2022 Posters

Purpose and goals
This research aims to examine faculty’s perceptions of the university library programs and services, frequency of library resources and services use, and assess library impact on faculty research productivity.

Design, methodology, or approach
An online survey was distributed to all faculty at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) in Spring 2022, asking about the use and importance of library resources and services, as they relate to faculty teaching and research. Participants’ demographic information was obtained in advance from the Office of Institutional Research. This study was approved by the Institutional Review Board at the UIC (research protocol #2021-1409).

Findings
A total of 557 faculty responded. 176 respondents were assistant professors, 136 were associate professors and 125 were professors. Regarding the importance of library support related to teaching. the results showed that “Ensure that students who graduate from my program are skilled at locating, evaluating and applying information” was ranked the highest in importance (75.2%), followed by “Have a link in Blackboard to UIC Library resources” (53%). Respondents perceived the least important in the area “Assign course readings in print” (30.8%)

With respect to the importance of library support related to research, the top four resources/ services rated as “Very/Extremely important” were: “online journals” (97%), databases to find literature (92%), “interlibrary loan” (75.8%) and “Ebooks” (70.5%). The top three areas resources/ services rated as “Not important” were: “Special Collections” (43%), “Digital images” (30.8%), and “Print Books” (28.5%).

Faculty engaged in research or scholarship were further asked how often they used the library resources for their research using a four-point scale from “Never” to “Weekly or more often”. Among the 11 resources listed, “Online Journals” (89.1%) and “Databases to find literature” (70.9%) were the most frequently used. More than 60% of the respondents used “E-Books” once a month or more, followed by “Interlibrary loan” (51.7%) and “Print Books” (51.5%). About half of the respondents indicated that they never used on the following resources: “Special Collections” (54.4%), “Comprehensive literature search support” (48.9%) and “Subject and Course guides” (46.4%).

A Spearman rank correlation was employed to examine whether their frequency of library resource use correlated with their research productivity. Only certain library resource that faculty reported using in 2021 were correlated with their research productivity: print books (rs [407] = -.136, p < .01), online journal (rs [418] = .194, p < .01), database (rs [419] = .124, p < .05), and subject and course guides (rs [400] = -.099, p < .05); however, the directions of the correlations were different.

Practical implications or value
The findings from the research will be invaluable for the library to better understand our user community’s needs, make strategic changes to library resources, and demonstrate the impact of library value on their academic success.

Purpose and goals
Over the past 25 years, how faculty search for and access information has changed greatly. Where once faculty had to enter the physical library to access information, now online database and journals dominate the information landscape in many disciplines. This research seeks to demonstrate how the availability and use of online library collections has affected faculty publication patterns and increased and impacted faculty productivity.

Design, methodology, or approach
The publications of faculty at a large urban Research 1 institution were examined over a 25-year period. In the late 90’s the university library had approximately 16,000 active print journal subscriptions, compared to 2019, when the library had approximately 28,000 online journal subscriptions. To explore the impact of library collections on faculty collections use and productivity, the following information was captured: collection use (measured by number of references in the publications), grant funding (measured by whether the article was funded), co-authorship size (measured by number of co-authors), faculty productivity (measured by number of publications by faculty member), and faculty demographics (e.g., rank and years at the institution). Retrospective journal publication data was collected to determine how publication patterns of faculty have changed over time, as the size of the journal collection at UIC increased. This research project was initiated as a part participation in the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) Framework Project funded by IMLS.

Findings
The number of articles written by faulty over the years has increased significantly over time, as has the average number of references that are included in the articles. The findings also suggested, the more productive a faculty member, the less use is made of library collections, as measured through the references included in publications. It was also observed that as the number of articles per author increased over time, so too did the number of co-authors per article. Grant-funded articles included more references than unfunded articles, and grant-funded publications also had a higher number of co-authors, compared to non-grant funded articles.

Practical implications or value
Demonstrating a relationship between library collections use and faculty productivity may help to better illustrate to university administrators the role and importance of the academic library in the research lifecycle. Understanding the change in faculty publication patterns and disciplinary differences can provide insight into how faculty use the collections and growing participation in team science.

Purpose and goals
UC Berkeley Library maintains one of the most comprehensive research library collections in the world and strives to build deep and broad collections across many subject areas. At the same time, the Berkeley Library faces many challenges and changes, such as budget cuts, staff shortage, increasing demand for digital access, and the increasing need for research and teaching support. Undertaking deep and holistic collections analysis is critical to foster a better understanding about Berkeley library collections, including identifying needed areas for digitization and collaborative collecting. The insights will help the Library develop a strategy to broaden access to uniquely held collections and expand the scope of Berkeley collections.

Design, methodology, or approach
OCLC’s GreenGlass is one tool that can help with this analysis. The snapshot data that GreenGlass provides can assist in identifying both distinctive and widely held collections, by conducting numerous holding comparisons with other UC libraries, ARL peer institutions, as well as other major academic institutions in both California and the U.S. The data can also shed some light on the user demand by providing circulation history. HathiTrust coverage is critical to identify collections that don’t currently have digital copies. In addition to GreenGlass, OCLC’s Worldshare Collection Evaluation Service will provide more detailed holding comparisons with other UC campuses. All of those data points and information can draw a more comprehensive picture of Berkeley collection in relation to the other institutions, user demand and digital access.

Findings
For areas for digitization, we are hoping to create multiple lists of titles based on a range of criteria that could be used for future digitization projects from high priority to low. GreenGlass is a tool that can help identify categories of collections to consider for digitization. The primary objective of digitization is to expand access to collections, and GreenGlass can be used to isolate collections that are rare, not under copyright, and not already available on HathiTrust. Although not a preservation strategy, digitizing print collections may reduce handling and, in turn, wear and tear on rare items in our general collections, particularly when print materials are frequently used.

For areas for collaborative collecting, we are hoping to develop a few subject areas that are suitable for collaborative collection development with targeted intuitions.

Practical implications or value
The analysis and findings will provide insights into different potential strategies on maintaining and developing sustainable collections, enable us to perform targeted digitization and preservation, and foster collaborations with peer institutions to continue to build deep and diverse collections and provide enhanced access to scholarly resources in a myriad of formats.

Purpose and goals
Due to the continuous evolution of higher education and the decline in the size of public university budgets, academic libraries have become increasingly creative to ensure they can offer the widest possible range of services and resources to their user base. This study assesses the experience of library users with OverDrive in a small, rural, regional university. The goal of this study is to raise awareness of the uses and benefits of this resource for academic libraries.

Design, methodology, or approach
The study utilizes an emailed quantitative, online survey that is completely voluntary. It does not request any personally identifiable information. The results will be used to understand the way different user types at Rogers State University (RSU) do, or do not, use OverDrive and the Libby App, available through RSU Libraries. The data gathered will be analyzed with the goals of identifying patterns of use among different user types, areas for collection growth, and new ways of improving resource marketing.

Findings
RSU Libraries launched OverDrive at RSU during the late fall semester of 2018. Now that the RSU community has had access to this resource for three years, we hope to see many users who are utilizing OverDrive at a library are also aware of the RSU Libraries OverDrive collection. We tentatively anticipate that many RSU Libraries’ users are accessing OverDrive primarily for academic purposes and secondarily for entertainment.

Practical implications or value
The findings of our survey will be integrated into a full case study to be published and presented at a state library conference. We hope to leverage our study to expand interest in the creation of an academic OverDrive consortium in order to reduce costs and expand access to more public Oklahoma universities. We would like to change the current perception in Oklahoma academic libraries that OverDrive is primarily for public library use.

Purpose and goals
Students, staff, and faculty of our campus community continue to navigate life through challenging circumstances. In the Spring of 2021, in the midst of an ongoing pandemic and increased racially motivated violence, our academic library launched a campus-wide Book Club-in-a-Bag program. Modeled after public library programs, this pilot reading initiative was designed to promote a forum for safe and open discussions on issues of inclusivity, equity, and diversity through leisure reading. Our continuing goal for Book Club-in-a-Bag is to promote communication and respect among our diverse campus community through the shared experience of reading. This poster will outline our process for assessing this pilot, what we’ve learned, and our plans for the future of the program.

Design, methodology, or approach
Our purpose for assessing the Book Club-in-a-Bag pilot was to understand the following:

If the titles offered were engaging/interesting/appropriate
If the number of book titles/number of copies is sufficient for participating groups
If the check-out period is sufficient
The quality and value of the supplemental materials provided
The overall satisfaction of the participants

For the assessment, we designed a post-participation survey instrument of 13 questions. Questionnaires were included in the folder included in the bag or could be completed digitally through an online survey system. We encouraged all participants to contribute to the assessment.

We chose this assessment method because of its convenience and its effectiveness. Data has been easy to gather and quick to analyze. Qualtrics, the survey system our campus uses, allows the program coordinators to be notified when a submission has been made, which saves time. The survey can also be quickly edited to include new book titles or additional assessment questions as the book club matures.

Findings
Our findings for the assessment of the pilot indicate great satisfaction with the program, and everyone indicated they would check out a different title. Some of the benefits of using the program include getting to know others in their departments, being able to participate in good discussions about complicated issues, and enjoying leisure reading. The suggestions for additional titles also help guide us in new purchases as we look to expand the program to have new titles each year.

Practical implications or value
Our objectives for this book club initiative were to:

Provide an opportunity for students, faculty, and staff to engage with each other through a book club
Encourage self-reflection and analysis of our personal and shared impact on perpetuating social inequities, systemic racism, and oppression
Highlight voices of those from marginalized communities or identities
Promote reading as an accessible and engaging activity

By developing a successful and sustainable assessment method, we can continue to ensure that we are working toward our overall objectives and grow our book club programming in the future. We hope to give other academic library practitioners some insight by sharing our experiences and processes openly.

Purpose and goals

This poster looks at two DDA assessments conducted at Pollak Library at California State University, Fullerton, one in early 2019 prior to the campus closure due to the pandemic, and one in 2022 following the return to campus and in-person classes. Both assessments used expenditure reports to determine if Access-to-Own (ATO), an acquisition model on the Ebook Central platform, would be beneficial in conjunction with short-term loans (STLs) in two scenarios, in regard to access and ownership. The poster will compare the results of the two assessments in order to determine what impact the increased usage due to campus closure would have had if ATO had been employed. This comparison will provide insight as to how STLs and ATO impact ownership and if they are effective methods of controlling expenditure particularly during periods of increased usage, such as when physical material access is limited. It will also look at the impact campus closure had on DDA.

Design, methodology, or approach

The paper uses statistics pulled from LibCentral, the admin site for Ebook Central DDA, and Excel.

Findings

The hypothesis is that the campus closure will have increased our ebook DDA expenditure and particularly that much of the expenditures would be for short-term loans and not as much toward ownership. The hypothesis is that the benefits of ATO are more pronounced with increased DDA usage.

Practical implications or value

The paper will present a method for predicting the impact of ATO on a DDA that uses STLs.

Purpose and goals
Assessment of monographic resources is a critical prerequisite for the development of user centric and sustainable collections in academic libraries. The relationship between acquisitions methods and their impact on monograph usage has been understudied in the literature, which this research intends to investigate in a comparative style. The specific research question motivating this study is “what is the nature of correlation between various acquisitions methods and usage of print monographs.” The study develops an acquisitions methods/user-centric spectrum and argues that the more users/selectors are involved in selecting scholarly resources it’s more likely that such resources will tend to have higher usage on average. More formally, it is hypothesized that the more user-centric an acquisitions method is the higher circulation/overall usage will be for library resources.

Design, methodology, or approach
In evaluating the hypothesis, the design of our comparative study includes cataloging, acquisitions, and usage data for print monographs acquired between 2009-2019 fiscal years at UC Berkeley and UCLA Libraries. The dataset includes various acquisitions methods, bibliographic data, and multiple categories of usage statistics of monograph collections – in English and some select European languages – that allow us to assess various acquisitions methods such as blanket, approval, firm, demand-driven acquisitions-DDA – which helps determining user-centricity of various acquisitions for print monographs at both libraries. Data for usage analysis is extracted from ILS and its various modules, and hence it is limited to the extent and categories of usage statistics that are designed to capture and retain by the ILS in use.

