Notes: View the community notes Google doc for this session.
Session Type: Presentation
Slides: View session slides from Jody DeRidder and Ho Jung Yoo.
Session Description
Assessment is a necessity: in the face of diminishing resources and tremendous demand for online access to research materials, most of us are pressed to justify our need for funding, and seek to maximize our resources to best serve user needs and provide a strong return on investment. There are multiple facets to assessment: evaluating interfaces, content, benefits, and impact, comparing online services to user needs, and measuring costs. Building off of two sessions at last year’s conference, this session will address several of these facets in an effort to identify next steps toward developing best practices and guidelines. An important emerging area for evaluating impact of digital libraries is the use of altmetrics; Lagace will report on NISO’s current community effort to evaluate and standardize various forms of alternative impact measurements. Chapman will discuss a developing framework to assist institutions in developing viable cost estimates for proposed digitization projects. DeRidder will report on a qualitative study of faculty researchers utilizing a broad array of online primary source interfaces that identified gaps in services and unmet needs, and Yoo will present a case study evaluating the usability of the UCSD Digital Collections through user interactions with the website. Following these presentations, we will engage the audience in small group discussions about what steps should follow in efforts to develop best practices and guidelines for digital library assessment in key areas, and how best to proceed.
The DLF Assessment Working Group will host an assessment-themed lunch after this session to continue the conversation.
Session Leaders
Jody DeRidder, University of Alabama
Joyce Chapman, Duke University
Nettie Lagace, National Information Standards Organization
Ho Jung Yoo, University of California, San Diego
