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portal: Libraries and the Academy 3.1 (2003) 163-164



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Usage and Usability Assessment: Library Practices and Concerns, Denise Troll Covey. (CLIR Tools for Practitioners) Washington, DC: Digital Library Federation and Council on Library and Information Resources, 2002. 93 p. $20 (ISBN 1-887334-89-0) Full text (HTML and PDF) online <www.clir.org/pubs/abstract/pub105abst.html>

In this study, Denise Troll Covey qualitatively evaluates current assessment practices and issues relating to the use and usability of the online services and digital collections offered by the member institutions of the Digital Library Foundation (DLF). Specifically, the study examines not only the collection of data, but also its analysis, interpretation, and application using popular assessment tools, such as questionnaire surveys, focus groups, user protocols (including heuristic evaluations, paper prototypes and scenarios, and card-sorting tests), and transactional log analysis.

Covey gathered the data, consisting of interviews conducted from November 2000 to February 2001 with 23 of the 24 DLF members, when she served as a DLF fellow. The author is currently the associate university librarian for arts, archives, and technology at Carnegie Mellon University. Her research interests focus on digital libraries, including such aspects as online collections and services, management, related software, and assessment.

Covey examines each assessment method using a standard set of questions: what is the method, why do libraries use the method, how do libraries use it, who uses any results (and how are they used), and what are the problems or challenges associated with the method. Her analysis skillfully blends the methodological considerations of how a given assessment is intended to be used with examples of current practices drawn from DLF libraries. She also provides a thoughtful and concisely rendered section on what is involved with planning and executing assessment projects. The author also provides in the appendices a useful reference list and bibliography, a list of the participating institutions and the survey questions used, as well as a section placing the current study into the context of traditional library measures of use and usability.

Against a background characterized by rapid technological change and limited or declining library funding, Covey draws six conclusions from her study for librarians contemplating the assessment of online services and collections. First, because assessment is time consuming and labor intensive, librarians should collect only data that has meaning and purpose. Data should be gathered for a reason, not just out of habit or because it is easy to collect. Second, librarians must develop the necessary skills to gather, analyze, interpret, present and use assessment data. There is no point in collecting data if there is not the time, talent, or will to make use of it. Third, libraries must create a comprehensive assessment strategy to prevent (or at least minimize) project breakdowns and the subsequent waste of resources because of poor scheduling, long delays between the project's execution and receiving the results, and the involvement of too many people. Fourth, libraries must make assessment a core function, backed by the commitment of time and funding of both the librarians and the administrators. Fifth, libraries must make plans for the compilation and long-term management of the assessment data they gather. Without careful thought, valuable data may be lost or rendered unusable over time because of incompatible hardware or software formats or a [End Page 163] failure to provide sufficient storage and data back-ups. Sixth, each library must gather enough data about the environment to provide a meaningful interpretive context for the data from each assessment. Assessment results can only provide the "how," while contextual information provides the "why" necessary for its interpretation.

It is difficult to do justice to the amount of useful information packed into this relatively short volume. If this book, the first of a new series by the Council on Library and Information Resources called Tools for Practitioners, is any indication of the quality of volumes to follow, then the series is off to a good start.

 



Eric G. Ackermann
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
<eackerma@vt.edu>

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