Evaluating Library Instruction

This easy-to-use guide offers a wealth of materials to assist you in planning and creating evaluation instruments for your library instruction program. It was prepared by a unit of the American Library Association, the Library Instruction Round Table Research Committee, whose members analyzed hundreds of evaluation forms gathered from all types of libraries, selecting the most consistently useful items. User-instruction programs are costly, and their effectiveness must be documented with hard data. But with busy staff, evaluation has often been more preached than practiced. One problem has been finding the expertise to create a valid measuring instrument that will provide effective results in a reasonable amount of time. Under the editorship of its chair, Diana Shonrock, the Research Committee has addressed these problems with a "recipe" book that simplifies the planning and creation of evaluation instruments. Here, in one expertly assembled guide, you will find step-by-step advice on survey planning and well over 500 sample questions for evaluation of class work, instructors, and instructional materials and equipment. No other guide offers this level of "plug-and-play" assistance to get your evaluation program under way or is more up-to-date in its coverage of the electronic aspects of modern library instruction.

How do you make the case that your library is a valuable instruction center? The Teaching Library helps librarians assess data on information literacy instruction programs so that they can better support the teaching role of the academic library in campus settings. This practical, professional resource features case studies from across the United States and Canadain both public and private institutionsthat offer a variety of evaluation methods. Here are the latest, easy-to-adopt ways of measuring your library's direct contribution to student learning, on-campus and off.

Snapshots of Reality is a practical book for instructional librarians. The chapters in this volume assume that classroom-based assessment does not have to take away from invaluable instruction time, nor does it have to be some overwhelmingly complicated task. Formative assessments are "bite-sized" assessments that help the librarian get a snapshot of the students' level of understanding in relation to the learning target(s). These mini-assessments are usually learning tools themselves and can be assessed quickly enough that the librarian can adjust his or her teaching on the spot to meet the immediate needs of their learners. This very practical book explores the adaptation of formative assessment theory into something that works for the library one-shot and more advanced instructor-librarian collaborations. It also includes 48 FAST (Formative Assessment Snapshot Technique) ideas and a guided planning template to help librarians seamlessly bring formative assessment into the library classroom. This book is appropriate for all types of academic libraries, school libraries with strong information literacy programs, and library and information school collections.

Introduction to library instruction; Getting people involved in library instruction; Planning an instructional program; Strategies for library orientation; Strategies for library instruction; Strategies for bibliographic instruction; Testing and evaluation; Library instruction through the library's design.