Research Award 1996

Leslie F. DiBona, Irene M. Hoffman,
Amy Smith, & Bonnie Gratch

IN 1996, CARL established its first annual Research Award, to promote research and publication efforts among CARL members. The award was presented at the Fourth Annual Conference in San Diego, California on Saturday, October 26, 1997. The award recipients were:

Leslie F. DiBona (Director of Library Development, San Diego State University), Irene M. Hoffman (Assistant to the Dean for Library Planning and Development, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo), and Amy Smith (Assistant to the Dean for Library Development and Planning, California State University, Fresno). The title of their proposal is:

"A Survey and Assessment of California Academic Library Fund Raising"

The objective of this research is to examine, analyze and assess the growing trend of fund raising in California academic libraries. As part of a national survey they are conducting of academic library fund raisers, the researchers will construct a profile of the successful library fund raiser. They will then be able to identify and analyze the types of fund raising activities libraries are involved in, how much money is raised through these activities, what role the library director plays in the successful program, and benchmarks that can be used for setting fund raising goals and budgets.
This project is significant in that the survey will:

1. Help to create the first definitive profile of people working in this field;
2. Begin to identify the positive impact fund raising has on budget shortfalls;
3. Validate this trend to assist the profession and CARL by identifying future continuing education opportunities; and
4. Begin to provide benchmarks on how and how much is being raised in public and private academic libraries.

BONNIE Gratch Lindauer, Reference/Instruction Librarian, City College of San Francisco, is the other co-recipient of the 1996 CARL Research Award. Her proposal is entitled:

"Defining Academic Library Performance Outcomes
For Assessment of Student Learning"

This research projects's overall goal is to produce a set of student learning outcomes criteria that can be used by academic libraries for assessment and accreditation review purposes. While current professional association library standards and regional accreditation standards provide useful criteria for documenting inputs, outputs and some performance outcomes, what is lacking is a set of measurable performance outcomes that focus on the extent of accomplishment/success that academic libraries contribute to student learning, faculty research and teaching.
To accomplish this goal, the researcher will:

1. Update a 1988 article which analyzed the seven regional higher education accreditation commissions' library standards, to identify common and significant themes, as well as note weaknesses and missing elements;

2. Conduct an analytical comparison of the latest ACRL standards/guidelines for college, university, and community colleges to identify common themes and performance outcomes, as well as recommend ways to make these documents more useful for academic library use in on-going assessment and preparation for accreditation review;

3. Review the literature to identify useful documents that define and identify needed performance outcomes measures for academic libraries in the information technology age;

4. Develop categories of criteria (based on the above) that reflect important themes from the ACRL professional standards/guidelines, the seven regional higher education accreditation library standards, and significant published documents/articles;

5. Develop specific outcomes statements that focus on performance measures directly related to student learning and faculty research/teaching outcomes;

6. Obtain reactions and comments from a small representative sample of college, university and community college librarians about the outcomes statements developed; and

7. Attempt to publish the results of this research project in several sources.