academic library
- 6 The Hellenic Academic Libraries Consortium (HEAL-Link) and its effect on library services in Greece: the case of Aristotle University library system
- 7 Information seeking in large-scale resource discovery environments: users and union catalogues
- 8 A ‘joined-up’ electronic journal service: user attitudes and behaviour
- 9 Climbing the ladders and sidestepping the snakes: achieving accessibility through a co-ordinated and strategic approach
- 10 The impact of library and information services on health professionals’ ability to locate information for patient care
- 11 We know we are making a difference but can we prove it? Impact measurement in a higher education library
- 12 Proving our worth? Measuring the impact of the public library service in the UK
- 13 Outcomes and impacts, dollars and sense: are libraries measuring up?
- 14 Longitude II: assessing the value and impact of library services over time
- 15 The use of electronic journals in academic libraries in Castilla y León
- 16 The integration of library activities in the academic world: a practitioner's view
- 17 Monitoring PULMAN's Oeiras Manifesto Action Plan
- 18 Enabling the library in university systems: trial and evaluation in the use of library services away from the library
- 19 Towards an integrated theory of digital library success from the users’ perspective
- 20 The role of digital libraries in helping students attend to source information
- 21 A DiVA for every audience: lessons learned from the evaluation of an online digital video library
- 22 Usability evaluation of Ebrary and OverDrive e-book online systems
- 23 Tearing down the walls: demand for e-books in an academic library
- Index
Summary
Introduction
UK academic libraries are expected to demonstrate that their services provide value for money. One way to do this is to measure the impact our services have on users. Impact is quite hard to define. Generally, if something has impact it results in a change of some kind, e.g. in attitude or behaviour, or as Payne and Conyers (2004) expressed it, ‘Are we making a difference?’ Impact is also difficult to measure (Everest and Payne, 2001). A number of studies have looked at ways of doing this, such as The Centre for Research in Library and Information Management – CERLIM's Longitude project, which aimed to develop a toolkit of impact assessment techniques for measuring changes over time (Craven and Brophy, 2004). One of the latest impact measurement projects, aimed specifically at the UK higher education (HE) sector, is the Library and Information Research Group (LIRG) and the Society of College, National and University Libraries (SCONUL) Impact Implementation Initiative. This paper describes the University of the West of England (UWE) Library Services’ participation in the Initiative, and reflects on our methodologies and outcomes.
The LIRG/SCONUL Impact Implementation Initiative was set up in 2003 (Payne and Conyers, 2005). Its aim was to develop a toolkit of impact research methodologies for HE libraries. The Initiative is based on action research principles that encourage reflection on the processes of investigation, and uses an established impact measurement methodology as the common model for all the participants (Markless and Streatfield, 2005). Working to this model the participants set objectives for their chosen impact theme, identify success criteria, specify the evidence required to assess whether those criteria have been met, and select appropriate data collection methods.
UWE Impact Study
UWE is the largest HE institution in southwest England, with approximately 26,000 students, 1000 academic staff and 10 faculties spread across seven campuses. Three years ago a virtual learning environment (VLE), Blackboard, was introduced. This has provided new ways of teaching and new learning opportunities for students, and has the potential to create new partnerships between the library and the teaching staff. It was within this context of change that the Impact study was carried out.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Libraries Without Walls 6Evaluating the Distributed Delivery of Library Services, pp. 90 - 99Publisher: FacetPrint publication year: 2006