Authors: Roberta Bronson Fitzpatrick, Leslin Charles, Ann Watkins, Zara Wilkinson, Megan Lotts
Objectives
With the advent of RCM, Responsibility Center Management, as a new financial/budgeting model, fees assessed to schools or departments are more transparent. To demonstrate the value of the libraries beyond collections, an Events Assessment Task Force was formed to gather information about the non-instructional, more social, events hosted by the university libraries.
Methods
The Task Force began by establishing definitions for what constituted an “event”. Members solicited suggestions for event types, such as art shows, Lego building contents, book clubs, exhibits, guest lectures, health information fairs, stress buster activities, and more. There was discussion about the information that was useful to capture for each event, such as number attending, co-sponsorship with another group, time/date/location. An online form was developed. It has drop-down menus which list event types, duration, and other common elements, which make recording easier. The data will be imported into a database capable of report generation. The database is modeled after one currently in use for collecting bibliographic instruction data and reflects both AAHSL and ARL needs At each step of the process, Task Force members solicited comments from library faculty and staff who were involved with various events.
Results
As of this writing, the Events Assessment Task Force presented both the data collection form and the events database to USC, the User Support Council. Both were approved. The next step is to conduct local training sessions to familiarize library faculty and staff with the form and the database in order to acquaint them with all involved procedures and to gain their participation in the data collection.
Conclusions
In the process of developing the online data collection form and the database, it was interesting to note the many types of events hosted by Rutgers University Libraries. By recording the added value that the libraries bring to the university, it may spark more collaborative ventures among members of the libraries staff and with other schools/departments within the university.
