Library Instruction Assessment of First Year Undergraduates at a Small College Library
Patricia M. Duck
Evan Cornell
University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg
September 28, 2004
Who We Are
• Small regional campus library
• Part of the University of Pittsburgh Library System
• About 1900 undergraduate students– 70% commuter, 30% resident
• 20 majors
Why we did an outcomes assessment study
• Previous history of assessment
• Campus evaluation efforts
• Response to a new environment
• How (or if) library users change as a result of their contact with the library and its instructional program
How we did it
• Picked a study group: Freshman Seminar– 181 “captive” students
• Developed pre and posttest based on the Daniel Library at The Citadel (see Hernon’s An Action Plan for Outcomes Assessment)
• Involved psych dept., seminar faculty and senior capstone students
Pretest and Posttest: 12 questions
• “Action” questions: – find a book in the library– find a journal article in the digital library
• “Instructional” questions:– did you receive instruction; how many
times?
• “Opinion” questions: – do you agree?
Sample Pretest Form
Two instructional sessions
• Overview of the library
• Introduction to local reference books and LC system
• How to search Pittcat (library catalog)
• Discussion of the “right” vocabulary
• Comparison of results searching databases in the Digital Library vs Internet
• Evaluation of internet resources
Pittcat Screen s=gambling
Pitt Digital Library Screen
Crunching the numbers
• Manual tabulation• Access database• Report delivered to
psych students • Data input and run
through SPSS • Only 71 (out of 181)
were usable
Question 1: Find a book
Q1 - Find book
01020304050607080
nothing Pittcat book Pittcat bookother library
Pittcat bookMillstein
Pretest (n=181) Postest (n=71)
Question 2: Find an article
Q2 - Find article
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
nothing/did notprint
k=gambling, notsu=
article on theinternet
article in the PittDigital Lib
Pretest (n=181) Postest (n=71)
Questions 3-9: Results in Percentages
Question 10: Everything is on the Web
Q10 - Everything on the web
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
SD D DK A SA
Pretest (n=181) Postest (n=71)
Question 11: Examine credentials
Q11 - Examine web author's credentials
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
SD D DK A SA
Pretest (n=181) Postest (n=71)
Question 12: Document information
Q12 - Always document www info
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
SD D DK A SA
Pretest (n=181) Postest (n=71)
Statistical Results for Question 1 & 2
Mean Standard Deviation N=only participants with a score >0 on pre/post tests
Pre Score Q1 2.85 0.359 54Post Score Q1 2.87 0.391 54
Pre Score Q2 2 0.667 37Post Score Q2 2.73 0.56 37
Problems Encountered
• Explaining the pretest and posttest
• Completing the pretest and posttest
• Plagiarism
• Coding of surveys
• Lack of time for focus groups
The Next Step
• Re-do the survey with specific instructions
• Revise coding
• Have focus groups
• Library Experiences at UPG
Thank you for your attention!
Dr. Pat DuckMillstein LibraryUniversity of Pittsburgh at Greensburg1150 Mt Pleasant Rd.Greensburg PA 15601724- 836- [email protected]
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