Ah, the famous ACRL Standards.\u00a0 I have heard so much about them, and there is a great deal packed into a fairly compact document.\u00a0 Floating on the shifting tides of accreditation committee standards, ACRL has gone a great way in simplifying and explaining what we have to do to meet accreditation standards, and in (fairly) plain language, provided guidance to get there (at least in our documentation).\u00a0 Outcomes assessment is necessary these days, whether you are in medicine or bicycle repair, so….<\/p>\n
Outcomes for libraries being measured by “…the ways in which library users are changed as a result of their contact with the library’s resources and programs” is a challenging task.\u00a0 We have to set up tasks and objectives that have measurable outcomes, then we have to measure the outcomes, and this may mean tracking outcomes (including graduation rates and employment history for academia) for years.\u00a0 How many things can go wrong here?\u00a0 Is simple better, or is it the only way?\u00a0 Sticking to ratio data (number of library holdings per student enrolled) may be simple, but is it a metric that is meaningful?\u00a0 Number of electronic holdings per student?\u00a0 In the UA annual report (http:\/\/www.lib.ua.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/admin\/AnnualReport2011-2012.pdf), I found metrics that made sense, including numbers of actual downloads per year—but outcomes…in search of outcomes.<\/p>\n
Using the first year experience and EN 102 as an example, I see great potential in the collaborative process and cooperation with EN faculty.\u00a0 To knit classroom objectives and facile use of library resources together is a win-win, clearly.\u00a0 This is not outsourcing of faculty responsibility to library personnel, rather it is an opportunity to reach students who have not yet been reached in their earlier academic careers.\u00a0 We can get to young scholars who have been satisfied up until now with the canned mushrooms of google and wikipedia, and bring them into the world of fresh mushrooms (if you can stand a kitchen analogy).\u00a0 Next thing you know, these same young folks will be doing their own balsamic vinegar reductions, deglazing with apple juice, or making their own pizza sauce in the academic world, thoughtfully searching for opposing views in order to sort their own feelings, forming their own philosophies, and contributing effectively to their own education (and their classmates’).\u00a0 Yay interdisciplinary work!\u00a0 Yay librarian educators!\u00a0 Yay thoughtful, skilled scholars who won’t take just anything for an answer!<\/p>\n
Excited?\u00a0 You betcha.\u00a0 Challenged?\u00a0 Even more than excited.\u00a0 Time to dig.\u00a0 Gotta go.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ah, the famous ACRL Standards.\u00a0 I have heard so much about them, and there is a great deal packed into a fairly compact document.\u00a0 Floating on the shifting tides of accreditation committee standards, ACRL has gone a great way in simplifying and explaining what we have to do to meet accreditation standards, and in (fairly) … Continue reading Reflections upon Standards for Libraries in Higher Education (ACRL)<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":462,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/apps.lib.ua.edu\/blogs\/instructionadventures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/apps.lib.ua.edu\/blogs\/instructionadventures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/apps.lib.ua.edu\/blogs\/instructionadventures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apps.lib.ua.edu\/blogs\/instructionadventures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/462"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apps.lib.ua.edu\/blogs\/instructionadventures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=313"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/apps.lib.ua.edu\/blogs\/instructionadventures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/apps.lib.ua.edu\/blogs\/instructionadventures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apps.lib.ua.edu\/blogs\/instructionadventures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apps.lib.ua.edu\/blogs\/instructionadventures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}