Athenaeum21 Presents Results of Scoping Research for a Library Assessment Dashboard & Toolkit at the Association of Research Libraries' Library Assessment Conference

Athenaeum21's Megan Hurst presented "All Your Data Displayed in One Place: Scoping Research for a Library Assessment Dashboard & Toolkit" at the Association of Research Libraries' Library Assessment Conference in Washington, DC, along with Frankie Wilson, Head of Assessment at the Bodleian Libraries, of the University of Oxford.

In January 2016, Athenaeum21 was engaged to lead a multi-institutional, international research and scoping study to define the nature and feasibility of a library assessment executive dashboard and toolkit to enable libraries to centralize diverse collection, usage, administrative, and financial data, and to more easily visualize, analyze, and utilize the data. The study investigated the need and high-level requirements for a toolkit to enable library administrators to utilize commonly shared performance indicators and formulas to create their own dashboards, and the ability to customize indicators and formulas as needed. The institutional collaborators included University of California, Davis; University of Oxford; and the State and University Library, Göttingen, Germany. Hurst and Wilson's presentation at the Library Assessment Conference provided a summary of the scoping research report, which will be publicly released in December.

Hurst works at the intersection of data-driven user experience and library assessment. She is expert in eliciting and understanding the behaviors of both library users and the librarians who serve them, and developing systems and interfaces that more intuitively support information-seekers' needs and behaviors. She is co-founder and principal of Athenaeum21 Consulting, where she works with libraries and museums around the world on digital strategy and user experience.

The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) is a nonprofit organization of 124 research libraries at comprehensive, research institutions in the US and Canada that share similar research missions, aspirations, and achievements. The Association’s importance and distinction are born from the ARL membership and the nature of the institutions represented. ARL member libraries make up a large portion of the academic and research library marketplace, spending more than $1.4 billion every year on library materials. ARL influences the changing environment of scholarly communication and the public policies that affect research libraries and the diverse communities they serve. ARL pursues this mission by advancing the goals of its member research libraries, providing leadership in public and information policy to the scholarly and higher education communities, fostering the exchange of ideas and expertise, facilitating the emergence of new roles for research libraries, and shaping a future environment that leverages its interests with those of allied organizations. Statistics & Assessment is a key member-driven focus area for ARL.

View Hurst's presentation slides here. 
(12/7/2016 update: The final scoping research report has been posted here)