English and non-English monographic collections have been built through various acquisitions methods at both libraries. There is an interesting variance across both libraries’ methods of collection development that make this comparative study more intriguing. For instance, area studies collections at both libraries were built through major approval plans and firm orders. While various acquisitions methods were used for UCLA’s English monographs, UC Berkeley library has solely relied on firm ordering during the same period.

Findings
As expected, the empirical analysis identifies DDA with the highest usage statistics among all acquisitions methods included in the study. The analysis also points out slightly higher usage statistics for firm ordered English materials than those acquired through approval plans at both libraries. Usage of select European language monographs is found to be lower than English materials, however, firm ordered non-English materials register higher usage than historical approval plans, partially confirming our hypothesis on user-centeredness of various acquisitions methods spectrum.

Practical implications or value
This research intends to contribute to the filling of the gap in the assessment literature of monographic collections. Original contribution of this study is the analysis of acquisitions methods and their implications for the usage of monographic resources. In addition to its comparative approach to the two largest collections of UC system libraries, it outlines assessment techniques that can be replicated in academic and research libraries. Lastly, the study draws attention to the need to be cognizant of acquisitions methods and their connection with collection usage.

Purpose and goals
Collection strategies and assessments have always been critical to research libraries, but even more so now in this post-pandemic world. With budgets slashed, libraries are challenged to think differently and work collaboratively to build the best collections possible. This project focuses on how members of the assessment, finance, and technical services teams worked together to identify key data points that could assist research services librarians with making strategic collection decisions that support the research and curriculum needs of our faculty and students. In order to drive our collection development decisions based on user needs, we analyzed trends from the COUNTER Report that focuses on Journal Access Denied, reviewed ILL and eJournal request data, vendor-supplied reports, and the cost of resources to determine which were worth the investment. In analyzing this data we can identify materials that are most pertinent to our users and help narrow the gaps in our collection in a practical and effective way.

Design, methodology, or approach
Data is provided through COUNTER TR_J2 Journal Access Denied reports, vendor supplied reports, ARL Peer Review, ILL data, cost/value analysis and literature review.

Findings
We are starting to see that by linking turnaway data, ILL and cost/value analysis we are able to identify gaps in the collections driven by our researchers. Our findings are being shared with the research services librarians for consideration of future purchases.

Practical implications or value
By connecting the different acquisition data with a cost breakdown, librarians will be able to consider the purchase of items that are critical to our user’s needs. This is a different way to approach collection development that provides user-driven collection strategy decisions to be made since many budgets have been significantly reduced.

Purpose and goals
The purpose of this poster is to outline a guide for implementing a sustainable, systematic assessment plan for electronic resources. By providing a necessities checklist and a list of questions to consider when creating any collection assessment plan, this poster will act as a concise, low-barrier entry point for this complicated process and its results. With library budgets being cut and journal prices continuing to increase there is a need to look more closely at expensive electronic resource subscriptions, and make consistent decisions about renewing, cancelling, or unbundling. Data abundance and staff shortages also add to this equation, leaving library employees wondering where to begin. This scalable guide results from trials in creating an assessment plan from scratch, consulting techniques in relevant scholarship, and current efforts put toward refining and translating collection data.

In this poster I hope to:

Provide a plan outline for sustainably assessing electronic resources, including tips on resource prioritization, timelines, and tools
Suggest questions to consider about current data collection practices and communication processes
Identify stakeholders with which to engage in discussion and decision-making to increase process transparency and enhance feedback
Share a necessities checklist to be consulted before beginning electronic collection assessment

Design, methodology, or approach
To kickstart an assessment plan for electronic resources I consulted recent literature through Library journals such as Collection Management and Serials Review as well as ALA CORE presentations. With basic outlines in place, the assessment process went through trial and error. We collected informal feedback and asked questions: Which questions were asked that indicated a missing data points? What was the feedback concerning our communication method? Do participants have the capacity to keep up with this work? Which viewpoints are we missing? In the future, I hope to conduct a survey to Library employees about satisfaction with transparency and efficacy of the process.

Findings
Having a defined electronic resource assessment plan makes collection assessment more manageable and consistent, resulting in better reporting and ability to track trends over time. This, combined with having a clear communication plan and prioritizing transparency about collection decisions increases trust with the larger Library and the institution. Ultimately, better decisions about collections are made with directed feedback and input.

Practical implications or value
From this poster I hope that Library employees identify electronic resource data collection and organization processes, tools, and communication methods that can be implemented at their own institutions. Library employees that are new to, or have been asked to engage in this type of assessment may feel overwhelmed or lost at the prospect at starting the process. There are many excellent resources on qualitative and quantitative collection assessment, holistic collection assessment, and case studies; however, a basic starting guide is an important and often overlooked aspect of electronic collection assessment. This information is especially valuable at this time, because with budget cuts at many institutions it is important to be able to share consistent and credible data to justify decisions.

Purpose and goals
In 2016 University of Pittsburgh’s Library System (ULS) and Office for Undergraduate Research (OUR) partnered in launching Undergraduate Archival Scholar Research Program (ASRA). The program is intended to introduce undergraduate students to research. Students are awarded a $1,000 stipend to pursue an independent research project using ULS’s special and archival materials. Each student is assigned an academic mentor and a librarian or an archivist to support them in completing their projects. In the intervening years, 74 students completed the program.

While we had anecdotal evidence about the success of the program, from participant feedback, it became clear that a more formalized approach of assessment was needed, in particular as we were increasing our fundraising efforts to support the program.

In 2019, both ULS and OUR colleagues agreed on initiating work that would allow us to consider ASRA outcomes that both partners were interested in achieving, and creating mechanisms for assessing if these outcomes are met.

Information gathered through the assessment could be used by both partners to advocate for continued funding for the program and/or identify areas in which the program may need to change to better meet its goals.

Design, methodology, or approach
To develop and map program outcomes, we used a logic model framework. It allowed us to think about the project outcomes in three stages:

1.immediate ones that focus on knowledge acquisition,

2. intermediate ones that deal with application of that knowledge, and finally,

3. long-term outcomes, that attempt to show if any material changes took place in program participants’ lives.

Once these were agreed on and documented (in a formal logic model document), the ULS team began its work on considering best mechanisms for assessing if the program outcomes, as defined in the logic model, are being met. Since most of the program outcomes focused on the acquisition of research skills in general, and specifically, when working with primary materials, we developed an assessment rubric, based on the ACRL- RBMS/SAA guidelines.

We used the rubric to design additional assessment tools including, pre- and post- participant surveys, prompts for participant research outputs, and an interview schedule for past participants.

Findings
The logic model proved a clear articulation of goals and outcomes of a multi-partner project. It allowed us to develop tools for assessment which can be consistently applied to measure project outcomes. The rubric proved to be invaluable in guiding the development of additional assessment mechanisms that are consistent with program outcome goals.

Practical implications or value
We believe that the logic model framework for articulating program outcomes and the rubric for operationalizing these outcomes can be applied successfully as constant assessment tools.

In our project we used the ACRL-RBMS/SAA guidelines to develop our rubric, as ASRA focuses on research skills for work with primary sources. However, the rubric can be adapted to other types of literacies, based on the focus of the evaluated program or service.

Purpose and goals
In 2022, the Assessment team at the University of Washington explored a new model to incorporate student voices in decision-making and assessment of the Libraries reopening. Due to the shifting nature of reopening plans and the staff time that previous collaborative, cross-portfolio Participatory Design projects demanded, the Assessment department piloted a ten weeks long, semi-asynchronous online diary study research project with 6 undergraduate students. The project employed ethnographic and UX research methods to gather students’ insights in order to improve Libraries spaces. This poster presentation draws on the evolution of the online diary study project and will provide attendees with key takeaways from implementation, the process of incorporating student leadership and analysis, and making improvements based on student responses. Additionally, the poster will also highlight skills and learning opportunities that were important outcomes of the project from the perspective of a current graduate student who engaged in the project as a facilitator and co-designer.

Design, methodology, or approach
This poster highlights how diary study methods can be employed to engage students and provide meaningful insight on students’ experiences in library spaces and how libraries can incorporate participant feedback and ideas into project design and implementation. Drawing from theories on participatory design, ethnographic methods and library assessment, the poster will offer attendees a case study on students’ reflections and perspectives that helped pinpoint and address key pain points in their library experiences. In addition, the poster will provide strategies for how to solicit meaningful feedback from students on the project itself and how the team incorporated the lessons learned from each session to improve the following one. This poster will be designed to engage attendees in discussions about meaningfully engaging undergraduate students in assessment work.

Findings
As a result of the various activities, we found that:

There won’t always be new data: Feedback from students often reaffirms findings with other studies.

Different methodologies incentivized students to engage with the design and feedback process in creative ways: Students responded positively to prompts that allowed for more creativity and engagement in the design process (meme creation, library space design, etc.).

Relationship building is crucial: As the diary study progressed, students showed more comfort in sharing their thoughts and feedback. Students shared in a post-session reflection that over time, the environment created through the feedback sessions encouraged them to share their thoughts and feelings. Additionally, ongoing communication and coordination with Libraries staff facilitated immediate improvements students could see and experience.

We also found this to be a successful model for sustainably incorporating more complex and values-driven methodologies into existing assessment projects.

Practical implications or value
This poster contributes to the current scholarship in assessment and user design by discussing how users’ voices can be incorporated into the project design and analysis stage of library assessment projects, as well as sharing the findings on how online creative and participatory assessment methods can engage students. We aims to create an opportunity for the community to discuss their own experiences in incorporating student-centered design approaches in their assessment work.

Purpose and goals
There are several large-scale surveys that help libraries examine patrons’ experience within their library and to compare to similar institutions (e.g., LibQUAL, Ithaka, MISO). While these surveys provide valuable input, they often miss the mark of specific library operations (services, spaces, resources, patron/personnel interactions) for any specific library. This paper describes the efforts to develop and validate such a survey. It will also report results from the initial administration of one section of this survey.

Design, methodology, or approach
This effort used a combination of a survey to all employees followed by clarifying interviews to determine what questions each library employee would like to have answered by undergraduate students. Using this input, we created a pool of potential questions and categorized them by topic. Key library employees were asked to validate the questions. We also conducted a field test of the questions by library student employees to ascertain the validity of the question. Both groups were also asked to identify and clarity or grammar issues with the question.

Following these steps all questions were submitted to library leadership with options for administering the survey. Library leadership opted for creating four, topic centric sections of the full survey with each section to be administered in a subsequent semester. Once these sections were approved, we began the university level approvals including, approval from University Assessment and Planning for survey administration and sample size, scientific review, and IRB review.

Following the administration of the survey and in addition to reporting descriptive statistics of the findings, we also conducted reliability measures for quantitative questions. This was a final validation step that helped us ensure that questions were sound and able to be repeated in future survey administrations. The additional analysis also helped to identify questions that could be improved. This process will be repeated for each subsequent administration of the survey.

Findings
There are two parts to findings. First is the description of what we did and why we did it. Second, is the analysis data, which will happen between the submission of this proposal and the LAC conference.

Practical implications or value
The extra validity and reliability steps help to ensure that the survey will provide data to help library employees describe their value to the university and to assist with decision-making and planning. The process will also be helpful as surveys specific to graduate students and faculty are also developed and implemented.

Purpose and goals
Almost all libraries gather usage data on research services. Libraries diligently track things like how many questions were asked at the reference desk and the number of people who attended a workshop. While this data provides insight into the demand for a service, it does adequately capture the value of the service. Libraries recognize this limitation, but face various impediments to gathering feedback on whether a service is actually helpful to users. For example, holding a focus group or launching an annual survey requires a potentially large investment of staff time and other resources. There are, however, some relatively easy ways to acquire qualitative feedback from users on library services. This poster will share how George Washington University Libraries and Academic Innovation (GWLAI) implemented a few simple, automated mechanisms to gather feedback from users on the value of its consultation services and virtual research support services.

