Over the past twenty years, librarianship has promulgated quantitative
evaluation through the application of output measures to a goal-based
model, even in the face of evidence that such an approach makes difficult
the fair assessment of services to special populations. While outside
librarianship the emphasis is on outcome measurement, we have failed
to move into that realm, even when it is most appropriate. In the future,
the way in which evaluation is conducted must be determined by the
questions it seeks to answer, the model that will best supply the answers,
and the design that will uncover an accurate reflection of the program.
That requires a combination of qualitative and quantitative measurement
rigorously applied. Eight models are suggested that can provide
the valid, reliable evaluations that have to date eluded us.
Publisher
Graduate School of Library and Information Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
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