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Information Literacy Assessment Toolkit: Librarian Evaluation

PALNI's Information Literacy Assessment Toolkit

Librarian Evaluation

self reflection

Self-Reflection
"One way librarians can make concrete, positive changes to their instruction skills...is by engaging in reflective practices about their teaching decisions." "Good reflectors move beyond description of an experience and begin to identify problems or questions, gather information to address the questions, study the issues and the gathered information, and make sound decisions for further action based on this act of studying." (Goodsett)

Examples

  • Tompkins discusses how to create a reflective teaching journal, a sort of cross between a calendar and a diary on your teaching habits.
  • Vidmar discusses a “peer coaching” scenario which consists of “a ten-minute planning conversation prior to the actual lesson and a ten-minute reflective conversation after the lesson."
    • "These conversations happen regularly and frequently.” 
    • The conversations takes place between two peers.  The second peer does not observe the teaching of the first peer.
  • Goodsett discusses videotaping her teaching occasionally to watch and critique herself.

student evaluation

Student Evaluation
After a class session, students can use the below form, created by PALNI librarians, to assess the librarian and the session.

Documents

faculty evaluation

Faculty Evaluation
After a class session, faculty can use the below form, created by PALNI librarians, to assess the librarian and the session.

Documents

Peer Evaluation
Peer evaluation is a helpful method for evaluating librarians in addition to student evaluations. It allows librarians to assess each other as fellow experts in the field. Peer evaluation is generally used in two ways, formative and summative.  Middleton says: “In a formative process, the results are used by the individual to improve his or her skills in a particular area, whereas in a summative process the results are used by administrators to evaluate the performance of the individual.”

Examples
From Penn State: https://libraries.psu.edu/policies/ul-ing01
From O’Grady Library: https://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B6UALlq59MJ_YWRjMjZhNzctNGQ3NC00ZDM2LWJmNTMtNWQ3MWY3MzkxYmE4&hl
From Ohio State: https://library.osu.edu/documents/teaching-and-learning/peerreview_instruction.pdf

Downloads
Checklist for Observations from Oregon State University Libraries (Google Docs)
Checklist for Observations from Oregon State University Libraries (Word)

PALNI Peer Evaluation
Interested in participating in peer evaluation at the PALNI level? Join our Instructional Peer Coaching program!