Design, methodology, or approach
Feedback mechanisms were integrated into GWLAI’s system for scheduling research consultations, email reference service, and chat reference service. For the latter two services, a link to a short satisfaction survey was embedded and presented to users during the engagement. For research consultation services, GWLAI leveraged the automated follow-up message functionality in its scheduling system (Calendly) to send users a message with a link to the survey shortly after a consultation. The survey gathers the following information: (1) with whom did the users meet (if known), (2) did the users get the help they needed, (3) did the users feel welcome and respected, and (4) did users have any other comments. Responses are anonymous unless users choose to include their name. Feedback specific to a particular library staff member is shared with that person, and a report summarizing responses is shared with everyone involved in providing the services, their managers, and GWLAI senior leadership.

Findings
These mechanisms have enabled GWLAI to obtain meaningful data on the value of research support services beyond usage statistics. The response rates vary but are higher than anticipated. The feedback has been almost 100% positive. Most users choose to include written comments expressing deep appreciation for library staff members and their support. Because these mechanisms were relatively simply to implement and are now almost entirely automated, this work has a very high return-on-investment.

Practical implications or value
Poster session attendees will have the opportunity to learn how they might deploy similar mechanisms and strategies in their library and share their own successes in going beyond usage statistics to better understand the value they provide.

In addition to the poster itself, which will tell the story of this particular project using visually appealing and meaningful images and graphics, the session will also provide opportunities for attendees to learn and share from each other. Using a virtual space (e.g., Google Jamboard), attendees can share their ideas, questions, successes, and challenges related to finding simple and useful ways to get user feedback and other qualitative data on research services or other library services.

Purpose and goals
In 2020, the Leonard Lief Library used Springshare’s LibAnswers to create a searchable online knowledge base (FAQs) as a complement to virtual reference during the library’s pandemic-related closure. After the first year of use, user search queries recorded in the system were analyzed to assess the online knowledge base. This paper will discuss the assessment’s findings and detail planned improvements to the FAQs. The authors sought to answer the following research questions:

1. What type of information are users seeking in the FAQs?
2. Are users finding the information they seek?

Design, methodology, or approach
A content analysis of user queries from the online FAQs site during fall 2020 and spring 2021 was conducted to learn about the information users are seeking in the knowledge base. The deductive coding process was informed by classification models of reference interactions derived from the one developed by Katz (1997). A total of 106 queries were coded into ten categories.

The study also examined the actions taken by users after conducting a search within the FAQs page. Queries that resulted on clicking on a question were considered successful, those that did not were deemed unsuccessful. This information was used to determine the knowledge base’s success rate.

Findings
During its first academic year of implementation the knowledge base was successful in answering user questions roughly half the time. Fall semester data showed a 47% success rate, with a slight improvement in the spring semester (51%). The top three query categories were access, non-library and instructional. The frequency of access-related queries was to be expected, given that the library building remained closed during the 2020-2021 academic year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The prevalence of questions related to other campus units, such as admissions, information technology, and human resources (non-library category) was unexpected. This finding suggests there is a perception of the academic library as a source of campus information and supports including this type of information in the library FAQs. It also presents the library with an opportunity for outreach to other departments, which can foster collaboration and assist with consistent information and messaging to the benefit of the campus community.

Practical implications or value
This study adds to the body of assessment research within reference services, an area not well represented in the LIS literature (Allen et al., 2018). The methodology employed provides a model for assessment of online FAQs that can be easily adopted by other libraries. It also sheds light into the types of information academic library users expect the library to provide. Further research to build on this study’s findings include usability studies of online FAQs and analysis of online or in-person reference questions to determine how often academic library users reach out to the library for information related to other campus departments.

References

Allen, E. J., Weber, R. K., & Howerton, W. (2018). Library assessment research: A content comparison from three American library journals. Publications, 6(1), 12. https://doi.org/10.3390/publications6010012.

Katz, W. A. (1997). Introduction to reference services. McGraw-Hill.

Purpose and goals
The Grand Challenges in Assessment Project (https://assessment.charlotte.edu/excellence-assessment/grand-challenges-assessment-project) is a national, collaborative effort to create national strategic plans to address pressing challenges facing assessment in higher education. Endorsed by key higher education assessment organizations including the Association for the Assessment of Learning in Higher Education (AALHE), the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U), and the National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment (NILOA), as well as the Assessment Institute, assessment practitioners and community members across higher education participated in the identification of three grand challenges facing assessment in academia: (1) using assessment findings to increase equity, (2) using assessment findings to direct immediate pedagogical improvements, and (3) producing visible and actionable assessment findings that drive innovation and improvement. These goals are shared by library assessment professionals, and a small number of librarians are included on the project committees. This poster seeks to share the goals, work, and outcomes of the Grand Challenges project with the assessment community and highlight the contributions librarians are making—as well as the broader benefits library assessment practitioners may gain—from this undertaking.

Design, methodology, or approach
This poster will focus on the strategic plan and structure of the Grand Challenges project, the role of librarian participants, and the project’s intended outputs and outcomes that can augment library assessment efforts focused on equity and improvement.

Librarian members of the Grand Challenges project have contributed in multiple ways. For example, some librarians have worked to identify existing equity-focused assessment practices, opportunities, and structures in order to benchmark or document them. Future contributions in this vein include promoting equitable assessment practices nationally, creating a database of professional development resources, developing strategies to empower students in higher education to assess their learning, and identifying inequities in existing national surveys and datasets. Other librarian contributions focus on improving the quality of data, identifying professional development and resource needs related to data visualization and storytelling, and identifying and/or creating best practices and professional development opportunities for how assessment professionals can carry out this work so that stakeholders can focus on implementation strategies rather than understanding the data.

Findings
Thus far, the project has led to the identification of numerous equitable assessment practices, related professional development needs, resources, and existing equity-increasing structures. Librarians participating in this project are also positioning themselves to contribute to wider conversations at their institutions about all these challenges, and equity-focused assessment in particular.

Practical implications or value
By identifying and documenting these existing practices, resources, and structures the project will support higher education assessment practitioners. Librarian involvement in national assessment projects seeking to improve assessment approaches, particularly those focused on equity and learning improvement, can serve as connective tissue amongst higher education assessment practitioners and infuse practices employed by general assessment practitioners into the library assessment community.

Purpose and goals
In 2021, seven North Carolina universities were awarded a State Library of North Carolina LSTA EZ Grant to develop an inter-institutional mobile hotspot lending program. Grant funding has enabled partners to purchase 180 mobile hotspots, cover monthly service fees, and loan these devices to students, faculty, and staff who are dispersed throughout the state who do not have reliable internet access in their homes and require this connectivity to participate in courses, complete coursework, or fulfill work obligations.

This presentation will share how this program is helping to alleviate connectivity barriers for individuals across North Carolina and provide recommendations for (1) managing lending policies and guidelines, (2) balancing supply and demand needs across institutions, (3) managing pooled resources and service contracts, and (4) assessment strategies.

Design, methodology, or approach
The primary outcome for this grant is the improved ability for students, faculty, and staff across the state of North Carolina to participate in online courses, complete course assignments, or fulfill work obligations. Both circulation and Verizon usage data are serving as indicators that the project is advancing towards its goal of reducing or eliminating a barrier, at least for some individuals, in achieving academic and/or work success. User follow-up surveys, particularly the qualitative responses, are helping to provide rich, contextual information that will help partners understand whether/how the devices are helping to fulfill an unmet need by reducing or eliminating the internet connectivity barrier.

The secondary goal of the project, to develop a sustainable model for a shared mobile hotspots lending program, will be measured by the completion of a handbook that outlines recommendations for how other collaborative entities can launch a similar inter-institutional lending program.

Findings
Preliminary assessment findings from check-out and Verizon usage date indicate an increasing use of the hotspots since they were first made available and marketed to campus populations in Fall 2021/Spring 2022. Comments from the user feedback survey indicate that the hotspots are fulfilling a vital need for many students. Survey respondents noted that without the hotspot, they would need to “use their cell phone data” or go to “coffee shops / libraries / parking lots” to complete their work. Others indicated that without the hotspots, they would be “unable to complete required tasks,” or would have to go to the library “late at night and do not feel safe walking back [home].”

Practical implications or value
The inter-institutional lending model and assessment strategies developed through this project are those that can be readily adopted by other libraries and partnerships to help alleviate barriers to success and level the playing field for students, faculty, and staff.

Purpose and goals
The University of Toronto Libraries holds Canada’s most comprehensive research collection. This collection serves each broad discipline as either the raw material for research or the overarching structure that places its scholarly production in context.

Within the humanities, the raw materials of research that are available to scholars are often limited to the traditional Western literary canon. This creates a tension for scholars when their research interests fall outside that traditional canonical scope.

The goals of the project were to carry out an assessment of the library’s collection to understand how well it had been built to meet the needs of scholars in the area of literature by Black Canadians and to more specifically identify the “gaps;” the authors and publishers that had been neglected over the years and could now be added to the library collection. The project sought to expand the availability of the creative, political, documentary and scholarly writings of black Canadians that have been insufficiently studied due to the difficulties scholars have encountered in accessing the works in question.

Design, methodology, or approach
While new methods have emerged in recent years, the traditional method of assessing the diversity of a collection is to compare that collection with a standard bibliography. The project team used the work of a renowned scholar in the area of Black Canadian literature, Odysseys Home: Mapping African-Canadian Literature by George Elliott Clarke, as the basis for assessing the library collection. The bibliography in this seminal text was OCR’d and ingested into Zotero and then project teams compared the bibliography with the library’s holdings, applying tags depending on whether the work was available in print, electronically, or not at all.

Findings
The conversion of the bibliographical information into tabular format, and the application of the tags, allowed the project team to “find the gaps” – that is, to identify the authors, publishers, or even geographical areas where the library’s holdings were weak and to set priorities for acquisitions.

Practical implications or value
Considering the diversity of a library collection must be done in partnership with the library’s users, but at the same time, diversity work should not put additional labor on members of our library user community. Relying on the scholarship created by our faculty allows these scholars to point to the voices that are missing from the library collection and the use of more modern tools and approaches ensures that the gaps, once identified, are filled.

Purpose and goals
The University of the District of Columbia, the country’s only urban, public, land grant university and an HBCU, has recently added doctoral programs and is seeking to expand its capacity and public profile in research. The university’s research office has developed a proposal called “Road to R2,” which outlines a vision for this expansion and the attainment of the R2 (Doctoral Universities – High research activity) Carnegie Classification. As part of this proposal, the UDC Library is conducting an assessment project that seeks to compare its current levels of service, offerings, and expenditures to those of R2 peer and aspirational peers, with the goal of identifying additional resources and capacity that the library will need to appropriately serve a university community that is producing and publishing more research.

Design, methodology, or approach
For this assessment project, the library is reviewing several sources of data:

Library Benchmark (ACRL Trends & Statistics) data for 2018–2020 for peer and aspirational peer institutions, to identify possible areas of library service that will require additional investment in order to meet expanded research and publishing needs.

Qualitative data about existing research services at R2 peer and aspirational peer institutions, to include research- and publication-oriented staffing, presence and size of university digital institutional repositories, and special research-oriented library offerings (e.g., workshops, research data management).

Qualitative assessment of unmet faculty and student research and publication needs, obtained through interviews and/or focus groups.
UDC’s institution-level survey data results from a multi-institution survey on faculty knowledge of predatory publishing practices led by the University of Northern Colorado.

Findings
The project has just begun. However, based on existing knowledge and cursory examinations of data, we anticipate that the project will at least identify the need to offer librarian support around scholarly communications, an expansion of print and digital collections, and the establishment and maintenance of an institutional repository. We hope that the analysis will help illuminate the depth of need in particular areas and help prioritize the most needed services.

Practical implications or value
The findings of this assessment will contribute to a proposal for library service and budget expansion to be presented to university leadership; that is, it is anticipated to help the library make the case for additional resources both through comparisons to other institutions and reporting on internal needs assessment. It will provide an example of assessment as advocacy and a project that draws on diverse data sources.

