Assessing impact is increasingly critical to the survival of services: managers now require comprehensive information about effectiveness, especially in relation to users. Outlining a rigorously tested approach to library evaluation and offering practical tools and highly relevant examples, this book enables LIS managers to get to grips with the slippery concept of service impact and to address their own impact questions in their planning. The 2nd edition is fully updated to include international approaches to qualitative library evaluation, new international research, and current debates on the evolving nature of evaluation, as well as reflections on the importance of involving stakeholders and of evaluation to guide advocacy. Key topics include: • The demand for evidence • Getting to grips with impact • The research base of this work • Putting the impact into planning • Getting things clear: objectives • Success criteria and impact indicators: how you know you are making a difference • Making things happen: activities and process indicators • Thinking about evidence • Gathering and interpreting evidence • Taking stock, setting targets and development planning • Doing national or international evaluation • Where do we go from here? Readership: Practising library and information service managers and policy makers in the field. LIS policy shapers and managers in public, education (schools, further and higher education), health and special libraries and information services working in any country or internationally and people engaged in professional education in the field such as lecturers or students.

Doing Library Evaluation complements the authors' earlier Facet Publishing book Evaluating the Impact of Your Library by showing how the impact evaluation model presented there has been applied to meet a variety of real evaluation challenges.

This book is an accessible guide to the latest thinking on effective library impact evaluation for anyone who wants to gauge the impact of their services or projects on their service users for library advocacy and service development. Although library impact evaluation is evolving, most of the literature focuses on the methods used and on the evaluation findings. There is a dearth of case studies focusing on the evaluation problems presented by libraries, how these problems are addressed and what lessons can be learnt in the process. This book fills that gap by presenting a series of case studies through which the authors draw on current impact evaluation thinking to address a variety of evaluation problems. Doing Library Evaluation complements the authors' earlier Facet Publishing book Evaluating the Impact of Your Library by showing how the impact evaluation model presented there has been applied to meet a variety of real evaluation challenges. The authors show how they have applied advances in thinking drawn from education and international development evaluation. They also show how progress in programme theory-based evaluation is helping to shape the world of library impact evaluation.

The second edition of the Impact Evaluation in Practice handbook is a comprehensive and accessible introduction to impact evaluation for policy makers and development practitioners. First published in 2011, it has been used widely across the development and academic communities. The book incorporates real-world examples to present practical guidelines for designing and implementing impact evaluations. Readers will gain an understanding of impact evaluations and the best ways to use them to design evidence-based policies and programs. The updated version covers the newest techniques for evaluating programs and includes state-of-the-art implementation advice, as well as an expanded set of examples and case studies that draw on recent development challenges. It also includes new material on research ethics and partnerships to conduct impact evaluation. The handbook is divided into four sections: Part One discusses what to evaluate and why; Part Two presents the main impact evaluation methods; Part Three addresses how to manage impact evaluations; Part Four reviews impact evaluation sampling and data collection. Case studies illustrate different applications of impact evaluations. The book links to complementary instructional material available online, including an applied case as well as questions and answers. The updated second edition will be a valuable resource for the international development community, universities, and policy makers looking to build better evidence around what works in development.

Planning and assessment are both crucial elements of a public library that functions efficiently and flexibly. So why are they often treated as separate processes? This concise book combines planning and evaluation in a holistic approach, helping public library managers and staff put library resources to work for the community. Based on a series of successful workshops, the workflow presented by the authors is made up of manageable steps for integrating outcome-based planning and evaluation (OBPE) into the routine functions of the public library. Offering step by step guidance that’s transparent and easy to follow, this book introduces the concept of OBPE and explains how it can be a streamlined, effective method of getting library users’ feedback; defines “outcomes” and shows why public libraries should use them to plan and evaluate services;shares methodologies for assessing community needs and interests, including key informant interviews, surveys, focus groups, and environmental scans;demonstrates how to use community assessment data to create outcome statements that not only guide the creation of new library services, but also provide targets for measuring the effectiveness of those services;offers techniques for designing services that directly serve the community while also achieving the outcomes the library has targeted; andprovides tips for sharing the results with stakeholders and maximizing successful outcome-based programs to leverage the library’s role in the community.Featuring plentiful examples of how to proceed through each phase of the OBPE model, this book boils down planning and evaluation into an approachable, easy to understand process for public librarians, library managers, and grant writers.