The 2018 Library Assessment Conference hosted by the Association of Research Libraries and the University of Washington Libraries was held on December 5-7, 2018 in Houston, Texas. More than 600 international and domestic professionals attended the biennial conference, whose theme was to build effective, sustainable, and practical assessment. Researchers and practitioners shared their research and best practices on measurement and measures indicators, value and impact, space, methods and tools, organizational issues, digital libraries, diversity, equity, and inclusion, and collections. The selection of paper proposals was highly selective. More than 250 paper proposals were submitted; 85 were selected and featured at the conference. Stony Brook University Libraries shared two paper presentations.
Jin Xiu Guo, Director of Collections and Resource Management, presented “Smart Data, Smart Library: Assessing Implied Value through Big Data.” Her study assessed the implied and exchange values of a research library through big data analytics. Jin and her co-researcher Gordon Xu, Head of Library Systems at Northern Michigan University, developed a systematic approach to analyze and visualize library big data with BigQuery and Data Studio, two products of Google Cloud Platform. More about their presentation is highlighted in a blogpost by Ithaka S+R’s Danielle Cooper and Christine Wolff-Eisenberg.
Janet H. Clarke, Associate Dean of Research & User Engagement and Kristin Hall, Assessment & Learning Outcomes Specialist co-presented a paper “Communicating Library Impact through the Assessment Website,” a study of library assessment presence on Association of American Universities library websites.
