Librarians employ a variety of approaches to assess information literacy skills:

Evaluation of the Library’s instruction program

Assessment and evaluation of student outcomes are imperative to the instructional program and serve many purposes.  Assessment results provide McQuade Librarians with a basis for judgment on how well methodologies work; identify areas for improvement; and demonstrate how the library contributes to students’ skills, attitudes, and values. 

Assessment of Student Outcomes

Tools for measuring student learning include:

• Pre-test/Post-tests

• Citation analyses

• Student surveys

Evaluation of Instruction Program

Tools for measuring efficiency and effectiveness of the program include:

• Instruction and reference statistics

• Faculty feedback

• Instructor self-evaluation

Librarians seek further improvement through ongoing assessment and evaluation.  Librarians are investigating commercial information literacy assessment instruments such as iSkills or the Research Practices Survey in order to better measure student skills and the extent to which students skills improve as a result of library instruction.

McQuade Library subscribes to Research Companion which offers videos on information literacy topics, quizzes, and badges for students if they complete modules.