From: Steve Bosch <sbosch_at_bird.library.arizona.edu>
ANNOUNCEMENT: Saturday, June 28th 11:30-12:30 at the Moscone Center, Room
220 a hearing for a proposed "Guide to User's Needs Assessment for
Collection Development" will be held. As part of the Association for Library
Collection and Technical Services Collection Management Development
Section's Collection Development Guide Series, this guide will provide
information on how to conduct assessments of library user's information
needs for collection development purposes. The hearing is sponsored by ALCTS
CMDS Collection Development Issues for the Practioner Committee. Anyone who
would like to provide feedback on this guide is urged to attend or to
contact any of the authors.
DRAFT OUTLINE TO THE GUIDE TO USER'S NEEDS ASSESSMENT FOR COLLECTION
DEVELOPMENT
ALA ALCTS COLLECTION DEVELOPMENT FOR THE PRACTITIONER
DRAFT - JUNE, 1997
DORA BIBLARZ
ASSOCIATE DEAN - TQS/CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT
ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY
STEVE BOSCH
INFORMATION ACCESS LIBRARIAN
UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA
CHRIS SUGNET
SCIENCE-ENGINEERING LIBRARIAN
UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA
Draft outline
I. Why do needs assessment, defining the value of user assessments, the
"theory" concerning user needs assessment
A. Competition for resources forces shift in focus to include user needs
1. Public organizations are judged by how well they meet the needs of
their stakeholder with a focus on how useful this mission is to the
public and how well the organization achieves their mission
2. Resources are increasingly being allocated based on user
satisfaction
3. Accountability and strategic impact have to be concerns for public
institutions - expenditures must be justified as being cost
effective and important
4. We are the library, we are good, we are important - so we get
funded - this is no longer a valid assumption
5. Private entrepreneurs will compete with public organizations to
provide services - all markets are open - there are no sacred cows
6. Users will use those information services that are the most
convenient for them. If AOL and Compuserve offer indexes+ direct
links to information users may go there for information services.
Educational software providers are becoming more active in course-
pack publishing
7. Some academic users that were formerly taken for granted, as
Library services were "indispensable" (e.g., College of Extended
Education), can now opt for other options like coursepacs from copy
shops or other providers. The CEE is one example of the more
entrepreneurial aspects of the higher education scene of today and
the next 5-10 years.
B. When to undertake needs assessment projects
1. New programs / reallocation to meet new demands or the strategic
planning process
2. Program / budget cuts
3. Changes in user base
4. As part of regular budgeting process
5. As part of problem solving process
6. To help manage user expectations
7. Writing/updating CD policy statements
8. Before entering cooperative agreements or joining consortia
C. Benefits
1. Maximizes the potential that programs, collections, and services
serve user needs
2. Provides quantifiable context for allocation of resources and
program planning, and to provide justification for new resource
requests
3. Insures that resources are supporting users' objectives
4. Supports strategy of combining access and ownership in certain
disciplines to provide the best service
D. Cost/benefits issues
1. Dependent upon scope, assessment projects can require significant
resources in terms of staff time, materials (forms, etc.), or costs
for consultants
2. The expected outcomes / learnings of the project need to be
evaluated in terms of the cost of the doing the assessment and
(possibly) fine tune the assessment to correspond with the expected
outcomes/learnings" My point is that the assessment can be
expensive but still worth doing, so it may be re-thought to cut
some costs or more funding can be allocated to it since the outcome
is central to whatever else is going on
II. Types of assessment data that may be useful and how to gather and use
the data
A. Direct user Input - (surveys)
1. User information needs / use surveys
a. Exploratory data collection
(1). Focus groups
(2). Critical incident interviews
b. Direct mailing
c. Online forms
d. Random timed surveys
2. User "satisfaction" surveys
B. Surrogate data, data that describes current conditions
1. College/school enrollment data
a. Number of graduates/undergraduates
b. Degrees awarded
c. Number of, and distribution of credit hours
2. Demographic analysis of other types of user populations including
community profiles for public libraries
3. Faculty/staff demographics
4. Course offerings
5. Circulation/use statistics
a. Analyze circulation patterns of monographic/serial collections
b. Stats on patron requests for holds
c. In-house use statistics for both serials/monos
d. Photocopy activity
e. Electronic data-base gatecounts (data on how electronic
resources are used)
f. Gatecounts of patrons entering buildings
6. Collection statistics, evaluation of collection:
a. Number of titles/volumes
b. Age
c. Condition
d. Distribution of multiple copies in the collection, frequency of
use (or lack of it).
7. Interlibrary loan and document delivery statistics.
8. Library/parent organization strategic plans
9. Consortial agreements
10. Price indices, costs data
11. Analysis of organizations' external environment
a. Parent organization
b. Political , municipal / legislative environment
12. Materials Budget
C. Citation studies
1. ISI Impact factor / journal halflife analysis
2. Journal studies
3. Mono studies
D. Other library activities
1. Reference collection statistics and use statistics
a. Size, age of collections
b. Does it answer patrons questions
2. Instruction
III. Pointers and pitfalls
A. Unmet needs, id user groups that aren't being served, that are under-
served, under-represented including groups that are not "formally
recognized". These may include: diploma mills, charter schools,
private providers of ILL/doc del, and who knows how many other
information-needy constituencies. How do these groups impact services
and how should they impact assessments and service deign.
B. The "easy data is the right data" syndrome can lead to false data
models
C. Data that describes inputs and data that describes outputs can be
easily confused
IV. Scenarios
A. Possible scenario for needs assessment for new program
B. Possible scenario for needs assessment for reallocation of budget
C. Possible scenario for needs assessment for cooperative resource
sharing project
V. Suggestions for further information including references to published
works, unpublished examples, case studies, and web pages/internet
resources
VI. Glossary
Received on Sat Jun 14 1997 - 12:42:40 EDT