I think I need to take a 16 week class on how to be patient.  I really do feel like I am spending too much time waiting.  I am waiting to hear back from my "advisory group" on my survey and while I wait, I find myself making changes and starting a second survey--one of open questions and thinking it would really be nice to have a focus group.  It took 3 years to get an information literacy rubric developed and accepted by our general education council.  If that's the speed of deliberation, I shall resign myself to the fact that I will not see this needs assessment administered in time for my final paper. 

Rats!

Today, I read a column by Meredith Farkas called Asking the Right Questions: Meaningful assessment for learning.  It really does represent what my library does.  But I know that we (as an academic division) are trying to improve our data collection.  LibAnalytics is a product that we are trying to purchase.  The hold-up is the technology requirements and getting that all worked out.  However that works out, I don't think this product will really give us the kind of data that we need.  We don't want to collect data that may tell us that what we are doing is broken especially if we don't believe it is and we have data to prove this.

I continue to refine questions.  I have quite a few but only think 3 are in shape to share with my "advisory team".

What a week!  I had a few difficult classes that have led me to question the entire content of my "class".  I'm also finding it difficult to reconcile all the different surveys I'm reading with how thing operate here.  Several of them include disclaimers or statements to the fact that the survey is sanctioned by the college.  I really believe in the need for my library to know how faculty see us but convincing others--there in lies the rub.  The invite for guidance and advice with this project is still in my draft folder because I'm concerned that others don't share my feelings on the subject.  We, as a library, create Black Board modules, handouts, and LibGuides all designed to help faculty.  But I don't think we ever asked faculty what they want.  And if we did ask faculty, it was only selected faculty from one program and only in conversation with one librarian.  But I can't really speak to it because what if the responses we get from my assessment (knock wood!) are from those selected faculty?  Would we be any better off?  Or we could get responses that reveal our modules and guides to be a complete waste of time because faculty really want videos or some other type of product.  Who's ego will be bruised or validated? 

I have discovered either a) a new mania that only librarians suffer or b) a new law of motion that says a librarian will research a question until acted upon by another research question.

I started by looking for past surveys and studies into the information literacy skills of faculty.  The first fork in the road led me to surveys about how faculty perceive librarians as instructors of information literacy and finally I found studies into faculty awareness (or lack thereof) of the library and what it does.  I would still be traveling along this road had I not been given another "research question".  Pick a date for my portfolio and oral examination.  Now I must research my calendars.

Despite this, I do feel I am making progress in understanding my task.  I have found several surveys that give me ideas about the structure of my survey.  Friday is slow at my library so I will spend some time inviting people to sit at my "assessment table".

After our monthly all-staff meeting, the library instruction staff meets to discuss exercises, presentations, technology, etc.  Today's meeting was about library exercises and based on the discussion, I wonder if I am planning something that just will not work for the population.  Our reference/instruction librarian, Kevin,  has several exercises that he has developed in conjunction with specific instructors.  The assignments all address one or more of the ACRL information literacy comptencies, they all take time to administer as the assignments are designed NOT as homework but as classwork.  The thing that struck me is that through his position, Kevin has cultivated strong relationships with these faculty members.  While the exercises are very good, they are not something I would be doing in my randomly assigned 75 minute English 111 class or even an ESL class.  Kevin represents the library and the value of the library to these faculty members in a very personal way, almost to the point where he has become a brand.  Can my assessment generate enough responses to be meaningful?  Will I only get responses from those who have already been working with Kevin?  I hope these questions can be answered through my assessment design.  Either that or I am just having a bit of self-doubt.

My goal this weekend:  read the first set of articles I've found on surveys of faculty attitudes towards libraries.

Today, I began reviewing some of the literature I had found regarding attitudes and awareness of academic library services by faculty.  I probably should have started this sooner but 10 inches of snow can stop almost anything.  I have not gotten into any articles past the abstract and introduction and I can already see that most are looking into what faculty think of the library and its services in terms of helping the student, not in how the library can help the faculty member.  I will most like be doing another round of literature searching after this.

I have been in talks with Kevin, our Reference and Instruction Librarian, mostly by the coffee maker in the mornings. He is a member of the Council on General Education and someone who will be able to give me some insight as to how to move this assessment along into other channels.  Definitely someone I am glad to have a my table!

Today I met with Hector, the coordinator of the Faculty Staff Resource Center (FSRC).  The FSRC offers training on software such as Camtasia, Prezi, Google Apps, iPad, as well as Microsoft Office products and Blackboard.  It occurred to me that Hector might have done some kind of survey to determine what programs he offers the faculty and staff.  He in fact had done one a few years ago.  He said the survey was not very useful.  Although his questions were reviewed by the dean, Hector did not get useful data.  He asked the faculty to rate their interest in certain types of software and technology.  Most expressed little interest or had no awareness.   Hector included a section for comments.  Faculty only seemed interested in learning more about Blackboard.

As for administering his survey, he obtained permission from the VP of Institutional Research to administer the survey but Hector did not know he was supposed to go through Web Services and Digital Media (WSDM) as they run the college "Survey Monkey" account.  This was disappointing to Hector as after a certain amount of time, he lost access to the data.  Currently he uses Google forms and sends these directly to people who have taken classes through the FSRC.  He gets better data and maintains contact with the faculty.  This kind of grassroots approach actually works better for him as he is woefully understaffed.

I am so glad I thought to speak with Hector.  He was kind enough to send along a copy of the final results of his survey.   

The beginning of my journey into creating an assessment

Back in January, a new psychology instructor stopped by the library. He was coming to our college after 20 years in the private field. He remembered the library from his college days being paper indexes, file cards and microfilm, but was also aware that things had changed tremendously since he was last in school. To him, a simple tour should “catch him up” on all the changes that had occurred. He actually ended up spending almost 45 minutes talking with me and our Reference/Instruction librarian. And even then, I do not believe he is actually “caught up”. This is the impetus for my capstone project. I want to do a needs-assessment to determine the level of information literacy skills of faculty. I want to know their awareness of library services and resources. The data and information from this assessment will help my library market the library to faculty and allow for certain educational programs to be designed that specifically address the needs of faculty. Right now, I am conducting my literature review. There are assessments on the information literacy skills for adult students but nothing for faculty as of yet. I am still looking. At my college, we have a Faculty Staff Resource Center. This office is in the same division as the library so it's very easy for me to ask the director how his center determines what classes to offer. If he does any kind of assessments, I should be able to use some of his questions to help in mine.