The Missing Piece: Assessing Implementation Fidelity

Two years ago, our library merged three desks as well as people from three different departments to staff that desk. As part of this consolidation, we developed a new model for answering patron questions that incorporated chat/text, an on-call system, and referrals. Before assessing whether this new service model was an improvement for our patrons, we first assessed whether we had implemented the model as it was originally envisioned in order to determine whether any failures were a result of the model itself or how the library had implemented the concept of the model. This recipe will introduce the concept of implementation fidelity, explain our methods for assessing the new service model, and share implications and recommendations for how other libraries can incorporate assessment of implementation fidelity into their evaluations of new services. While libraries are increasingly places of change and innovation, many of these changes are not assessed for their effectiveness, or for how they’re perceived and valued by staff and patrons. Additionally, few libraries attempt to determine whether their implementation of new services and programs is as how library administration envisioned them—and, by extension, how any differences between theory and practice affect staff and patron perceptions of those changes and new services. Libraries should therefore consider assessing the implementation fidelity of future proposed changes in order to avoid abandoning innovations that have failed only in execution

Undergraduate Students\u27 Attitudes About the Collection, Use, and Privacy of Search Data in Academic Libraries

The purpose of this study was to understand undergraduate students’ attitudes about search data privacy in academic libraries and their preferences for how librarians should handle information about what students search for, borrow, and download. This is an important area of study due to the increasingly data-driven nature of evaluation, accountability, and improvement in higher education, along with libraries’ professional commitment to privacy, which has historically limited the amount of data collected about student use. Using a qualitative approach through the lens of interpretive description, I used the constant comparative method of data collection and analysis to conduct semi-structured interviews with 27 undergraduate students at a large, urban public research institution. Through inductive coding, I organized the data into interpretive themes and subthemes to describe students’ attitudes, and developed a conceptual/thematic description that illustrates how they are formed. Students revealed that a variety of life experiences and influences shaped their views on search data privacy in academic libraries. They viewed academic library search data as less personally revealing than internet search data. As a result, students were generally comfortable with libraries collecting search data so long as it is used for their benefit. They were comfortable with data being used to improve library collections and services, but were more ambivalent about use of search data for personalized search results and for learning analytics-based assessment. Most students expressed a desire for de-identification and user control of data. Some students expressed concern about search data being used in ways that reflect bias or favoritism. Participants had moderate concern about their library search data privacy being used by government agencies to protect public safety. Although some disagreed with the practice in concept, most did not feel that the search data would be useful, nor would it reveal much about their personal interests or selves. Students who were not comfortable with the idea of search data collection in academic libraries often held their convictions more strongly than peers who found the practice acceptable. The results of this study suggest that academic libraries should further explore student perspectives about search data collection in academic libraries to consider how and if they might adjust their data collection practices to be respectful of student preferences for privacy, while still meeting evaluation and improvement objectives. This study achieved the intended purpose of contributing a foundational body of knowledge about student attitudes regarding search data privacy in academic libraries. It positions librarian-researchers to develop studies that further this line of inquiry in an area that has significant implications for both user privacy and libraries’ practices for assessment and evaluation. Limitations of this study include its limited generalizability as a result of the qualitative research design, and the fact that it relied primarily on a convenience sampling method

Rubrics as a Method for Assessing & Improving Library Instruction

Taken together, our team of instruction librarians provides course-integrated instruction for 70-80 sections of a sophomore-level research and writing course each semester. In order for the department to assess our instruction of this course consistently across librarians without detracting valuable time from the sessions themselves, an authentic learning exercise and rubric for scoring that exercise were developed and an IRB-approved study of the assessment results undertaken

Acceptable and Unacceptable Uses of Academic Library Search Data: An Interpretive Description of Undergraduate Student Perspectives

Objective – This article presents findings about undergraduate student attitudes regarding search data privacy in academic libraries. Although the library literature includes many articles about librarian perceptions on this matter, this paper adds rich, qualitative evidence to the limited research available about student preferences for how libraries should handle information about what they search for, borrow, and download. This paper covers acceptable and unacceptable uses of student search data based on American undergraduate student perspectives. This is an important area of study due to the increasingly data-driven nature of evaluation, accountability, and improvement in higher education, which relies on individual-level student data for learning analytics. These practices are sometimes at odds with libraries’ longstanding commitment to user privacy, which has historically limited the amount of data collected about student use of materials. However, libraries’ use of student search data is increasing. Methods – This qualitative study was approached through interpretive description, a rigorous qualitative framework for answering practical research questions in an applied setting or discipline. I employed the constant comparative method of data collection and analysis to conduct semi-structured interviews with 27 undergraduate students at a large, American, urban public research institution. Interviews included questions as well as vignettes: short scenarios designed to elicit response. Through inductive coding, I organized the data into interpretive themes and subthemes to describe student attitudes. Results – Participants viewed academic library search data as less personally revealing than internet search data. As a result, students were generally comfortable with libraries collecting search data so long as it is used for their benefit. They were comfortable with data being used to improve library collections and services, but were more ambivalent about use of search data for personalized search results and for learning analytics-based assessment. Students had mixed feelings about using search data in investigations related to criminal activity or national security. Most students expressed a desire for de-identification and user control of data. Students who were not comfortable with their search data being collected or used often held their convictions more strongly than those who found the practice acceptable, and their concerns were often related to how data might be used in ways that harm members of vulnerable groups. Conclusion – The results of this study suggested that librarians should further explore student perspectives about search data collection in academic libraries to consider how and if they might adjust their data collection practices to be respectful of student preferences for privacy, while still meeting evaluation and improvement objectives. This study also introduces the qualitative framework of interpretive description to the library and information science literature, promoting use of this applied qualitative approach, which is well-suited to the practical questions often asked in library research studies