Quality Measures for Libraries and Information Services.

The purpose of this article is to describe briefly two quality evaluation models for academic libraries: the Portuguese investigation proposes an action model to measure the performance of the libraries of the Universidade do Porto (UP). This tool is justified by the CAF – Common Assessment Framework (an auto-evaluation tool based on the European Foundation Quality Management Excellence Model), the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) and the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP); the PAQ – Quality of Products and Services Evaluation Program of the SIBi/USP, based on the Model SERVQUAL, is an assessment research implemented in the academic libraries of the Universidade de São Paulo (USP), in Brazil. The proposal has been presented as being viable and necessary for the management of the libraries of the SIBi/USP

Performance Evaluation of Medical Academic Libraries Based on DEA Approach

Medical academic libraries are required to exemplify and quantify the value of their services to their users and parent organizations. Using the Data Envelopment Approach (DEA) technique, this study reports and discusses the efficiency measurement of the 77 academic libraries in Type1 medical sciences universities in Iran. Eleven (11) input and outputs variables were selected to measure the efficiency and performance of the libraries. The selected variables were: Total volumes held, net volumes added during the research period, number of professional staff, and number of supporting staff (service, security, etc.). The total number of full-time students enrollment, full-time instructional faculties, total personal expenditures (professional and supporting staff), area of the libraries, library spaces, computers, and seating capacities. As representative variables of the services libraries provide to their users, we have selected as outputs opening hours per week, the number of registered readers/members (students, faculty, etc.), circulation transactions, and ‌the number of reader visits or attendance. The input-oriented BCC model analyzed libraries' efficiency and benchmarked each inefficient unit by determining and introducing similar efficient units in terms of services and multiple parameters. Out of the 77 libraries analyzed, 30 libraries were efficient, and 47 were ranked as inefficient. By addressing the performance details of each of the introduced units as a benchmark, the finding of this study can help the gatekeeper of these universities to plan and modify their library work plans to improve performance and achieve full efficiency.https://dorl.net/dor/20.1001.1.20088302.2022.20.2.16.1  

The Faculty Notebook, February 2008

The Faculty Notebook is published periodically by the Office of the Provost at Gettysburg College to bring to the attention of the campus community accomplishments and activities of academic interest. Faculty are encouraged to submit materials for consideration for publication to the Associate Provost for Faculty Development. Copies of this publication are available at the Office of the Provost

A Systematic Review of the Factors that Impact the Prediction of Retention and Dropout in Higher Education

Identifying factors that affect academic dropout and retention is a research area that brings a plurality of opinions and concepts. This article identifies current primary studies to understand the main factors related to dropout and retention. It is quantitative, exploratory, and explanatory research of an applied nature, using the technical procedures of case study and bibliographic research. The systematic review of the literature identifies the factors that impact academic dropout and retention and serves as a basis for a machine learning project. Academic, demographic, and learning factors can predict dropouts and retention. The definition of the factors used and the way of use is essential to obtain good forecasting results. The identified factors were used in the institution