Purpose and goals
Westfield State University’s 2023 re-accreditation self-study generated several questions for Ely Library: how can the self-study inform the assessment efforts of library staff? How can the library utilize data gathered by the New England Commission of Higher Education (NECHE), the Integrated Postsecondary Education System (IPEDS), and other reporting bodies to develop an ongoing culture of planning and assessment? How does the data collected for these reporting bodies connect to the larger goals and outcomes of the library and the university? This poster outlines the work of the Director of the Library and the Head of Library Collections and Content to understand current data collection and reporting practices and determine the best way to develop an assessment model that supports reaccreditation while allowing library staff to measure progress made in achieving their goals.

Design, methodology, or approach
The Head of Library Collections and Content used NECHE self-study guidelines and data collection templates, literature review, and data provided to internal and external stakeholders to re-envision existing data collection practices. The Director of the Library and co-chair of the accreditation steering committee focused efforts on developing an annual reporting template that would be flexible, include progress on measurable outcomes, and tie out to larger organizational goals and strategies.

Findings
A review of the NECHE standards identified requested metrics that were not routinely collected by the library. There is no documentation coordinating all data collection. This review prompted the Head of Library Collections and Content to draft an updated data inventory to support ongoing collection of metrics that are of value to multiple constituencies as well as to document data collection procedures. The Library Director’s internal and external scan of reporting procedures identified both challenges and opportunities for tying data collection to library, university, and broader system goals and objectives.

Practical implications or value
Academic Libraries participating in the re-accreditation process can approach the process as an opportunity for reviewing data collection practices, reviewing or establishing annual reporting procedures, and ensuring that the data collection process is meaningful. Mapping library assessment data to stated outcomes, and then providing a way to routinely assess progress, can improve library services and collections while making data collection more efficient.

Purpose and goals
In Fall 2021, the library system at our large public university participated in a flexible, university-wide pilot implementation of Flexible Work Arrangements (FWAs) for staff. FWAs in this case are defined as “a variation in where a job is performed (e.g. teleworking) or the time the work is performed (e.g. flexible schedule).” The pilot included a mandate to assess the impact of FWAs on the organization, but didn’t specify goals or metrics. With the latitude to decide what success of FWAs meant for our libraries, we devised a two-prong approach to answering the following question: What challenges and opportunities accompany a shift to more flexible work arrangements in an academic library, and how can supervisors best implement these changes?

Design, methodology, or approach
To thoroughly explore staff perceptions and experiences around the implementation of FWAs, we designed two surveys. The first survey consisted of open-ended questions designed to illicit information about how supervisors decided which FWA options would be available to their staff, what methods they used to roll out the implementation, what (if anything) they were considering changing, and their perceptions of how work in their unit was or was not affected by the changes. The second survey went to all library staff members and consisted of a mix of multiple-choice questions and open-ended questions designed to learn about how FWAs affected job satisfaction and respondents’ abilities to achieve their work goals. Analysis of both surveys was shared with the entire staff through brief reports and a set of visualizations designed to spur discussion on how the pilot implementation of FWAs could be improved upon.

Findings
Findings show that the vast majority of staff members report being able to adequately achieve their work goals and communicate with colleagues, and staff who benefit from individual FWAs demonstrate the most satisfaction. Staff who had more flexibility expressed appreciation for FWAs, but many staff suggested seeking ways to extend flexibility to all staff members by finding creative ways to add flexibility to, for example, front-line service positions.

Practical implications or value
As workplace expectations shift following the onset of the Covid pandemic, flexibility will likely be essential to the retention of library workers. While flexibility offers great promise, it can also lead to further inequality in the workplace if not carefully considered and designed. This study offers a case study in how to assess flexible work arrangements and contributes to a larger conversation about what we want our workplaces to value.

Purpose and goals
The aim of this paper is to outline the impact of COVID-19 on the services that the village libraries provide their patrons with and to demonstrate the adaptability of village librarians to drastic changes during the COVID-19 pandemic while the facilities were closed and then re-opened. It was important for the „Radislav Nikčević“ Public Library to gain a better understanding of the shift from in-person services to online and door-to door services that the village librarians provide since these libraries are meeting places and cultural and informational hubs of their local communities for patrons of all ages.

Design, methodology, or approach
In March 2022, the librarians in four village libraries in the Jagodina Municipality were invited to participate in a survey via e-mail about their adaptability to changing circumstances in providing their patrons with library services during the pandemic. Also, the village libraries’ patrons were also invited to participate in a survey regarding their experience with the library services during that time. They were contacted by phone. Both surveys were developed and distributed by the library team in the “Radislav Nikčević” Public Library in Jagodina.

Findings
A total of 4 village librarians and 162 patrons participated in the survey. The village libraries are the initiative by the “Radislav Nikčević Public Library in Jagodina, Serbia within the internationally recognized project Agrolib Ja (Agrilcutural Libraries in Jagodina) and it was important to find out what innovative steps the village librarians were taking in order to adapt to the “new normal” and respond to the local community needs in changing circumstances and how the shift from in-person to online, or from non-restricted use of all services on the spot to post-COVID restrictions affected the patrons. The village librarians showcase that they are ready to rethink their role in local communities and make efforts to meet the needs of their patrons even in changing circumstances.

Practical implications or value
This is an example of librarians’ good practice during COVID-19 and showcase how village libraries, even though serving small communities, demonstrate their value and ability to adapt to new circumstances and provide the users in their local communities with new, transformed services. The village libraries have pivotal role in their rural communities and as such are responsible for their patrons in terms of offering different services and programs to them and meeting their needs.

Purpose and goals
Data literacy is the ability to read, understand, work with, analyze, and communicate with data. Within these last few years the importance of data literacy has grown exponentially, with many libraries and institutions recognizing data literacy as a new priority. The ability of librarians to instruct users and assess their data literacy skills is encumbered, however, by the lack of an official data literacy standard or framework. What skills should individuals need to possess to be considered data literate? What ethical or social dilemmas should they reflect on before they work with data? How can users gain the skills necessary to share their data with the world, and become part of the data conversation? In order to answer these questions, this poster proposes an official working group should be created to draft a data literacy standard or framework.

Design, methodology, or approach
According to Chapter 14 of ACRL’s Guide to Policies and Procedures, the creation of a new standard or framework requires analyzing current standards to see if any satisfy current needs. Although there are no data literacy standards within the field of librarianship, this project will examine general information literacy standards such as ACRL’s Framework for Information Literacy in Higher Education. Following this, it requires an analysis of standards outside of the field of librarianship, and the development of a working paper suggesting a structure for the proposed document, a development timetable, and supporting requirements.

In order to satisfy these requirements, this poster will analyze current data literacy standards, such as the SLDS Data Use Standards, and Pre-K-12 Guidelines for Assessment and Instruction in Statistics Education II: GAISE II. This project will follow in the footsteps of Maybee and Zilinski’s article “Data informed learning: A next phase data literacy framework for higher education,” and will propose several questions to the poster audience. Should an official working group be created to draft a data literacy standard or framework? How can we ensure this data group possesses diverse perspectives, and incorporates data ethics and data bias into the framework?

Findings
This project anticipates discovering that no library standards currently support data literacy, and a new standard will need to be created, using the following standards as a guide. GAISE II, which is focused on PreK-12 education, centralizes the main points of formulating statistical questions, collecting/considering data, analyzing data, and interpreting the results. While SLDS, which is focused on educator education, features awareness of data quality, data types, data sources, data analysis, data collection, data assumptions, data privacy and ethics, data management, data discovery, data interpretation, data presentation and visualization, data laws, and data collaboration.

Practical implications or value
The goal of this project is to inspire other individuals to create a working group so the process of writing a working paper for ACRL can begin. By presenting at LAC, a diverse group of individuals, including individuals from marginalized communities, will hopefully be galvanized to participate.

Purpose and goals
Although the importance of assessment is acknowledged by librarians, the absence of it is often keenly felt. Due to lack of staff, training, or funding, assessment often falls to the wayside. This poster explores assessment trends within librarianship by analyzing library job postings for assessment skills. Using visualizations, the poster reveals the frequency of assessment skills by library type, job category, and geographic location to determine trends and patterns that emerge.

Design, methodology, or approach
This research project originated with the desire to determine if assessment skills are mentioned more frequently in library job postings in comparison to previous examinations such as “Recruiting for Results: Assessment Skills and the Academic Job Market” by Megan Oakleaf and Scott Walter and “Core Competencies for Assessment in Libraries: A Review and Analysis of Job Postings” by Sarah Passoneau and Susan Erikson. Both examinations were completed prior to 2014. This current study differs from Oakleaf and Walter’s examination which focused on academic libraries and did not include visualizations. Like Passoneau and Erikson’s examination, this poster will focus on all library types and include a visual opponent. The current study uses the ALA JobList ad archive as a data source and focuses on post-pandemic realities by limiting the selection of job postings from January 2020 to January 2021. Finally, the resulting visualizations will provide a more detailed understanding of results from previous examinations. Each job posting was examined to determine whether the job description included assessment skills, and if so, what areas of assessment the skills described fall into (instructional, user services, programming, collection development, and/or general). Once data was collected, RStudio was used to analyze and visualize the results.

Findings
Although the project is still in the data collection phase, data analysis of the first 182 job postings reveals that positions related to information literacy and instruction mention assessment the most, followed by digital projects and initiatives and IT/systems/web. In comparison, collection development, cataloging/metadata, and data services all possess a low presence of assessment skills. Positions related to administration/management, knowledge organization, outreach, and public services, subject specialist/liaison, special collections, technical services, and youth services, as of yet, have none. Overall, assessment seems to be mentioned infrequently in job postings.

Practical implications or value
By failing to include assessment skills within job descriptions, the library field as a whole is devaluing assessment. As many LIS students or early career professionals use job postings as a tool to drive their education and professional development, this absence may cause them to underestimate the role of assessment in librarianship and deemphasize assessment skill acquisition in their learning. By including assessment within job postings, the library community can encourage librarians to develop assessment skills. The hope is that this project will encourage the library community as a whole to realize the importance of including assessment skills within job postings.

Purpose and goals
This poster describes how analytical and visualization tools were used for planning and charting collection moves during Hillman Library (main library at the University of Pittsburgh) renovations. This is a follow-up to our presentation at the last Library Assessment conference which outlined how we used analytical and visualization tools to determine what collections to send to storage and enable users to locate materials as they moved to various swing spaces.

Now, that we knew what would be moved to our high-density storage facility as part of the renovation of Hillman Library, we needed to develop the final mapping to move collections from various swing spaces to specific shelves within the renovated space. Our goals for the mapping were to ensure that:

1) The items remaining in Hillman would fit in the space allowed and meet a maximum shelf capacity of 75% to allow for growth;

2) Call numbers would follow the prescribed order and be divided logically between floors;

3) Contractors engaged to move the collection would know exactly which shelves would contain specific call numbers.

Design, methodology, or approach
We used inventory reports from Alma Analytics and Tableau visualizations to estimate the footprint of the collection remaining in Hillman Library after criteria for sending items to storage was applied. We also examined recent acquisition rates across call number ranges to estimate future growth in different subject and physical areas. This information was incorporated into a spreadsheet that calculated how many shelves would be needed in the renovated space for each LC call number class. Using this information along with building floorplans, a color-coded spreadsheet was developed to illustrate each shelf, the call number range of its contents, and also illustrate empty shelves incorporated into the mapping to allow for growth and ease of collection shifting and adjustments.

Findings
We are currently in the final stages of transferring material to Storage and initial stages of the collection shift within Hillman. As more items are transferred, it is easier to discover mismatches between inventory reports and what is actually on the shelves. This has led to some quick catalog clean-up projects as well as plans for future inventory scanning and updates to the catalog to fine-tune reporting and ongoing collection maintenance and weeding for Storage. Building buffer space in the mapping was critical to account for any inventory anomalies, and this also provided targeted start and end ranges for call numbers for the movers to use and to ensure we had enough room for material to be shifted.

Practical implications or value
All our techniques are easily adaptable, replicable and can use freely available tools like spreadsheets and any visualization or graphing software. They can be used for large or small moving projects alike and can aid with evaluating the composition and distribution of collections.

