Assessment

Introduction

Emory Libraries’ (EL) annual assessment program exists in support of required reporting to governmental and academic organizations.

The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) is the primary federal entity responsible for collecting and analyzing education data. All academic libraries at institutions that receive federal funding are required to report annually to NCES about collections, expenditures, and staffing. The data is reported via the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) in collaboration with Emory’s Office of Institutional Research (OIR). OIR coordinates Emory’s response to the full IPEDS survey, of which the Academic Libraries (AL) survey is one component. In addition to the AL survey, IPEDS also collects data on enrollment, finance, graduation rates, and more. Learn more about the IPEDS survey,

The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) surveys its membership annually to gather data about library collections, expenditures, staffing, and university enrollment. ARL publishes an annual investment index which ranks library investment among member institutions. Learn more about ARL's survey.

The Association of Southeastern Research Libraries (ASERL) has a longstanding data-sharing arrangement with ARL. ASERL receives statistics directly from ARL, eliminating the need for member institutions to complete a separate survey for ASERL. Institutions which are members of ARL and ASERL are required to complete only the ARL survey.

The Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) also surveys its membership annually to collect similar data to ARL and NCES. In addition, ACRL’s survey includes a trends component which changes annually. Learn more about ACRL’s survey.

Program Coordinator

Pat Culpepper serves as Senior Program Coordinator for the annual assessment cycle.

Deliverables:

Major deliverables of the annual assessment cycle are:

1. NCES/IPEDS survey response.
2. ARL survey response.
3. ACRL survey response.
4. Annual Assessment Metrics dashboards on Tableau Server.
5. Library Facts & Figures available on the Libraries’ website.
6. The biennial Emory Libraries assessment report submitted to the Office of Institutional Research in support of SACS accreditation. Copies of past reports are available here.

Annual Process Overview

The Libraries’ assessment program is governed by an annual process that begins with the close of the fiscal year. Emory’s fiscal year runs from September 1 through August 31. In September each year, library branches and certain units are asked to report key metrics in LibPAS, EL’s solution for managing library assessment data. After all data is reported in LibPAS, the data is vetted against historical metrics, then exported to Tableau for further analysis, review, and approval. Once the data is approved by senior management, typically in January, it is reported to NCES/IPEDS, ARL, and ACRL.

For more information about the process, deliverables, and systems involved, reference this Annual Assessment Program presentation.