Subject Librarians

Indirect assessment provides information about the students’ perceptions, attitudes, and feelings toward what they are learning and how this learning is valued by the students. Methods include surveys, questionnaires, focus groups, interviews and self-reflections.

At the Woodruff Library, relevant data is available from the following surveys:

• The Libraries and Information Technologies survey offered every 3 years. Examples of relevant questions:
  • ​​Please rate the libraries contribution to your academic work (students); in particular, we ask them questions about “finding information and/or sources for assignments” and “preparing or presenting coursework.”
  • Please rate the libraries contribution to your academic work (faculty); in particular we ask a question about “supporting my students’ research needs.”
  • Overall satisfaction of instruction and consultation services provided by librarians and other library staff
  • What can we do better? Open-ended comment box

• Instruction survey of faculty who have used library instructional services. This survey is offered every 2-3 years. Examples of relevant questions:
  • Please rate how helpful you found each of the following instructional services for your students research assignments. 
    • I saw evidence of application of the library instruction in my students’ work.
  • Please elaborate or comment on any of the instructional services you found particularly useful (or not useful) for increasing the quality of student research assignments.

Additionally, an indirect assessment method that librarians can use at the end of a class session is the 1-minute paper. Students are asked to write about what they learned, what is still unclear, and how what they learned is important to their research.  Several sample “1-minute” or “The Minute Paper” templates are available online and from colleagues.

All instructors who used library instructional services during the 2016-2017 academic year, received this survey on May 4, 2017

1. What is your academic department/program?

2. Did you work with a librarian in developing a research assignment?

3. Please rate how helpful you found each of the following for your students' research assignments.

•          Librarian assistance with research assignment development

•          Course/Research guide (or page on Canvas)

•          Library instruction session

•          Student consultations with librarian

4. I saw evidence of application of the library instruction in my students' work. (Either in the sources used or in other aspects of their final product).

5. Please elaborate on any of the instructional services that increased the quality of student research or that you would like to see added.