Karen Brown is a professor at Dominican University (River Forest, Illinois) in the School of Information Studies and teaches in the areas of assessment, collection management, foundations of the profession, and literacy and learning. Prior to joining Dominican University’s faculty in 2000, she developed and coordinated continuing education programs for the Chicago Library System, one of Illinois’s former regional library systems. She has also held positions focusing on collection development, reference, and instruction at the University of Wisconsin, the University of Maryland, Columbia University, and Bard College. She holds a PhD in media ecology from New York University and master’s degrees in library science and adult education from the University of Wisconsin.

- Description
- Table of Contents
- About the Authors
The Association of College and Research Libraries’ (ACRL) Assessment in Action (AiA) was a multiyear professional development program that ran from 2013 to 2016, funded in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and in partnership with the Association for Institutional Research and the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities. A central part of the ACRL Value of Academic Libraries initiative, it engaged more than 200 higher education institutions, generating evidence of library impact and advancing library leadership and evidence-based advocacy. This publication provides, in a single and comprehensive work, the story of AiA—the context surrounding its development, findings of the team-based assessment projects, insights about the program results, reflections about its impact, and recommendations for future directions.
In three sections—Results, Reflections, and Advancing Assessment to the Future—as well as eleven appendices of supporting material about the development and execution of the program, Shaping the Campus Conversation on Student Learning and Experience paints a vivid picture of the thinking that went into creating AiA, the results of the individual projects, the impact on participating teams, and the broader importance for the profession. While designed to capture the stories and successes of AiA, the book also provides effective strategies for applying the AiA findings and helping academic librarians develop assessments that result in meaningful impacts on their own campuses, using these assessments to better tell the story of the contributions libraries make.
Shaping the Campus Conversation on Student Learning and Experience serves anyone seeking to activate the results of the AiA program: academic librarians new to assessment; libraries that have ongoing assessment programs and are looking for new directions or ideas for expanding their efforts; librarians demonstrating to campus administrators the library’s impact on student learning and success; campus assessment officers and higher education administrators; and library and information science faculty and scholars.
PREFACE
INTRODUCTION. The Assessment in Action Program: A Cornerstone of the Value of Academic Libraries Initiative
Mary Ellen K. Davis and Cheryl A. Middleton
CHAPTER 1. Evidence of Academic Library Impact on Student Learning and Success: Advancing Library Leadership and Advocacy with Assessment in Action
Karen Brown
CHAPTER 2. Creating Sustainable Assessment through Collaboration: A National Program Reveals Effective Practices
Kara J. Malenfant and Karen Brown
CHAPTER 3. Academic Library Contributions to Student Success: Documented Practices from the Field
Karen Brown and Kara J. Malenfant
CHAPTER 4. Documented Library Contributions to Student Learning and Success: Building Evidence with Team-Based Assessment in Action Campus Projects
Karen Brown and Kara J. Malenfant
CHAPTER 5. Academic Library Impact on Student Learning and Success: Findings from Assessment in Action Team Projects
Karen Brown and Kara J. Malenfant
CHAPTER 6. Value of Academic Libraries Statement
Association of College and Research Libraries
Prepared by Adam Murray and Lorelei Tanji
CHAPTER 7. A Stone Soup Approach to Building Large-Scale Library Assessments
Mary O?Kelly
CHAPTER 8. Filling in the Potholes: Providing Smooth Pathways for Successful Library Instruction for First Year Students
Adam Brennan and Lisa Haldeman
CHAPTER 9. Building Campus Partnerships and Improving Student Success Through a Collaborative Drop-in Tutoring Service
Stephanie Bush
CHAPTER 10. Becoming Part of the Conversation through Assessment of Undergraduate Library Internships
Clinton K. Baugess and Kathryn S. Martin
CHAPTER 11. Positively Impacting the Library Experience of Aboriginal and International Students
Nancy Goebel
CHAPTER 12. You Spin Me Right Round (Like a Record); Or, Does the Assessment Loop Ever Truly Close?
Iris Jahng
CHAPTER 13. Don?t Wait for Them to Come to You: Partnering with Student Support Services
Katie Bishop
CHAPTER 14. Assessing Information Literacy for Transfer Student Success
Karen Stanley Grigg
CHAPTER 15. Opening Doors for Libraries on Campus and Beyond
Ken Liss
CHAPTER 16. Professional Development for Assessment: Lessons from Reflective Practice
Lisa Janicke Hinchliffe
CHAPTER 17. Assessing for Alignment: How to Win Collaborators and Influence Stakeholders
Stephanie Mikitish, Vanessa Kitzie, and Lynn Silipigni Connaway
CHAPTER 18. Reflecting on the Past, Looking to the Future
Lisa Janicke Hinchliffe
APPENDICES
APPENDIX A. Program Contributors and Participating Institutions
APPENDIX B. Connect, Collaborate, and Communicate: A Report from the Value of Academic Libraries Summits
Karen Brown and Kara J. Malenfant
APPENDIX C. Applying for the Assessment in Action Program
APPENDIX D. First Interim Narrative Report to Institute of Museum and Library Services
APPENDIX E. Second Interim Narrative Report to Institute of Museum and Library Services
APPENDIX F. Final Narrative Report to Institute of Museum and Library Services
APPENDIX G. Assessment in Action Syllabus 2015 - 2016
APPENDIX H. AiA Team Report Index: by Regional Accrediting Agency
APPENDIX I. Assessment in Action Comprehensive Bibliography
APPENDIX J. Assessment in Action Studies with Exemplary Design Elements
APPENDIX K. Progress Report on Planning Multi-Institutional Research on Library Value
ABOUT THE EDITORS