Purpose and goals
In academic libraries, data dashboards usually present internal library data related to spaces, collections, personnel, and services in an easily digestible visual format. These dashboards can be used to inform data-driven decisions and strategic planning… but they can also be labor-intensive to build and maintain. For this pilot project, Clemson Libraries used several common academic library software platforms as well as user-friendly data visualization tools to create a simple dashboard, with a special focus on prioritizing sustainability of the workflow. The goal was to maximize automation so that the dashboard can remain current with minimal labor; it should serve as a resource and complement to existing library assessment initiatives, rather than another new initiative competing for employee time.

Design, methodology, or approach
Before building the dashboard, the project team met with some key stakeholders (Dean of Libraries, Head of Reference, etc) to determine exactly what visualizations they would like to see, especially for decision-making, planning, or outreach purposes. From there, we took an inventory of existing data sources; these included Sensource (gate count data for the main library on campus), Alma Analytics (collections data from our ILS), and Springshare (instruction and reference consultation data). We used Tableau for our visualizations, as it provides one interface that can connect to live data sources, transform them into visualizations, customize the look and feel of the dashboard for our university branding, and is easily embedded in our library website.

Findings
As is often the case, what seemed initially like a straightforward project quickly became more complicated. Although Tableau supports linking directly to data sources, our proprietary library systems do not currently have the corresponding functionality to accomplish this. As a workaround, we developed a schedule of specific reports to run and a shared Google Drive for these reports (mostly in the form of CSV files) to link to Tableau. We are currently partnering with our library IT to set up automated reports and university server space for the data so that it is not linked to an individual’s Google account.

Practical implications or value
For our own institution, the dashboard will have the immediate value of providing quick visualizations for commonly requested statistics, such as the gate count for a certain date range, number of checkouts, or reference statistics. This will save time for employees that need these numbers, and present them in an official format consistent with university standards. More broadly, many academic libraries have either recently created or are in the process of creating data dashboards to communicate with stakeholders to show the impact of their work, and many libraries use the same software systems. Although no two institutions will have exactly the same dashboards, we hope to shed light on the work behind our dashboard so that others may use it as a starting resource.

Purpose and goals
This paper focuses on creative methods to gather employee and student opinions for use in a possible interior redesign of a 50-year-old academic main library, and to generate useful and shareable data for administrators and architects. The UNC Libraries Assessment Committee partnered with a campus research unit, the Social Research Lab (SRL), to create interactive and visually compelling ways to engage both employees and students, moving beyond the traditional questionnaire, to learn what features, design elements, and services are desired in a remodeled library. This partnership utilized a variety of hands-on activities for library employees and an online survey for students.

Design, methodology, or approach
Our approach was based on previous UNC Libraries space assessment projects and existing literature about working with architects and gathering student feedback for remodels. We also partnered with colleagues in SRL, who are experts in survey instrumentation and data analysis. These resources were invaluable for determining the best approaches for soliciting feedback in a fun, creative, and engaging way.

The first method focused solely on library employees. During a monthly all staff meeting, employees had four activities to help reimagine the building’s interior: draw or mark up blank floorplans; place comments or stickers on printed images of public and staff spaces to express likes and dislikes; write their top three priorities on a form; and comment anonymously through an online form. Employees were encouraged but not required to participate, and their responses were anonymous. Three months after this meeting, we deployed an online survey to collect student feedback. The survey ran for two weeks and asked students to rank images, comment on their selected images, and upload other images they would like to see included in a newly designed space. The Assessment Committee distributed the survey via signs and posters throughout campus, sharing with classes and groups, and tabling at the dining hall during lunch hours. As an incentive, students could enter a drawing for a $25 Amazon gift card.

Findings
Nearly 500 students responded to the survey. Based on guidance from SRL, we had set a goal of 100 student responses; therefore, based on these high participation numbers, we think the interactive and visual approaches worked for persuading students to complete the survey and demonstrates the importance of the building to students. Preliminary results show that students want more private study spaces and seating, and offer insights into popular (and unpopular) design elements.

Practical implications or value
This work provides useful examples and information for gathering employee and student data about space redesign, working with an on-campus research entity, and sharing information with an architect. By the conference date, we will have solid conclusions from the survey and will be able to address the types of information useful for an architect and which data was used for architectural renderings.

Purpose and goals
The purpose of this study is to investigate what semiotic analysis can discover about how welcoming and inclusive a science library space is for patrons. Semiotic analysis examines the meanings that individuals interpret places as having. It involves the study of objects, which can range from images and words to physical items, and their meanings as individual interpreters understand them (Hall, 1997). We chose to study a science library space because the lack of racial and gender diversity in STEM is a persistent challenge despite the growth in the number of STEM jobs and STEM degrees earned (Pew, 2021).

Design, methodology, or approach
We conducted a semiotic analysis of a science and engineering library to determine how well the signs and signifiers in the space reflect its goals. To that end, we examined how diverse groups of patrons might interpret elements in the space, which behaviors are encouraged and discouraged, and whether the space promotes scientific disciplines to its visitors. The space we investigated serves as a case study highlighting the ways in which library spaces can communicate messaging to patrons of various backgrounds.

Findings
Based on our semiotic analysis, the library space’s communication to its patrons succeeds more in promoting science and encouraging desired behavior (or discouraging undesired behavior) than in promoting diversity and inclusion.

Practical implications or value
In keeping with universal design, libraries should provide clear and visible signage for the library itself, as well as its elevators, exits, restrooms, quiet study spaces, group study spaces, and browseable stacks. Libraries should provide gender inclusive restrooms and clearly marked spaces for religious reflection. Libraries can make an effort to choose inclusive art and display artifacts to appeal to patrons from a variety of backgrounds.

Libraries can learn from our findings that library signage that precludes activities frequently performed by patrons should be accompanied by library signage that directs patrons where they may participate in these activities without disturbing other patrons. This will balance the prescriptive, negative messaging in libraries with positive, inviting messaging. Libraries should consider their priorities in terms of safety versus a feeling of surveillance for patrons when designing study spaces. While glass can help library staff monitor activity in the library, glass walls can also lead to a lack of privacy and a feeling of distrust. Likewise, libraries must make decisions between the security for their materials provided by wired glass and theft detectors versus a more welcoming atmosphere of trust.

A science library should be updated with modern, clean, furnishings in good condition to show respect for its patrons and their work. It is important to represent the interests of patrons a library wishes to welcome in a balanced way. A science library should not have a predominance of science items from any particular science discipline it serves, but provide appealing displays from a variety of disciplines representing both the history of science and modern advances. Educational disciplinary displays can incorporate diverse scientists to promote the inclusion of diverse patrons.

Purpose and goals
As Library Assessment has matured as a sub-domain of librarianship, institutions have responded by creating assessment focused positions, committees, and departments. While structures and approaches differ, a commonality is the aim of developing a culture of assessment across an organization. Assessment work aims to catalyze change, which implicitly threatens the status quo. To combat a resistance to change, institutions across higher ed have aimed to develop a culture of assessment which Ennis (2010) asserts “is code for not just doing assessment, but liking it”.

This poster describes Penn State University’s Library Data Days (Data Days), an annual in-house professional development event in its sixth year which promotes developing an assessment culture by spotlighting efforts which have informed decision-making across the organization. Data Days provides a safe environment for staff and faculty to share about projects which inform decision-making across 24 physical campuses. Data Days is a keystone of the Library Assessment Department’s efforts to build a culture which embraces assessment work, which often manifests as inclusion of assessment as a standard component in planning efforts, service evolutions, and research design.

Design, methodology, or approach
To demonstrate the value of the event to participants, six years engagement metrics will be explored including the extent and breadth of participation, broad scope of content delivered, and historical post-program evaluation data.

To evidence the developing “culture of assessment” a quantification of assessment work integrated across the University Libraries strategic plan, as well as consultation metrics for library personnel supported by the Library Assessment Department will be presented.

Findings
Data Days is an in-service event which functions as a low-cost, highly participatory component of the Library Assessment Department’s efforts to develop a culture of assessment. It is an effective means of promoting and developing culture, sharing organizational knowledge and informing day-to-day decision-making.

Practical implications or value
Developing any culture requires deliberate actions. In-service events designed to engage staff and faculty alike in sharing out their work which informed decisions, instills the concept of assessment being the responsibility of everyone across an organization. When combined with additional support for integration of assessment broadly, events like Data Days contribute strongly to developing culture, in this case a culture of assessment.

Purpose and goals
The main branch of Western Libraries is undergoing a major renovation. While the renovation itself was inspired by user feedback, design decisions were primarily made by the contracted architects. This space assessment project seeks to assess the success of the renovation by gathering data about how newly renovated spaces are being used by students and comparing those data to the intentions for each space as stated by the architects. The results of this assessment will be used to identify necessary modifications to the newly renovated spaces; baseline data about our users’ space use gathered in this assessment will also be used to guide future renovations and furniture purchases in libraries across the system.

Design, methodology, or approach
Renovated spaces will be observed at key points of the term: early term, mid-term (avoiding midterm exams), and during final exams. These observations, grounded in a typology of library spaces based on presentations by the architects, will identify to what degree users are using spaces and compare usage and observed noise levels to the intention of each space as set by the architects. In addition to space counts, qualitative observations will be noted for each space to capture themes like creative space modifications and unusual use of furniture.

Findings
Certain furniture configurations or the environmental elements may have an impact on which spaces library users choose to spend time in, as well as the way users interact with the space around them and with other users. These interactions may also change based on the current academic workload of the user.

Practical implications or value
Understanding when and how different types of furniture configurations are used will help libraries to select furniture and furniture arrangements that better meets students’ needs. We hope to also inform the next stage of our own library’s renovation with our findings.

Purpose and goals
In the fall of 2021 the ISU Library surveyed students supported by our campus student accessibility services department. The goal of the survey was to collect ideas for how to make our library spaces more accessible. The goal for this LAC poster is to describe our survey and share the action steps we took based on the information collected.

Design and Methodology
A mixed methods study was conducted using a Qualtrics survey sent to 1400 students served by our campus student accessibility services department. The survey allowed students to self-identify their disabilities and to provide comments related to the accessibility of library spaces. The project was a collaborative effort between the library’s assessment department, the library’s Assistant Dean for DEI, and the campus Student Accessibility Services department.

Findings
The project findings are grouped into the following categories:

Need for more quiet study spaces & procedures for maintaining quiet
Need for more low-to very low distraction study spaces.
Mapping and Signage –Knowing what to expect and where it’s at
Need for dedicated accessibility spaces and areas
Mobility Issues

Conclusions: We have determined ways to make our library spaces more accessible, especially related to the needs of neurodiverse students.

Practical implications or value
Many academic libraries are increasing their DEI efforts. Ensuring library spaces are accessible to everyone is an important part of this work. We believe other libraries will be interested in hearing about the action steps we took based on the feedback we received.

Purpose and goals
In response to learning that personnel across the libraries felt that the recently updated University Libraries Strategic Plan was narrowly focused such that many struggled to see how their roles and efforts contribute to advancing planning initiatives, a taskforce of the Strategic Planning Implementation Committee developed the ‘What we Celebrate’ workshop series. The workshops engaged personnel in brainstorming exercises to surface activities ‘celebrated’ in evaluative and other contexts (e.g., annual performance, and promotion and tenure reviews) to inform a revision to our strategic plan which aim to integrate and align activities ‘celebrated’ in contexts outside of strategic planning into the planning context. In total, 67 library personnel including 35 faculty and 22 staff, across 11 campuses participated. The “What we Celebrate” workshops informed dozens of modifications to the plan including over 20 refinements and additions to key performance indicators. Workshops illustrated that many contributions personnel were interested in sharing, were well aligned with the University Libraries Foundational Values catalyzing the integration of “Libraries Foundational Values in Action” as a story telling mechanism spotlighting how the Libraries live our foundational values in annual university reporting.

Design, methodology, or approach
Workshops were designed to engage stakeholder groups including library personnel broadly, staff supervisors, faculty supervisors, faculty who have served on promotion and tenure committees, and the Dean’s Library Council. Each workshop consisted of small group activities and report outs, focused on what’s celebrated presently and what we’d like to celebrate in the future. Results of the activities were analyzed to inform new and updated measures to the strategic plan.

