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| Introduction | |
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| The reasons for undertaking needs assessment, defining the value of user assessments, and the theory concerning user needs assessment | |
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| The process for developing a needs assessment project | |
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| Establish the goals of the assessment | |
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| Assess available resources | |
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| Establish project scope | |
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| Define the user population | |
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| Review current awareness | |
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| Identify useful information | |
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| Establish a time frame | |
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| Complete the plan | |
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| What can be measured and how to measure it: Types of assessment data that may be useful | |
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| Direct user input (e.g., user surveys) | |
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| Definitions | |
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| Pros and cons of direct user input for needs assessment | |
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| Methodology for direct user input | |
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| Exploratory data collection | |
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| Focus groups | |
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| Qualitative input from surveys | |
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| Crucial incident surveys | |
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| Internal staff feedback | |
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| User interviews | |
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| Representative data gathering | |
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| Techniques for random surveys | |
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| Direct mailing | |
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| Online forms | |
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| Randomly timed surveys | |
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| Secondary information: Data that describes current conditions | |
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| Specific types of secondary data | |
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| Demographic data | |
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| Specific demographic data for academic libraries | |
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| Specific demographic data for public libraries | |
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| Number and distribution of student enrollment credit hours | |
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| Course offerings | |
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| Electronic resources use statistics | |
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| Circulation statistics | |
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| Circulation patterns of monographic/serial collections | |
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| Statistics derived from patron requests for holds/recalls on currently circulating materials | |
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| In-house use statistics for both serials and monographs | |
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| Photocopy activity | |
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| Gate counts of the number of users entering a library building | |
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| Use of media | |
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| Collection statistics and evaluation of collections | |
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| Number of titles/volumes | |
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| Median age of collections | |
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| Condition of collection | |
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| Distribution of multiple copies in the collection | |
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| Interlibrary loan (ILL) and document delivery statistics | |
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| Consortial agreements | |
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| Price indexes and other cost data | |
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| Analysis of organizations' external environment | |
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| Materials budget as secondary data | |
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| Citation analyses | |
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| Journal impact rankings and useful half-life ratings | |
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| Measure of actual use of journals | |
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| Other library activities | |
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| Scenarios for user needs assessments | |
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| New degree program | |
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| Possible scenario regarding the reallocation of materials budget | |
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| Possible needs assessment for a school library/media center | |
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| Possible needs assessment for the addition of a new branch library | |
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| Possible needs assessment for consortial cooperation on serial subscriptions and document delivery | |
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| Possible preliminary needs assessment to assist development of statewide cooperative resource-sharing ventures in support of small public libraries | |
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| Pointers and pitfalls | |
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| Avoid the easy-data-is-the-right-data syndrome | |
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| Do not confuse data types | |
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| Do not confuse measurement units | |
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| The numbers sometimes do not tell the whole story | |
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| Context is important | |
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| Recognize under-represented groups | |
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| Recognize service impacts of the unknown user | |
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| Glossary | |
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| Bibliography | |
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| World Wide Web Resources | |