The vibrant 2010 Library Assessment Conference, held October 25–27, 2010 in Baltimore, attracted more than 470 professionals interested in library assessment.
The robust program offered plenary sessions from keynote speakers Fred Heath (University of Texas), Joe Matthews (JRM Consulting), Danuta Nitecki (Drexel University), Megan Oakleaf (Syracuse University), and Stephen Town (University of York, UK), and from other experts in the field—Charles Lowry (ARL), David Shulenburger (Association of Public and Land-grant Universities), and Winston Tabb (Johns Hopkins University). The program offered presentations from more than 60 papers, 80 posters, and two full-day and four half-day workshops. Topics included teaching and learning, library space, service quality (LibQUAL+®), assessment in practice, organizational performance, value and impact, usability, qualitative assessment, digital libraries, information services, marketing and advocacy, collections, and more.
The Library Assessment Career Achievement awards were presented to three luminaries in the field—Gordon Fretwell, Roswitha Poll, and Kendon Stubbs. You can see the introductory speeches for Mr. Fretwell (Martha Kyrillidou, ARL) and Mr. Stubbs (Jim Self, University of Virginia) below. Roswitha Poll’s award was offered in absentia.
Multiple pre- and post-conference workshops focused on such specific issues as learning outcomes, LibQUAL+®, graphical data presentation, return on investment, the Balanced Scorecard, and telling the story of library value.
The conference featured an evening Poster Reception with 80 peer-reviewed posters including organizational performance, methods (including space and surveys), learning, collections, and LibQUAL+®. Poster authors came from around the world and from a variety of institutions.
During the reception, experts on each of the topics judged the posters on content (benefit for practice, appropriateness of methodology, etc.) and aesthetics (logical organization, visual attraction) to select twelve Judges’ Choice awards. From these twelve posters, attendees had the opportunity to vote on two People’s Choice awards for the posters.
Assessing Public Library Use of the Internet: A Sixteen Year Perspective
John Bertot, University of Maryland
Charles R. McClure, Florida State University
Striving for Excellence: Climate Matters
Shelley Phipps, University of Arizona
Brinley Franklin, University of Connecticut
Shikha Sharma, University of Connecticut