Findings
In addition to informing plan revisions, two key findings emerged from the workshops which improve the ability for personnel to see their efforts reflected in planning. 1) That the broad scope of activities library practitioners engage in are often more easily represented through effort-based measures which allow for articulating actions taken to advance on an objective when quantitative measures are insufficient to illustrate progress. 2) Roles often support operationalized activities seemingly absent from advancing strategies for the future, as such, providing opportunity for peers to see their efforts reflected, can assist with perceived connections to planning efforts.

Practical implications or value
Often developing and or implementing a strategic plan can leave personnel feeling absent from the plan, as if their roles have little to contribute to advancing the future of an organization. A core challenge in strategic planning is maintaining stakeholder engagement throughout the duration of the plan. Committing to treating the plan as a ‘living document’ provides opportunity to consistently engage personnel in the content of the plan. Spending the effort to listen and respond to concerns can create additional opportunities to promote engagement with strategic planning in addition to leading to iterative improvements. Finally, the relevance of effort-based measures in allowing for a broader scope of library personnel and departments to contribute to reporting out to enhance connections with planning efforts.

Purpose and goals
Existing literature on user experience with library search and discovery focuses on the difference between user expectations and what is delivered; differences between “digital natives” and “digital immigrants”; and individual preferences for interface design. However, research at the Bodleian Libraries hints that different user experiences might be explained by disciplinary differences in expectations—something not covered in the literature.

Purpose and goals
This poster presents a value statement for improving librarian’s ability to ethically analyze moral dilemmas within social science data-oriented practices such as learning analytics; meta data standards; or data curation and preservation.

Design, methodology, or approach
The value statement draws upon the following materials:

Theories of identity and social identity
Social construction of technology and social informatics
Institutional theories of legitimacy
Concepts of community and the common good
Aligned professions’ value statements
Ethics of care

Findings
The value statement focuses on “freedom of social identity.”

Freedom of social identity occurs when we recognize and support the right of individuals represented within the data to self-identify and to associate into communities based upon those identities without fear of oppression, othering, misrepresentation, or other harm.
Freedom of social identity ensures that the application of social science data results in communities being able to plan and control the social processes through which internal community values are defined and realized, and the external common good strengthened.

Practical implications or value
The application of the value statement will guide ethical analysis of moral dilemmas within the practices associated with social science data.

Purpose and goals
This poster will lay out the steps we recently took at the University of Michigan library to create, administer, and respond to a homegrown workplace climate and culture survey. The poster will lay out the journey involved in creating and piloting our comprehensive survey, the steps involved in administering it in a way that instilled a sense of safety in respondents, the process we used to form a diverse team responsible for reporting on the results, and the ways that the library community and its leaders have responded to the findings and recommendations. We hope that sharing these experiences will help and inspire other libraries that want to assess their own workplace climates and cultures.

Design, methodology, or approach
The poster will display some example questions from the survey, and will also show examples of how we reported on the survey results using various types of written reports, presentations, and data visualizations.

Findings
Some very basic examples of survey findings will be presented in the poster, but the key ‘findings’ here will be an account of both the challenges and successes we experienced when going from initial conceptualization all the way to responding to the survey data. It is hoped that others interested in workplace climate and culture work will gain valuable insights from the learning that our library did along the way. Key lessons learned involved best practices for communication, how to build and work with a diverse survey team, how to coordinate with library administration, and how to move from survey findings to organizational change.

Practical implications or value
The hope is that other libraries that are interested in assessing workplace climate and culture can benefit from hearing about both our missteps and our accomplishments. We are also happy to share our instrument with others, and will have copies of the whole instrument on hand.

Purpose and goals

Though first-generation students are acknowledged in the library literature to be a heterogeneous group, this recognition rarely informs scholars’ methodologies, resulting in researchers drawing inferences tacitly assumed to apply to all first-generation students. The purpose of this study was to enhance understanding of first-generation students’ perceptions and use of academic libraries and how students’ intersecting identities manifest in differing library needs: How are first-year first- generation students best classified based upon their academic capital and library anxiety? What does each cluster of students perceive as the most and least helpful library services and spaces for themselves?

Design, methodology, or approach

To effectively support first-generation students, academic libraries must first understand their needs. However, limited research has been conducted into how these students, who often embody multiple marginalized identities, perceive and use academic libraries or how first-generation students’ intersecting identities manifest in differing library needs. This study builds understanding of first-year first-generation students’ library perceptions and use. To do so, an explanatory sequential mixed methods design informed by a critical pragmatism worldview was used. First-year first-generation students at a large university were surveyed using Winkler’s (2013) Academic Capital Scale and Anwar et al.’s (2012) AQAK: A Library Anxiety Scale for Undergraduate Students. Participants were grouped by their subscale scores via cluster analysis. Explanatory interviews with demographically representative informants from each cluster provided deeper understanding of the ways in which students experience their academic library and how these differ by cluster.

Findings

Two groups emerged from the cluster analysis during the quantitative stage: one with high levels of academic capital and low levels of library anxiety (named University Navigators), and one with low levels of academic capital and high levels of library anxiety (named Alternative Wayfinders). Students in the Alternative Wayfinders group were more diverse in terms of race and gender identity than University Navigators. Additionally, each groups’ most and least helpful library services and spaces were mostly distinct from each other.

Practical implications or value

The practical significance of this study derives from academic libraries’ imperative to serve all their students. Previous researchers examining first-generation students’ library use have primarily taken a deficit approach that identifies students rather than institutions as problematic. These scholars have also generally inferred that individual factors, such as race or first-generation status, explained their findings when it’s likely from their research designs that other, related variables may be equally if not more plausible explanations. Library services informed by these studies’ findings may therefore be of limited efficacy and could even be counterproductive for the students they are intended to support. Study findings will enable librarians to identify services that are problematic, or needed but as-yet nonexistent, to better support their first-generation students.

Purpose and goals
In January 2020, librarians from a large, academic research library and researchers from the university’s interior design department, College of Design, Construction and Planning (DCP), collaborated on a study to develop an effective and scalable research framework to examine how library spaces can support students’ problem-solving and innovation processes . The team from a public university located in the Southeastern U.S. developed a survey designed with a “creativity matrix” that featured adjective pairs designed by DCP researchers to examine student views of an environment that supports the creative process. Combined with open-text questions, the survey offered a measurable view of conditions that students desire with tangible characteristics that future renovations can easily incorporate. This survey was conducted in Fall 2020, delayed by the response to COVID which closed the campus for 5 months. Findings revealed several statistically significant differences between the current library setting and an ideal one that students indicate would facilitate their creativity, resulting in greater innovation and problem-solving.

Design, methodology, or approach
Study participants selected terms from a validated instrument used in construction design, Yarnell’s Adjective Checklist (ACL) Creativity Scale, which was adapted for library use. The ACL framework was designed to complement the model of creative thought articulated by Graham Wallis, that exhibited five stages: preparation, incubation, intimation, illumination and verification. The survey also included traditional queries used in library space studies including frequency of use, activities engaged in and specific spaces utilized. Descriptive details collected included class status and major. .

Findings
Results include students’ needs for a variety of spaces (System-wide Diversity) and flexibility of use (Choice and Control) which provides them the type of space they need depending on the activity they are engaged in or the stage of the creative process in which they find themselves. Also, while graduate students are expected to require silent spaces for more intensive research, they want to be a part of a community of users rather than work in isolating spaces. Analysis revealed that eight of the adjective pairs could be considered an index that identifies ideal space characteristics. The ACL results aligned with the qualitative text comments that provided tangible details for renovating library spaces.

Practical implications or value
Analysis of the study findings allowed the research team to present qualitative comments that accompanied the quantitative results that demonstrated a statistically significant difference between the current space and the students’ vision of an ideal space. Using the comments, the team was able to articulate design elements that would become part of a current renovation of another floor of the science library.

This presentation will describe the creativity matrix, the concepts of “choice and control” and “system-wide diversity” that guide thinking about the creative process and present findings that map the framework to the practical suggestions by participants.

Purpose and goals
This paper explores how the COVID-19 pandemic and the focus on equity and social justice over the past two years have changed library assessment activities at a large research university. The paper discusses concrete project examples undertaken since the start of the pandemic through Spring 2022, highlights lessons learned about our assessment approaches, and explores how lessons will result in longer-term changes to our program. The paper also raises broader questions about the role of library assessment in the context of continued uncertainty and change, with the aim of sparking dialogue among practitioners about their own lessons learned and the implications for the future of library assessment.

Design, methodology, or approach
Firstly, the authors use a case study approach highlighting activities and changes in one program. Secondly, we offer a literature review from institutional research, higher education and library assessment designed to identify changes to assessment practices and their potential implications. This provides a wider context for the case study and highlights emerging areas of interest for the library assessment community.

Findings
Between March 2020 and April 2022, our library undertook a number of projects that form the basis of our conclusions:

A review of institutional, library, and higher education data sources to illuminate student experiences during COVID-19 and the Black Lives Matter movement.
Creating a data portal with multiple sources of previously siloed information to strengthen data-informed decision making.
A year-long mixed methods study of student needs during reopening, including an online diary study.
An 11-week online participatory design project with undergraduate students.
Participating in an institutional survey on student preferences for online, hybrid, or in person campus services.

The projects often focused on answering the question: “is this working (right now)?” in order to make rapid changes in response to user needs. However, the pivot to fully remote assessment and a focus on equity during this time also highlighted opportunities for program development after we moved out of crisis mode. Our activities resulted in lessons shaping our program for the future:

Prioritizing equity through our project choices and by raising the visibility of existing external data sources, enabling action-oriented conversations about how libraries can respond to wider trends in student needs.
Continuously demonstrating how existing library data can be used effectively.
Strengthening capacity for online assessment projects, including interactive, participatory methods.
Investing in library and institutional partnerships to support taking action on results and participating in campus-wide assessment efforts.

Looking forward, we may continue to face an environment of heightened ambiguity and change related to user needs, expectations, and library use – which, in turn, will require us to continuously examine our assessment approaches.

Practical implications or value
This paper contributes to an overall body of work in assessment by providing examples of how future assessment practices and programs may change in response to what we learned during this unprecedented time. It provides an opportunity for the community to share their own lessons and engage in discussions about the future of library assessment.

Purpose and goals
In the spring 2022, Tulane University Libraries (TUL) launched a survey of all Tulane students and faculty. This survey followed up on a 2018 user survey and was designed to gather feedback from key stakeholders on how well the Libraries support their coursework, teaching, and research. Results will help us learn more about their needs and make improvements to our spaces, resources, and services.

Design, methodology, or approach
This study employed an online survey of students and faculty, our primary user community, to understand their evolving needs. The survey instrument was built upon the questionnaire used for our 2018 survey as well as the questionnaires used at Duke University Libraries and Boston University Libraries with their permission. The survey consisted of the following six sections: Introduction, Demographics, Library Spaces, Library Resources, Library Services, and Conclusion, including 21 to 33 questions depending on the respondents’ answers.

In March 2022, an email invitation to the survey was sent to Tulane students and faculty via various listservs with help from campus partners including student organizations, the Center for Engaged Learning & Teaching, and Office of Assessment and Institutional Research. The survey remained open for five weeks. During that time, three reminders were sent to encourage participation. The data collection has just been completed with the survey closing on April 10, 2022.

Findings
Data analysis will consist of descriptive statistics identifying library user perceptions of the libraries overall as well as by user group (i.e., students and faculty), users’ status (i.e., years in case of students and track in case of faculty), and school. In addition, for questions comparable to the 2018 survey, comparison of survey results from 2018 and 2022 will be conducted to understand the changes in the needs of Tulane students and faculty. The poster will specifically focus on findings from this comparison between 2018 and 2022 survey results. We believe that these findings will allow us to understand how much the pandemic shape the needs of students and faculty in particular and to evaluate changes we have implemented since the pandemic and identify ways to better meet the needs of students and faculty.

Practical implications or value
This proposal will allow us to share our experience using campus-wide surveys to gather feedback from students and faculty and to share our findings related to the impact of the pandemic on their needs and library use. For those who may consider conducting a comprehensive user survey at their organization, this session will help with survey methodology and best practices. This will also provide a venue where the community can share their experiences and insights related to the pandemic’s impact on their organization through interactions with the presenter as well as with other conference attendees, promoting mutual learning among community members.

