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6023 results in Facet Publishing

Page 197 of 302

  • 2 - Getting to grips with impact

  • from Part 1 - The Context
  • David Streatfield, Sharon Markless
  • Book:
    Evaluating the Impact of Your Library
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    23 December 2012, pp 23-32

  • Summary

    If you have decided to do some impact evaluation, or to try out the process, you may want to go straight on to Chapter 4. If you are interested in some of the difficulties inherent in evaluating impact and in gathering and interpreting evidence, read on.

    A metaphor and a model

    The language and underpinning concepts of performance measurement are often arcane and sometimes confusing. This is probably because the basic metaphor of performance indicators and targets and the associated vocabulary were developed by engineers when looking at system efficiency and appropriated by accountants to simplify and ‘measure’ the complex world of managing organizations.

    It is hardly surprising that the concepts of performance measurement work reasonably well when the library is considered as a more or less efficient operating system. Unfortunately for the accountants (often operating in their guise of management consultants), libraries do not exist simply to perform efficiently. The performance metaphor begins to break down when we look at what the service is trying to achieve and how well it is doing (or moving beyond easily measured ‘outputs’). In suggesting a way forward, we would like to stress that performance measurement based on system efficiency is important for libraries and should run alongside any work on evaluating impact. Efficiency is important – but so is effectiveness.

    Figure 2.1 outlines the traditional performance evaluation model. In this model, performance indicators are arrived at by looking successively at inputs, processes and outputs. Pursuing the engineering example, if you are in the business of manufacturing televisions, your inputs can be all the components that go together to make televisions. The processes will then be everything that you do in your production line to assemble the televisions. Your outputs are the completed and working televisions. In this model, if you want to look at the outcomes from the production process you can resort to aggregated outputs, by counting the total number of television sets produced (and probably also the proportion of these that work when switched on!).

    The engineering process model works reasonably well in complex organizations like libraries – but only up to a point. No amount of aggregation in library settings will usually tell you much about impact. Our next example shows where the problem lies.

  • 12 - Where do we go from here?

  • from Part 3 - The Bigger Picture
  • David Streatfield, Sharon Markless
  • Book:
    Evaluating the Impact of Your Library
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    23 December 2012, pp 207-220

  • Summary

    This chapter moves beyond the practical aspects of impact evaluation covered so far. It puts a toe in the water by introducing some issues and offers further sources to take up if you are interested in finding out more.

    What else do you need to think about if you want to take impact evaluation seriously? Evaluation can be too narrow, too shallow, too short term or undertaken too soon. We discuss these concerns below and then look at the scope for benchmarking around impact and at where all this work fits with the increasing emphasis on evidence-based library work.

    Getting impact evaluation right

    The process introduced in the main part of this book is intended to be practical and to meet the immediate impact evaluation needs of library service managers looking at accountability or seeking to develop their services (or to survive). To keep things as straightforward as possible, we have concentrated on evaluating the impact of parts of your service, especially those parts where you are trying to make a real difference to specific target groups of users or potential users. We have tried to take account of the unprecedented major change that is going on in the library world, especially in relation to electronic service provision and digital literacies, as well as the funding crisis occurring in many countries.

    Even so, there is a danger that impact evaluation carried out by service managers can miss important parts of the picture. In particular, there is a risk that impact evaluation can be too narrow in its focus (so that the big picture is missed), too shallow in its execution, too short term (getting instant feedback can be easy but may also be very misleading), and it may miss important change altogether if it is done too soon. How can we avoid these traps?

    Getting Beyond The Narrow Focus

    Social capital

    How can we look at the big questions about how libraries contribute to the cohesion and development of their communities or organizations? One way of exploring this theme is through the concept of social capital – defined as the stock of active connections among people in a community, or the trust, mutual understanding, and shared values and behaviours that bind the members of human networks and communities and make co-operative action possible (Cohen and Prusak, 2001).

  • 11 - Doing national or international evaluation

  • from Part 3 - The Bigger Picture
  • David Streatfield, Sharon Markless
  • Book:
    Evaluating the Impact of Your Library
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    23 December 2012, pp 183-206

  • Summary

    This chapter is aimed at people who are interested in evaluating libraries at national or international level. The issues covered, including changes in thinking about international development impact evaluation and about ethical evaluation, and current developments in evaluation of public access computing, may also interest other readers.

