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State Your Case and Prove It
The submitted article elaborates on a presentation given at the LAMA Preconference "Got Data, Now What?" on June 25, 2004, in Orlando, Florida.
The Current State of Assessment at Academic Libraries
For years now, many library conferences, workshops, and journal articles have focused on assessment-either the rationale or methods for conducting assessments or the results of assessments conducted. Web sites on assessment practices and programs proliferate, many of them specific to libraries. A simple Google search for "library assessment" in September 2004 retrieved 3,900,000 hits.
Fiscal realities, administrative concerns, and, for academic libraries, accreditation standards converge to necessitate the shift to a "culture of assessment" or "culture of evidence." Caught between the needs and expectations of users and the needs and expectations of administrators, and threatened by budgets that don't keep pace with the rates of inflation and change, librarians can sometimes feel as if they're living Edgar Allan Poe's "The Pit and the Pendulum." Users pressure libraries for easy, speedy, convenient access to quality full-text electronic resources; courteous, dependable, and effective service; and comfortable, aesthetic workspace-replete with a coffee shop or cafe. Administrators pressure libraries for satisfied users who are lifelong learners, peer comparisons that look good, a diversified workforce, cost-effective management, and successful fund raising. Competition for philanthropic and research dollars presents another pressure, as do the needs and expectations of staff for competitive salaries, ergonomie workspaces, and state-of-the-art equipment and software. All of these pressures constitute moving walls that encroach on the peace and contentment of libraries and librarians.
Meanwhile the sharp blade of fiscal reality hovers over us, swinging back and forth and inevitably lowering to where we cannot help but constantly see it. Newspapers report cutbacks in funding for education and libraries, and research indicates that the fiscal problems are long-term and structural. The Project on the Future of Higher Education (PFHE) conveys several dire messages. For the first time in thirty years, most college and university endowments are losing money. Private giving is steady or declining. And if higher education costs and revenues continue to grow at the rate they have in the past twenty years, higher education will face a shortfall of $38 billion by 2015. The PFHE urges deep change....