Purpose and goals
The purpose of this study was to explore and understand employee perceptions of remote work as a potential option for normal operations, based on experiences from the COVID-19 pandemic. The goals were to obtain feedback from library faculty and staff about remote work and telecommuting in order to develop a guideline, and to measure satisfaction with the hybrid work environment several months after the guideline was implemented.

Design, methodology, or approach
Two web-based surveys were sent to all library faculty and staff, one in April 2021 and the other in March 2022. The first survey included multiple-choice and free-text responses regarding how often employees wanted to work remotely; what tasks they believed could be done productively from home; what equipment they needed at home; and what challenges they believed the library faced with employees working remotely. This feedback was used to develop a remote work and telecommuting guideline that was implemented in July 2021. The second survey assessed employees’ experience with telecommuting or remote work since the guideline was implemented, including questions about schedules, satisfaction, equity, what worked better than expected, and continuing challenges. Both surveys were declared minimal risk by our institutional IRB.

Findings
The second survey showed satisfaction with the hybrid work environment, including a high degree of satisfaction with how telecommuting schedules were implemented and allocated within library units. The average amount of time employees spent working from home closely mirrored how much time they responded that they wanted to spend in the first survey. Significant challenges to implementing a hybrid work environment identified in the first survey had been resolved, while other challenges had arisen or continued in the months since the guideline was implemented and the library had resumed normal operations.

Practical implications or value
Librarians responsible for assessment within their libraries should look for assessment and research opportunities related to the administrative operations of their organizations. When integrated at the beginning of a major operational change, these studies can provide valuable data that help inform needed adjustments after the change has been implemented and, longitudinally, as operations are continually evaluated. While libraries’ administrative operations can vary greatly, sharing these studies can provide useful insight to other organizations looking to implement similar changes.

Purpose and goals
To examine whether there is a statistically significant increase in expectations in the
LibQUAL+® dimension of Information Control (IC) by comparing pre-COVID-19 with post-COVID-19 cohort results. The hypothesis is that faculty and graduate student expectations increased in this dimension after the COVID-19 pandemic began affecting academic library services across the globe following March 2020.

To ascertain whether this is a national and/or global trend with other LibQUAL+® cohorts who have pre and post COVID results.

Explore implications for academic libraries if this is a national and/or global trend. Should these high expectations in the LibQUAL+® Information Control dimension continue how should libraries advocate for improved access for users to be able to find the required information in the format of their choosing?

Design, methodology, or approach
We will reach out to approximately 12 North American and European institutions from around the world with an ARL Memorandum of Agreement (MOU) to request participation in the comparison. Using the MOU, we will coordinate our efforts with ARL to collect de-identified and aggregate LibQUAL+® results in the dimension of Information Control.

Compare pre-COVID and post -COVID LibQUAL+® cohort means in the dimension of information control for the following groups: Faculty, Graduate, & Undergraduate. For example:

1. Examine minimum and desired means in the dimension for all items related to Information Control (IC 1- IC 8) between cohorts using ANOVAs as appropriate
2. Compare Superiority Gap Scores between cohorts
3. Analyze overall IC dimension means between years and groups using ANOVA or t-tests as appropriate

Conclusions/Hypotheses Being Tested

Expectations have significantly increased in the area of LibQUAL+® IC overall for institutions included in the study from Pre-COVID -19 cohorts compared to Post-COVID-19 cohorts. Both minimum mean scores and desired Mean scores will have increased between cohorts.

The gaps between what is perceived and what is desired (Superiority Mean) in IC have increased comparing Pre-COVID-19 to Post-COVID-19 LibQUAL+® LibQUAL results.

Expectations in IC may have steadily increased over time since 2015 –which may not be related to Post-COVID results, but a steady trend upward overall.

Practical implications or value
We will envision that this could spark conversations about rising expectations. Perhaps library administrators could share these results with stakeholders to discuss some of the following questions:

If expectations for faculty and students are increasing in the LibQUAL+® dimension of
Information Control, which is related to access to materials that they need for their scholarship, what implications does this have for libraries?

How do we meet these rising expectations while library materials budgets remain flat?

How might we address the fact rising expectations in IC might remain at higher levels regardless of whether the COVID-19 pandemic continues to change demands for remote access and services?

Purpose and goals
E-resources are a ubiquitous part of the educational and research activities of institutions of higher education. The need for e-resources became even more apparent when universities and colleges were forced to shut down their campuses with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020. Instructors taught their classes virtually. With very few exceptions, researchers conducted their work from off-campus locations. Campus libraries responded by providing access to e-resources and online services and to very limited, if any, physical resources and in-person services. This presentation explores how local evidence obtained from an ezProxy server can uncover the impact of COVID-19 on patron behaviors, as well as reveal changes in e-resource usage over an extended period of time.

Purpose and goals
In fall 2020, an academic library in the Midwest was tasked to cautiously reopen to the campus community. The library faced reopening at a time where unprecedented guidelines were put into place while at the same time trying to keep staff and students safe from Covid-19. As part of the protocol, employees conducted hourly floor counts and safety checks.

While guidelines were put in place, adherence was a different story. Roesch Library developed a reporting mechanism and dashboard that allowed all staff, including student employees, the ability to report and see what floors had problem areas of non-compliance in real-time. Non-compliance to safety protocols included refusal to wear facial coverings, lack of social distancing, and room occupancy violations. The purpose and goal of this poster is to highlight a library’s use of a crowdsourced dashboard and how it served as an awareness tool for public health and safety during the pandemic.

Design, methodology, or approach
Designed initially as a reporting form, data collected was automatically shared via a public dashboard. All staff were expected to be stewards and enforce safety protocols, reporting instances of non-compliance. As part of the protocol, employees conducted hourly floor counts and safety checks. A reporting form allowed employees to report the type of violation, the floor the violation took place on, if students were asked to comply, and any additional comments that aided in identifying problem areas.

Findings
The dashboard allowed employees to see in real-time which floors experienced instances of non-compliance. The data included the number of instances by floor and the number of individuals. We had quantifiable data about violations by library location, time and day of the week.

Violation types were described in a comment box on the form. As a result, we discovered that violators would often use empty food containers as a way to navigate around non-compliance to wearing masks. Some violators would plead ignorance even when previously reminded. We also recorded instances when individuals were rude or verbally aggressive.

The data gathered also allowed the library to make changes and address issues as the semester progressed and also enact changes for the following semester. Adjustments also took into consideration the stress of staff dealing with instances.

Practical implications or value
Library dashboards are still an emerging area. The notion that one person can contribute data while others can view in real-time helps illustrate the utility of displaying live data, but also the impact that data submissions have in highlighting specific activities. The hope is that this pilot could serve as a catalyst for future dashboards and other information gathering that could be crowdsourced for decision-making capacities or awareness.

Purpose and goals
When the Covid-19 pandemic emerged in March of 2020, library personnel transitioned to remote work. Personnel who were used to working on-site, side-by-side not only needed to figure out how to work remotely but to learn to live for a time confined to their homes, disconnected from friends and family. For many, the erosion of personal agency amplified feelings of organizational mistrust, illustrated professional inequities, and catalyzed anxieties that typically are not at the forefront of employer concerns.

Libraries responded to the moment in part by surveying personnel about their work-related needs as well as their personal well-being. At the Pennsylvania State University, the Libraries surveyed all personnel consistently between March 2020 and April 2021, securing over 2,100 responses to questions aimed at identifying workplace challenges, and to better understand and react to supporting personnel needs. This poster discusses survey techniques employed which leveraged the reporting function of Qualtrics and related practices to maintain a sense of community, communicate organizational empathy, and enable action at the department level while maintaining and building trust in assessment initiatives.

Design, methodology, or approach
Survey instruments typically include several elements to communicate their purpose: the reason they’re being conducted, how results will be used, how anonymity or confidentiality will be addressed, and how long the surveys will take to complete. These elements felt insufficient given the moment.

Qualtrics features once overlooked became components of an evolving survey strategy aimed at soliciting sensitive information, promoting community, facilitating empathetic practice, and enabling action highly valued by respondents.

Updated practices communicated through a change log integrated in the survey introduction aimed to enhance transparency, address concerns over anonymity, allowed for broad real-time sharing of results, and for directing responses to leaders closest to responding personnel to enable responding to expressed concerns. Results of the survey(s) were summarized and presented at organization wide virtual forums after each iteration.

Findings
Library personnel appreciated updated practices which allowed for openly sharing personal struggles supported by enhanced practices to maintain anonymity. Respondents reported feeling more connected to peers who were working remotely and on-site. The practice of real-time sharing of responses initially met with concerns over privacy, although this quickly changed to support as the practice was found to provide relief through the realization that many were struggling similarly. Real-time sharing of results facilitated responding to concerns per the results being available publicly.

Practical implications or value
Evolutions to practice are catalyzed by a myriad of drivers. This case study illustrates how technology advancements and situational contexts can inform practice evolutions. The authors envision participants informing their survey practice to maximize impact of the effort while protecting and communicating respondent privacy in order to build and maintain trust.

Purpose and goals
The Association of Research Libraries’ (ARL) Research Library Impact Framework initiative encompassed four goals: (1) fostering a culture of assessment through methodologically sound research projects; (2) involving library teams in conducting in-depth investigations into five research question areas selected from the framework; (3) gauging how well the teams’ research effectively provides the Association of Research Libraries community with an understanding of the impact of library services; and (4) building collaborative library research partnerships.

The poster will reflect on the value of the Framework, lessons learned during the process of supporting teams in their research efforts, and evaluation of the initiative’s goals.

Design, methodology, or approach
The Framework was developed by members of the assessment community in 2018 as an aid to organize, prioritize, and focus on research libraries’ common issues and collective solutions. The Framework was intended as a tool to help libraries understand, design, and align their desired impacts, measures and data with that of their broader, evolving ecosystems.

Eighteen library teams conducted one of two types of research activities: (1) a project, which is a formal, original research study; or (2) a practice brief, which documents a case study or research-based information intended to improve library assessment work. Each project addressed one of five questions.

Project teams used a variety of methods including literature reviews, citation analysis, instruction and visitor data, focus groups, semi-structured interviews, and surveys to conduct their research.

Findings
Each pilot project and practice brief focused on different aspects of the research question that it was related to. The overarching product of the RLIF project is a suite of tools and examples that provide inspiration for other libraries to model, reinvent, or apply the findings of the RLIF pilot projects and practice briefs to their own communities. This will, in turn, support the development of a library assessment community of practice. Additionally, there is an extended cadre of library staff with enhanced skills in research methodologies who can develop and contribute to future research endeavors as a result of their participation in the initiative, whether in their own library or as advisors to other library staff engaging in research projects.

Practical implications or value
The research reports and practice briefs are available for the community for their information and use. In the case of some projects, library staff can use the report to create their own study, establish a new process, and/or present the findings internally to key stakeholders. In other cases, a report provides foundational and substantive information that can be used in future research projects by members of the library community. Most importantly, the reports or practice briefs address five different questions that were considered top priority for the library community.

Purpose and goals
The purpose of creating the Food for Thought survey was to create a data collection tool that would enable us to incorporate more user feedback into the various analyses that we complete throughout the year. In particular, we wanted to know how often different patron groups used the library and for what reasons, how they use the library collections, how they use non-library resources, and some of the issues they have faced in using the library.

The Food for Thought survey needed to be cost-effective in the materials needed and the time needed to perform the survey. The survey also needed to be flexible so that it could accommodate irregular schedules and poor weather. This presentation will discuss how we created the Food for Thought survey, successes and challenges in implementation, and the results of the survey.

Design, methodology, or approach
A three- to five-minute survey was created that supported one-time or recurring analyses that the library has planned for the future. This survey was held at locations around the University of North Texas Denton campus in targeted, high traffic locations. Most of these were held near library branches, but some were held in locations that targeted specific departments.