    Looking at the national and international picture

    In this chapter we try to draw out some of the lessons that we have learnt from our impact evaluation work in various countries, and especially our international work for the Global Libraries Initiative (GL) and the International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA). We have tried to be cautious in generalizing too far because no two international projects are alike but some of the impact evaluation issues are likely to recur in some form in any large-scale projects.

    (For more information about the Global Libraries Initiative see the note (1) to the introduction of this book. More information on the two IFLA work areas with which we have been involved, can be found in this note.)

    Negotiate the terminology

    Our international evaluation work has made one thing clear: the technical terms that we have suggested at the beginning of this book will not work across the board. We know from our involvement with impact specialists in different countries that some of the terms that we use, such as ‘impact’ and ‘advocacy’, do not readily translate into several East European languages (for instance Lithuanian or Romanian), at least if we wish to convey the same sense. Other terms, such as ‘assessment’, are used in particular and conflicting ways by different parts of the evaluation community (in UK education research, where assessment normally relates to student performance, versus US causation studies, where it denotes qualitative evaluation), and still others, such as the term for ‘evidence’ when referring to social science research evidence, has a different level of meaning in particular countries (such as Sweden – where it conveys the sense of legal proof). It is important to check out meanings of any potentially confusing evaluation words when working at international or national levels.

    Respond to the national impact challenge

    The world of library impact evaluation is changing, as politicians wrestle with the fall-out from the global economic crisis and every type of service is called into question.

  • Afterword: ‘Ownership is a flawed concept’

    • By Katy Wrathall, Katy Wrathall worked in IT for 15 years before undertaking the BA in Library and Information Management at Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU), where she attained First Class Honours and two Dun & Bradstreet Awards.
  • Edited by Jane Secker, Emma Coonan
  • Book:
    Rethinking Information Literacy
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    23 December 2012, pp 131-140

  • Summary

    Implementing the curriculum was the natural next phase after the creation and publication of ANCIL. The subsequent Arcadia Programme project, Strategies for Implementing ANCIL,1 had two separate but complementary strands, one a 12-week project examining methods of implementing ANCIL within the University of Cambridge, and the other a 10-week project investigating strategies within non-Cambridge higher education institutions (HEIs). The focus of this latter investigation of potential strategies within non-Cambridge HEIs was to identify existing provision of information literacy teaching and find out which members of staff are involved in the delivery.

    Information literacy has long been believed to be primarily the domain of academic librarians. In 1999 the SCONUL Information Skills Taskforce echoed Biddiscombe's (1999) assertion that ‘There are few academic library services that do not now regard the teaching of information skills as an important part of their mission’, arguing that:

    This is evident from recent trends of activity in this area of work, identified from data supplied by the Library and Information Statistics Unit at Loughborough University. The average number of hours spent by library staff providing orientation and post-orientation for students in SCONUL institutions has increased over the last six years from 13 hours to 22 (per 100 full time equivalent students).

    SCONUL (1999, 7)

    The SCONUL research revealed some variations, and showed that in new universities library staff spent more time teaching – increasing over the previous six years 1993–1999 from 22 to 28 hours – whereas the research-led universities tended to spend less time on teaching (the figures were 6 to 17 hours). The report concluded that, despite the variation in time spent, the trend was clearly increasing overall: the ‘number of users receiving orientation or post-orientation sessions is increasing overall from 36% to 46%, while appearing to be constant in the “new” universities at 60%’ (SCONUL, 1999, 7).

    Information literacy teaching has developed considerably since SCONUL first launched its Seven Pillars of Information Literacy. There is also a growing understanding that:

    Librarians alone can not provide an effective information literacy program for the entire student body on campus. When departmental faculty and librarians share the responsibility for the information literacy program, it can be implemented with a more coherent and systematic approach throughout the campus ….

  • Strand Ten - The social dimension of information

    • By Helen Webster, Dr Helen Webster researched and lectured in Modern Languages, with a DPhil and teaching profile in Medieval German Literature, until 2005.
  • Edited by Jane Secker, Emma Coonan
  • Book:
    Rethinking Information Literacy
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    23 December 2012, pp 119-130

  • Summary

    Strand Ten is perhaps the most transformational of all the strands as the learner evolves into a lifelong learner, developing a critical awareness of how their learning will continue beyond formal education. The strand supports the development of strategies for assimilating new information as well as information-handling, problem-solving and decision-making skills for the workplace and for the choices of daily life. Strand Ten also includes an understanding of the ethics and politics of information, so the learner develops strategies for assimilating and analysing information that might challenge their world view.

