Evaluating the impact of your library

CHICAGO — Assessing impact is increasingly critical to the survival of services: managers now require comprehensive information about effectiveness, especially in relation to users. Outlining a rigorously tested approach to library evaluation and offering practical tools and highly relevant examples, the new second edition of “Evaluating the Impact of Your Library,” published by Facet Publishing and available through ALA Neal-Schuman, enables library managers to come to grips with the slippery concept of service impact and to address their own impact questions in their planning. Sharon Markless and David Streatfield fully update the text to include international approaches to qualitative library evaluation, new international research and current debates on the evolving nature of evaluation, as well as reflections on the importance of involving stakeholders and of evaluation to guide advocacy. Key topics include:

• The demand for evidence;
• Getting to grips with impact;
• Putting the impact into planning;
• Success criteria and impact indicators;
• Making things happen using activities and process indicators;
• Gathering and interpreting evidence;
• Taking stock, setting targets and development planning;
• Performing national or international evaluation;
• Next steps.

Markless is a senior lecturer in higher education at King's College, London and at the University of Surrey. She carries out research and consultancy work with Information Management Associates in the field of public, academic and school libraries. She is a trained teacher and was formerly a senior researcher at the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER). Streatfield leads Information Management Associates, a research, training and consultancy team working in education, health and libraries. He has more than 25 years of experience in educational and social sciences research and consultancy, including several years as head of information research and development at NFER.

The authors are independent impact consultants to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation's Global Libraries Initiative and have worked in a similar capacity for various overseas and international programs including the International Federation of Library Associations and the United National Development Agency in Bulgaria.

ALA Store purchases fund advocacy, awareness and accreditation programs for library professionals worldwide. Founded in 1976 by Patricia Glass Schuman and John Vincent Neal, ALA Neal-Schuman, now an imprint of ALA Publishing, publishes professional books for librarians, archivists, and knowledge managers. Contact us at (800) 545-2433 ext. 5418 or editionsmarketing@ala.org.

Related Links

"Evaluating the Impact of Your Library, Second Edition"

"Assessing Service Quality: Satisfying the Expectations of Library Customers, Second Edition"

"The Quality Library: A Guide to Self-Improvement, Better Efficiency, and Happier Customers"