Findings
The authors will discuss what they discovered about how often library patrons use library resources for different purposes such as teaching, learning, research, leisure, and mental health. We will also discuss how patrons use library resources including their reported usage of print and electronic monographs, how often they can find what they need, and how confident they are in their knowledge of what the library offers for their domain of interest. We will explore how non-library resources are used. Finally, we will also explore how the answers to these questions differed by patron group including by departmental affiliation, university status (undergraduate, graduate, faculty, staff), and by whether the respondent has identified that they are a user or non-user of the library.

Practical implications or value
This presentation will explore how on-campus students, faculty, and staff use the library as well how and why they use non-library resources. While the prevalence of these issues may vary by library, they are issues that are relevant to most libraries.

This presentation will also discuss what made the Food for Thought survey successful and cost-effective and how other libraries can easily implement a similar survey into their routine assessment.

Purpose and goals
Ask a Librarian is a bilingual, collaborative virtual reference service for members of the Ontario Council of University Libraries. The service launched in 2011 and many of our practices and training materials have remained consistent over the last decade. In 2021, a working group was struck to develop a tool to assess the quality of service provided by Ask operators. Performing regular quality assurance assessments will ensure we are providing the highest service quality to our users, as well as help to identify knowledge gaps and areas that require additional training for our operators.

Design, methodology, or approach
The working group developed a service standard and codebook to assess the quality of chat responses in 5 categories: approachability, interest, teaching (reference questions only), answering, and wrapping up. For each category, the working group considered the RUSA guidelines, our training materials, the user experience of chat, and other factors to set a service standard. Multiple rounds of testing were conducted to ensure that our codebook encapsulated different scenarios to our satisfaction, and to ensure inter-rater reliability, so that all group members shared a common understanding of what did and did not count as a “yes” for meeting the standard.

Each member of our group reviewed at least 55 chats, over the course of 4 weeks, totaling 387 randomly selected chats, excluding chats in French or submitted via SMS. The data was partially deidentified by removing the institution name and operator name from the metadata. Chats were assessed over the time period of September 2020 to August 2021, and excluding SMS and French queues.

Chats were coded as either reference or customer service questions. For each category, chats were assigned a simple “yes” or “no” based on whether they met the standard as identified in our codebook. Coders could enter a free text explanation of why a chat did not meet the standard, and these explanations were later grouped and analyzed to understand specific areas that needed improvement.

Findings
The development and testing phases were the most important and the most intensive parts of this assessment. We were able to build cohesive understandings of our service standard and a strong codebook; with this, our actual assessment was done quite quickly.

Overall, the vast majority of chats met our standards of service. In the categories Approachability, Interest, Teaching, and Answering, a collective average of 93.5% met our standards. In the category of Wrap-Up, 96% met our standard, but a sub-question of whether the user was invited to return only had a rate of 66%.

Practical implications or value
This assessment identified important areas to focus on during the training and retraining of our operators, as well as the essential service metrics to look for going forward. This initiative provided the first data-driven assessment of our service quality and demonstrated our current high service standard. With the methods and findings of this study, we hope other virtual services can apply similar strategies for quality assurance assessments.

Purpose and goals
Libraries must find ways to demonstrate how they successfully contribute to student learning and support institutional goals. This study assesses the impact of a library workshop series on first-generation college students attending a mid-size community college. The goal of the assessment is to understand the relationships between first-generation college students, library instruction workshops, and the success metrics of retention and grade point average.

Design, methodology, or approach
Drawing on two years of assessment data and analysis, the poster details how the workshop series has affected first-generation college students’ grade point average and retention. Data was obtained from the Office of Institutional Effectiveness and the Office of e-Learning. First-generation student attendance will be compared against their continuing generation peers in an attempt to find statistically significant results in retention and grade point average.

Findings
In the literature, conclusions vary on the relationship between library instruction and retention and graduate point average. Wong and Cmore’s 2011 found a positive correlation between library instruction and student achievement while Soria et al. 2014 found that library workshops had no impact on student retention or cumulative GPA. There needs to be more research on library instruction and student success outcomes. This study tentatively anticipates a positive relationship between first-generation students attending library workshops and higher grade point average and retention. (Results will be available and added to the poster before the conference.)

Soria, K. M., Fransen, J., & Nackerud, S. (2014). Stacks, serials, search engines, and
students’ success: First-year undergraduate students’ library use, academic
achievement, and retention. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 40(1), 84–91.

Wong, S. H. R., & Cmor, D. (2011). Measuring association between library instruction
and graduation GPA. College and Research Libraries, 72(5), 464–473.

Practical implications or value
This study contributes to the growing body of research on library instruction and student success outcomes. It can be used as an example of how to demonstrate library impact and value with campus stakeholders and encourage other librarians to gather data and conduct research on outcomes assessment.

Purpose and goals
Faculty-created research assignments are the primary vehicle through which students develop research experience and information literacy skills. Librarians, as information experts, seek to teach both research and information literacy skills to students, but typically play little to no role in designing student research experiences. We identified a need to better understand the research assignments that faculty give to students, from the design of the assignment to faculty assessment of the end product.

We are currently conducting a study that seeks to answer the following research questions:

1. Why do faculty choose to assign a research project to students in a particular class? What are their intended outcomes for students when they assign research projects? How do faculty design and develop these assignments?
2. What are faculty perceptions of the research assignments students submit to them?
3. Do faculty teach research skills to their students? If so, what do they teach and how do they do it?

Design, methodology, or approach
We have conducted in-depth, semi-structured interviews with faculty who teach in UDC’s general education writing sequence and plan to analyze our qualitative interview transcript data using inductive thematic analysis.

Findings
We have not yet begun formal analysis of our data, but these themes may emerge:

Faculty typically had little formal training on conducting research, or exposure to information literacy, during their own education. As such, they have had to learn to teach research through the process of teaching itself, by trial and error and by experimenting with assignments. There may be a divergence in assignment types between younger and older faculty.
Faculty explicitly teach, or work with librarians to teach, research and carefully scaffold their assignments because students come to their classes with extremely different previous experiences in research and writing. However, since general education writing classes attempt to achieve large numbers of learning outcomes, finding time to adequately teach research skills is challenging.
Faculty want their assignments to be relevant to students’ lived experiences and hope to increase students’ consideration of themselves as scholars who offer unique and important perspectives.
Faculty find that the quality of student work varies significantly. They would most like for students to deepen their exploration and strengthen their evaluation of information sources.

Practical implications or value
Our project is essentially a needs assessment that will help us identify opportunities to better support the development of student information literacy and research skills through instruction and other interventions. It will also help us assess faculty’s current understanding of student research and how the library can better support their research assignment design and professional development related to information literacy. Ultimately, by contributing insight into faculty members’ planning and perception of student research, we hope our project will help us achieve our goals of supporting student research experiences and learning outcomes.

Purpose and goals
Gamified orientation and information literacy programs can help get students into the library and show them a good time, but do they actually teach the students anything? This poster session will show how our team used multiple methods to assess and evaluate a first-year orientation escape room.

Design, methodology, or approach
We designed the program to incorporate a pre- and post-test to monitor the students’ new and known information, an experience survey to allow for improvements during later iterations, and collaboration with the Office of Institutional Research to follow the students through the semester and beyond.

Findings
Current conclusions show that the students gained knowledge of library services and resources that they did not have prior to participating in the program. The findings from the Office of Institutional Research, which include GPA, retention, and searching behavior are still being processed.

Practical implications or value
The value of the multiple assessments, including following the participating students as they move through their college career, is to show that this type of program, which on the surface is just for fun, can make a difference in how participating students interact with the library, to their benefit.

Purpose and goals
Embedding information literacy outcomes into undergraduate general education courses is one approach to integrating information literacy across an academic curriculum. However, the measurements of these outcomes is challenging if library time or staff expertise is lacking to create local assessments. This paper analyzes the use of one standardized information literacy assessment, the Threshold Achievement Test for Information Literacy (TATIL) and two modules of TATIL: Evaluating Process and Authority, and Strategic Searching. These modules are currently employed as pretests and posttests in the University Libraries and Archives’ General Education course, UL100 – Research Skills, Information and Technology. In Fall 2020 and Fall 2021, the library collaborated with the Office of Institutional Effectiveness to utilize these modules as pretests and posttests in sections of undergraduate General Education Courses. A goal of this project is to create a benchmark for basic information literacy competencies across the General Education curriculum measured against competencies taught in UL100.

Design, methodology, or approach
Emporia State University’s General Education program includes a Core Skill Goal, “Demonstrate effective skills in Information Technology and/or Information Literacy Skills.” UL100 ifulfills this goal and the curriculum is grounded in the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education. Similarly, TATIL incorporates several of the Frames and crosswalks with UL100 learning outcomes. In Summer 2020, Carrick Enterprises (the company for TATIL) offered a flat fee per academic institution for unlimited use of the TATIL modules in the 2020/21 academic year. The flat fee continued in 2021/22. The ESU Instruction and Assessment Librarian and the Assistant Provost for Institutional Effectiveness reached out early in both semesters to faculty teaching General Education courses which appeared to incorporate the ACRL Framework into their student learning outcomes. In Fall 2020, 106 students took the Evaluating Process and Authority pre-test and post-test, and 105 students took the Strategic Searching pre-test and post-test. In Fall 2021, 77 students completed both modules’ pre-tests and post-tests. Students in the General Education courses who were concurrently enrolled in UL100 sections those semesters took the TATIL tests as part of UL100, and their results were analyzed separately.

Findings
Results from Fall 2020 and Fall 2021 show an overall increase on the posttests in students’ knowledge of evaluating resources and searching skills. UL100 students concurrently enrolled in the participating General Education course sections had a greater increase in both semesters between the pretests scores and the posttests scores. The tentative conclusion indicates that UL100 may have a positive impact upon these students’ information literacy competencies, compared to the General Education students who are not taking UL100 concurrently.

Practical implications or value
The evidence will help the Libraries and Archives faculty connect with other General Education faculty to identify core information literacy competencies for students in the courses. The project is also a key document for ESU’s Higher Learning Commission Comprehensive Review in 2024.

Purpose and goals
The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated creation and use of asynchronous digital learning objects (DLOs) in academic libraries. These DLOs provide library instruction on topics such as Academic Integrity, Searching Databases, Evaluating Sources, and Reading Scholarly Articles.

While there is a strong, renewed emphasis on in-person engagement on our campus, there continues to be strong use of asynchronous library DLOs. Librarians developed a lightweight, sustainable method of assessment to understand this trend, using DLO metadata, surveys, and semi-structured interviews. This assessment allows greater understanding of how faculty integrated library-created Canvas modules into their courses, how faculty characterized the broader learning objectives of the modules in context with their discipline, and what motivated faculty to choose this asynchronous method of library instruction.

Design, methodology, or approach
Librarians obtained data detailing course websites that imported one or more of the library modules from Canvas Commons during the 2021-2022 academic year. A questionnaire was designed and sent to faculty for these courses: 90 Fall 2021 courses taught by 55 individual faculty, and 81 Winter 2022 courses taught by 52 faculty. We removed 11 faculty from the Winter list who were contacted about Fall courses, which resulted in 41 unique faculty to whom we sent the Winter survey. 17 surveys were completed for an 18% response rate. Interviews were then conducted with 6 faculty who volunteered to talk in depth about their experiences.

Findings
Although response rates limit the extent to which findings can be generalized, the following themes were observed:

1. Instructors like the convenience of student review at any point during the semester
2. Instructors want discipline-specific examples in the modules, expressing willingness to collaborate with the Library to get tailored content or a specific module recommendation.
3. Instructors perceived that students prioritized multimedia content, expressing that this generation of students “won’t read things”. Some instructors noticed web accessibility features related to this content.
4. Instructors expressed that Library modules are valuable when they scaffold ways to practice research skills not necessarily tied to discipline content, and/or when used as a way to communicate and hold students to a common standard.

Practical implications or value
Understanding why and how faculty integrate asynchronous library instruction into university courses can significantly help libraries with strategic planning. Insight from this assessment will factor into future space-planning for onsite instruction; module design which meets the needs of faculty whether the modules are required or optional; differentiation of modules to reflect discipline or level of course; and how to meaningfully assess DLOs as both a communication tool and a learning object.