Comments on: Assessing social technologies in libraries

By: stevenb

stevenb — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 15:37:25 +0000

I imagine that when most libraries set up social network profiles, blogs, wikis, etc. they do so in experimental mode. There is no real design process involved. It’s more of a “let’s put it out there and see what happens”. Therefore assessment would be difficult if not impossible. You generally can’t assess something if there were no outcomes from the start. What is there to measure? If we stated our outcome as “reference questions will increase twofold and the new activity will come from facebook links” (not just user stats – but what made a difference)or “english 101 students will report improved academic success in response to a semester-end survey as a result of using the library’s wiki” then you could conduct assessment. It’s no different from information literacy. You need to start with outcomes that are measurable. Then, you just might be able to assess whether or not the outcomes were achived. Otherwise, it’s all guesses and anecdotal evidence (if that).

By: Bobbi Newman

Bobbi Newman — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 16:15:55 +0000

I’m definitely interested in the responded you get, especially the “how” aspect. At my library we’re using usage stats. That’s how we measure the success of our other endeavors like programing (how many people show up). I’d really like to see us asking people how they found out an event, etc. Our ventures in social networking are fairly new, so it’s hard to say the impact it will have over time.

By: Judi Kercher

Judi Kercher — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 03:47:51 +0000

In my research on library blogs which I just completed last month, I found that very few are assessing the impact of blog use.

By: AnnaLaura Brown

AnnaLaura Brown — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 03:28:37 +0000

At my small business college library we are using both a typepad blog for our library webpage and a wiki for our subject pages. So far it is going reasonably well. We are still trying to work out some bugs though.

By: Angela

Angela — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 18:43:17 +0000

At Michigan State, we’re still mainly counting tick marks when it comes to assessing our Web 2.0 efforts — individuals who are our fans on Facebook, number of photo views and contacts on Flickr (~3,000 and ~30 respectively, w00t!) — but I would love to see examples of some more substantial assessment efforts. How do we pin down impact and not just outputs?

By: Hazman Aziz

Hazman Aziz — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 23:17:44 +0000

If you want, you can follow my work. It is actually how you define Web 2.0 technology.I am on a dissertation mode developing a Design, Development and Evaluation of a Library’s Enquiry Automatic Feedback (LEAF) system. The product is up and running on the library site. It is just now left with the documentation “how I customised and deliver such product into a library environment.” This LEAF system has a little bit of business intelligence, knowledge based, able to move information into social sites (like facebook and friendster, CRM and marketing tools. In my paper, I will also just justify it the level of acceptance. You can check it out on my site, just click thesis cat. There are also other library projects, that I am developing, such as Business Library Blog (Corporate Style) and Gateway Page to all various library digital resource (Database 2.0). As, I am developing these, I will be doing survey and studies on the usuability portion.

By: Bruce Fulton

Bruce Fulton — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 21:46:44 +0000

Based on my own review in prep for teaching the Social Software course at the University of Arizona last semester, most libraries are falling short on program evaluation of social applications and programs, but there are several studies in the literature on the effectiveness of some particular things, such as virtual reference. Most of these are predominately encounter-based rather than outcome-based. I suspect most forays into social software are more or less ad hoc and underfunded, so I’m not surprised. But it’s a good question to raise. I had the class spend three weeks or so looking at literature on project management, the Logic Model, outcome-based evaluation and related topics. Their final project needed to include an evaluation plan, as most grant-funded programs (even from foundations) require it.

By: Michael Staton

Michael Staton — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 21:13:45 +0000

I should read your book. The funny thing about the book on the right is: I’m thinking I should chat with you and pick your brain, but you’ve done all this work to put your brain in a book. So I should read that before I ask you the basics like “How do you see social software used in libraries?” What do you all think of CourseSmart and Questia?

By: Jeff

Jeff — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 17:03:33 +0000

Here are some of my results. They are bit old, but I can update them:

http://gathernodust.blogspot.com/2007/05/library-20-usage-results.html

By: Stacey Greenwell

Stacey Greenwell — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 15:02:07 +0000

I’m not aware of anything immediately available, but expect an ARL SPEC Kit in the future on social software in libraries. I just completed the survey yesterday for Univ of KY, and assessment was addressed in the survey. More about the survey: http://www.arl.org/stats/specsurveys/