    We first met Helen through her work on the Transkills project at the University of Cambridge, which seeks to facilitate the transition of first-year undergraduates from their prior learning experiences to study at university. It quickly became clear that there were many parallels between our work and Helen's project, and her background as a learning developer also led to many fascinating conversations. Transition is an important theme throughout ANCIL, appearing not only in Strand One (Transition into higher education) but perhaps more importantly in this final strand, as the transition out of the academic environment into lifelong learning. Helen's experience as an academic and learning developer, as well as her subsequent Arcadia research from October to December 2012 to explore strategies for implementing ANCIL, make this case study to explore the final tenth strand particularly welcome.

    Background and institutional context

    As a new profession, learning development draws on and complements various other professions which offer teaching, coaching, guidance and advice on information literacy, from subject lecturing, counselling, careers and disability support, to librarianship (see Hilsdon, 2011, 13–27). Those working in learning development may be located in various institutional contexts under different job titles, and bring with them a variety of professional backgrounds and theoretical frameworks (Murray and Glass, 2011). Some are located in Student Services, others in libraries, others in faculties and departments, and all work closely with colleagues from these sectors across an institution. Much of my work as a learning developer has taken the form of one-to-one sessions, experience which has been invaluable in informing my workshop provision and resource development with a learner-centred perspective.

  • Introduction

  • Edited by Jane Secker, Emma Coonan
  • Book:
    Rethinking Information Literacy
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    23 December 2012, pp xv-xxx

  • Summary

    We live in the age of information, where the physical, economic and social barriers that previously stemmed the flow of knowledge have been largely broken down by the internet and related technologies. This is the digital age, where computers and technologies are supremely powerful and the potential that they offer to human endeavour and particularly to education is great. However, in this world of digital information it is more critical than ever before to ensure that citizens of the world are information literate. People need the skills and values to enable them not just to access information but to use it to make informed judgements and choices, to make their voices heard and make a difference. Librarians have recognized this for many years and call these skills and values ‘information literacy’.

    Information-literate people are discerning in their choice of information sources and their use of knowledge. They are judicious citizens who can use information to transform their circumstances, create new knowledge and reach their full potential. There is a growing recognition that simply providing access to information through digital technology is not enough. There is a need to develop individuals with the ability to ask questions of the information they find and to evaluate sources critically. These abilities are recognized by UNESCO as human rights, fundamental to democracy (UNESCO, 2005) and they should be a goal for educators everywhere.

    Information literacy is particularly crucial for young people as they progress through school, further and higher education and into the place of work, but we also must ensure that everyone, whether retired or working, young or old, rich or poor, is equipped with these vital abilities. Educators are preparing children and young people for a world in which change is inevitable. Computing power has developed at such a speed that tasks that previously required large computers filling a room can now be undertaken using a device that fits in our pockets. It is a seemingly impossible task for teachers to prepare the child born in 2012 for careers and professions that they cannot imagine. Yet if the pace of technological development over the past 25 years continues, our need for an increasingly skilled and digitally literate population will only become more critical.

  • 4 - Putting the impact into planning

  • from Part 2 - Evaluating Impact
  • David Streatfield, Sharon Markless
  • Book:
    Evaluating the Impact of Your Library
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    23 December 2012, pp 61-68

  • Summary

    This chapter introduces the model for evaluating impact and makes some points about how to use it. You are then invited to start using the model by thinking about the answers to some general questions. Answering these questions is an important step to take in moving into the impact evaluation model.

    Why do we need a new evaluation model?

    The balance between service delivery, detailed consideration of processes and impact evaluation is critical when assessing the success of a service. However, our experience suggests that the balance is usually heavily weighted away from impact evaluation. Ever since we first began to work systematically with library and information service managers on impact, two points have been apparent:

  • The concepts and terminology get in the way. People easily become confused about such ideas as efficiency and effectiveness when they try to apply them in practice. Not only that but the terms used, such as inputs, processes, outputs and outcomes (and higher order outcomes) are applied inconsistently, both by managers in practice and in some of the published literature on performance evaluation.

  • When people identify an area for attention or improvement they can usually come up with a list of things to do to put it right. Generally speaking, however, people find it much harder to think about the aims and objectives underlying what they are trying to do (that is, what they are trying to achieve by providing services). Unfortunately, this focus on aims is necessary: we need to be very clear about what we are trying to achieve if we want to be able to tell whether we have succeeded. Since people are usually more comfortable with organizing and running activities, their focus on impact often gets fuzzy – when this happens we slide off into identifying process performance indicators (or ‘tick off when done’ indicators). These tell us whether things on the list have been done, but they don't tell us whether they were worth doing, or indeed whether they have had any effect.

