ACRL Assessment Discussion Group

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Charge: To provide a forum for assessment librarians – and those with responsibility for, and interest in, library assessment – to discuss methods, training, results, impact, institutional needs and challenges, and seek solutions to common problems faced by the library assessment community.
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Welcome to a new DG year! (hello from the DG co-conveners)

  • 1.  Welcome to a new DG year! (hello from the DG co-conveners)

    Posted 16 days ago

    Wishing the greater lib-assess community well and welcome, everyone, to a new Assessment DG year!  Anita Hall and I continue on as the DG co-conveners, and she and I are looking forward to meeting up before the fall to scheme plan some engaging activities for the year.

    We were starting to build some energy in our periodic meet up's, so we hope to build on that in the coming year...perhaps adding some guest speakers/bigger events.

    Summer is a great time to re-assess (ha!) the various kinds of assessment work we're all doing...large-scale projects, small one-off's...and everything in between.

    But it's also an important time, if you can, to set aside time to recharge.  The topic of burnout and "there are 100 projects I 'should' be doing and only one me!" feelings came up a lot in our online conversations.  So if you can, slow it down.  Reflect.  Sketch out the grand ideas...but allow time for playing with ideas, scaling up and down, exploring how choosing the 3rd door on the left instead of the 2nd on the right might yield different (but interesting!) results too.

    I don't follow my own advice very well, in all honesty.  I tend to alternate between pushing myself to go-go-go, do-do-do. and collapsing into less productive "recovery" periods (more like post-activity dazes) before the next deep dive.

    Maybe we can find ways to solidify our assessment community to the point that we know where to turn when we need cheerleaders or commiserators.  I hold out that hope!

    You saw Nancy Turner's plug for the November Library Assessment Conference (LAC) in Portland, OR.  It's the only national gathering dedicated  this community (library assessment) entirely.  If you can (especially if you haven't been before): come!   And let's work on ways to keep the energy and feeling of connectedness of that biennial meeting going the rest of the time.

    I hope this community is one place we can do that!

    From me and Anita - take care of yourselves out there!

    Susanna Cowan
    Library Assessment Strategist
    UConn Library

    Anita Hall
    Assessment & Analytics Librarian
    University of Louisville Libraries



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    Susanna Cowan
    Assessment Strategist
    University of Connecticut
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