44 · Survey Results: Survey Questions and Responses
Staffing cycles availability for those with expertise in both assessment and the collection knowledge. Comprehensive
assessment would impact/involve the majority of the departments in the library an issue is scale and agility. Overcome
by planning ahead, transparent charters, and funding requests for support. Necessary infrastructure lacking. Overcome
by putting infrastructure in place and expertise to maintain it. Do not have standard of practices in place or a
comprehensive collection policy that encompasses digital collection appropriately.
Staffing. (Sadly, we haven’t been successful in overcoming this one.)
There are no accepted standards for analysis of web statistics. Collections have to be compared to themselves over time
or to other collections that are similar. Low usage doesn’t mean a collection is bad, just not popular. Had to find other
ways of defining the success of a collection. Assessment of interface is difficult since we’ve learned most people come
in to our collections through Google, meaning we need to assess the item level interface as it is seen through Google
rather than a traditional method.
There is currently minimal integration into campus/faculty/classrooms.
There is no coordinated effort via an assessment policy that incorporates digital collections. An existing collections
management assessment policy would be a good start in developing such a resource. Assessment of digital collections
is not a current priority. The focus is on creating content. The slow technological development of our digital asset
management system has delayed the implementation of assessment tools as content is still being migrated to the
system. Assessment must necessarily follow the ingestion of content.
There were originally issues with gathering analytical information through CONTENTdm, but those have been
addressed.
Time, resources, multiple systems
Time pressures can cause lack of response from internal &external users. Staff time.
Timely digitization of materials to coincide with other projects. Minimal feedback responses to surveys.
Tracking meaningful levels of use.
We don’t have positions dedicated to assessment nor is assessment written into other positions, though several of us
across the libraries engage in assessment, even if informally. We don’t have standard metrics defined across digital
collections nor do we have consistent ways for gathering usage data.
DIGITAL COLLECTIONS OUTREACH AND PROMOTION
13. Does your library have an outreach plan for locally curated digital collections? N=69
There is an overarching outreach plan that covers these collections 22 32%
There is an outreach plan specifically for these collections 10 15%
There is no outreach plan that covers these collections 37 54%
Comments N=24
Overarching outreach plan N=6
Audience is very important in developing outreach plans for specific resources.
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