    • Our response to these two challenges is to offer a process for people to work through to help to get to grips with impact. We have used this general approach with more than a thousand library and information service managers and have adapted it for all kinds of settings – from school libraries to universities and from public libraries to business and industry.

  • Strand Seven - The ethical dimension of information

    • By Lyn Parker, Lyn Parker is Head of Learning and Teaching Enhancement and Copyright Compliance Officer at the University of Sheffield Library.
  • Edited by Jane Secker, Emma Coonan
  • Book:
    Rethinking Information Literacy
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    23 December 2012, pp 79-94

  • Summary

    Where Strand Three aims to articulate, explore and develop the academic literacies of reading and writing within the student's disciplinary context, Strand Seven builds upon these competences to explore ethical values around information use. This includes ‘need-to-know’ issues such as referencing and attribution, plagiarism, copyright and intellectual property guidelines; however, it also opens the way for rich discussion around where the borderline between bad scholarship and unethical or illegal behaviour lies. This approach creates opportunities for students to move beyond black-and-white usage guidelines and towards an informed and nuanced appreciation of the ethics of information.

    Lyn is Secretary of the CILIP Information Literacy group and a member of the Universities UK (UUK) Copyright Working Group. She took part in the ANCIL expert consultation which helped inform and shape the final curriculum. Specializing in copyright, intellectual property and learning and teaching developments at Sheffield University, Lyn's expertise in the ethical aspects of information literacy made her the natural choice for a Strand Seven case study.

    Institutional context

    The University of Sheffield is in the Top Ten of the Russell Group of leading research-intensive universities and was named ‘University of the Year’ 2011 in the Times Higher Education awards. The priority themes of the university's Learning and Teaching Strategy 2011–16 include internationalization, employability, research-led learning and developing communities of learning. The University Library has aligned its Strategic Plan and Objectives with those of the university. Within Learning and Teaching, the aim is to work in close partnership with departments to embed information literacy into the curriculum while engaging students in an understanding of their transferable skills. The university has the aspiration that all Sheffield students should be information literate when they graduate. Faculty librarians liaise with course leaders to design appropriate activities and assessment to ensure this is achieved.

    This case study reflects on various projects at the university which come under the heading of ethical use of information. It starts with the development of an online plagiarism tutorial and quiz, which supports the university's Unfair Means policy and guidance; shows the need for increased copyright awareness among both staff and students, and how this has been achieved through the development of a Copyright Hub, bringing together guidance from various departments within the University;

  • Conclusion

  • Edited by Jane Secker, Emma Coonan
  • Book:
    Rethinking Information Literacy
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    23 December 2012, pp 141-146

  • Summary

    [O]ur society and all of its institutions are in continuing processes of transformation…. We must learn to understand, guide, influence and manage these transformations. We must make the capacity for undertaking them integral to ourselves and to our institutions. We must, in other words, become adept at learning.

    Schon (1973, 28)

    One of the greatest challenges for education has always been to help students to develop a questioning mind – an outlook which necessitates a critical approach to dealing with information and the capacity to evaluate and synthesize multiple perspectives on an issue. It also involves an understanding of how information is transformed into knowledge, and a recognition that learning is sometimes a challenging process, as it may involve assimilating new knowledge that challenges our world view.

    In earlier times, information, knowledge and learning were privileged and scarce commodities accessible only to an elite, and controlled and mediated by teachers, librarians and other ‘gatekeepers’. In the digital age, however, there is an abundance of information: knowledge and learning are more widely accessible than ever before, often in an unmediated form. The role of the librarian may be slowly evolving from the gatekeeper of knowledge, to a facilitator of learning, helping develop autonomy in students and impart a capacity for lifelong learning. Conversely, however, teachers and faculty observe that students, rather than becoming more independent in their approach to learning and more critical of the information they find, seem to be becoming less questioning and more dependent on teachers.

    The central role that information and knowledge plays in learning means that in any discipline there needs to be an explicit approach to dealing with them. In the library world we call that capability ‘information literacy’. Librarians are the natural partners to work with teachers to develop this learning framework in students, and to embed its development into the curriculum. This task is too big for one group in education to tackle alone and only by working together can we create a truly learner-focused environment. Yet perhaps the greatest challenge in the coming few years for those in the information and library profession is one of status and perceptions about their role.

Page 197 of 302