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Mission

The Earlham College libraries support the mission of the College by providing access to information resources and facilitating their use.

Goals

This mission is forwarded through programs and activities that strive to achieve the following goals:

1. Develop a collection (e.g., print, microforms, electronic) information resources that meet the information needs of the students, faculty and staff of the College as they engage in the teaching/learning process.
2. Provide methods for accessing information resources owned by us or maintained by other information providers.
3. Provide a program of course-integrated instruction and reference services that will help prepare students to be effective life-long learners.
4. Provide a collection of materials and supporting services for the study of the Society of Friends, particularly in the Midwest.
5. Provide a library facility with physical environment and ambience that is conducive to the use and preservation of information resources, and which promotes the use of information resources.
6. Provide efficient and effective internal processes to enhance services.
7. Develop closer working relationship with Computing Services and with Instructional Technology and Media to work towards an integrated information services program for the College community.
8. Provide staff development opportunities that will stimulate thinking about the improvement of library services and prepare staff to become effective in improving those services.
9. Maintain awareness of new developments in librarianship, information management, and services.

Assessment

The College stresses the importance of assessment as a mechanism for improvement. The libraries of Earlham (Lilly and Wildman Science) began a formal assessment program, begun in 1998, which continues today .  Below are reports on the most important of these assessments. Additional assessments are also reported in publications which are listed on the libraries' Awards and Publications page.

• Research Practices Survey (Fall 2008). Administered through HEDS. Earlham participated in the Research Practices Survey conducted by HEDS.This survey was developed at St. Oalf in collaboration with a  number of institutions including Cornell College, Knox College, Lewis and Clark College, Swarthmore College, Trinity University, University of Puget Sound,  and Wellesley College under a grant from NITLE. Details of this development have been widely reported. The results include Earlham's first-year students compared with summary data for first-year students at 39 other liberal arts colleges. Earlham also administered the survey to seniors at the same time. The comparison between Earlham's first-years and seniors is also available.
  
  
• CIRP Survey of First Year Students attitudes (Fall 2008). Administered through HEDS. Earlham regularly participates in the Higher Education Data Sharing Consortium (HEDS) survey program.  Most notable among the instruments used is CIRP Freshman Survey (HERI Cooperative Institutional Research Program) and Senior Survey.  This year, 2008-09 these surveys will include a series of experimental questions in the area of information literacy.  Earlham will participate in the experiment this year.  When the survey results are available and have been analyzed the results will be posted here.  For now the survey questions are available.
  
  
• National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) (Spring 2008).  Administered through NSSE. Earlham College also regularly participates in the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE).  This survey asks students to report on their involvement in activities at college that reflect their engagement in the program of the institutions --academic and non-academic.  In the spring of 2008 the NSSE survey was augmented with an experimental set of questions that reflect involvement with activities that are associated with an information literacy program.Earlham participated in the survey and has just received its results.  The analysis of those results has just begun.  When the analysis is completed we will release a report.  For now the results are available to staff only.
  
  
• Contracted focus group and community survey by The Planning Edge. (Spring 2008).  Administered by Alan Cox. In the spring of 2008 Information Services contracted with The Planning Edge and Alan Cox to conduct focus groups and a follow-up survey. The survey focuses on perceptions of quality (or lack of) of the libraries' facilities. The results are being used in planning for future renovation. The survey also explored the needs for new services which are being factored into the ongoing planning. The full report is posted here along with an executive summary.
  
  
• Lib Qual Survey (Spring 2005). Administered by ARL. Survey explores student, faculty and staff perspectives on the libraries' collections, services and facilities.The LibQual Survey instrument is a widely used instrument that has been in existence for about eight years. While initiated by the Association of Research Libraries (ACRL), it is now widely used in all types of academic libraries.
  
  
• LibQual 2005 Comments
  
  
• MISO Survey  Administered by Bryn Mawr College. The Merged Information Services Organizations is designed for undergraduate colleges to comprehensively assess the services of library and computing units of the college. Conducted continuously since 2005, Earlham participated in 2006 and 2009. The results for 2006 and 2009 are available here.
  
  
• In house survey conducted by the staff and faculty. (Fall 1998). The first major comprehensive survey was done in 1998 and consisted of a in-house developed survey by which those surveyed indicated both the importance of a library characteristic and the level of importance.  The summary faculty and student results of the survey are available.

 

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