Library and Information Research Group
The importance of evaluation and evidence-based skills to improving service delivery
Sarah McNicol
Library and Information Research Volume 30, Number 93, Winter 2005, pp26-34
Article
The author
Sarah McNicol is a researcher at evidence base research and evaluation at the University of Central England. She has worked on a variety of research and evaluation projects including projects intended to support and develop evaluation skills including the evalued project which focuses on the evaluation of electronic services in HE libraries and the development of a self-evaluation scheme for school libraries.
Abstract
The overall aim of the MLA-WM funded Developing Evaluation and Evidence-based Skills and Approaches to Service Delivery project is to improve the evaluation skills of staff within the museums, libraries and archives sectors and the focus of the project will be on evaluation of service provision. The partners in this project include museums, academic libraries and their archives, public libraries and their archives and health libraries. The first stage of the project, which is reported here, was to carry out an investigation of needs in terms of staff skills, focusing on evaluation, within the sector. The findings of this investigation will be used to inform the development of an approach to training which will be delivered in early 2006. The findings suggest that museums, archives and libraries need to streamline existing data collection exercises; dramatically improver the organisation and management of evaluation activities; and make stronger links between evaluation and service development.
Acknowledgement
This research was funded by the MLA-WM (The Council for Museums,Archives and Libraries – West Midlands).
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Updated: 11 September 2006