Megan Oakleaf
Using Rubrics to Collect Evidence for Decision-Making: What do Librarians Need to Learn?
Syracuse University
objective every day librarians make decisions impact provision library products services formulate good decisions librarians must equipped reliable valid data unfortunately many library processes generate vast quantities unwieldy information illsuited evidence based decisionmaking ebdm practices librarians strive employ result librarians require tools facilitate translation unmanageable facts figures data used support decisionmaking one tool rubric rubrics provide least four major benefits librarians seeking use ebdm strategies merit investigation end study examined 1 librarians ability use rubrics decision facilitation tool 2 barriers might prevent effective rubric usage 3 training topics address potential barriers x0d x0d methods study investigated librarians use rubrics ebdm tool improve online information literacy tutorial data study came student responses openended questions embedded online information literacy tutorial called lobo used firstyear students english 101 north carolina state university ncsu fifteen academic librarians five instructors five students applied rubrics transform students textual responses quantitative data data statistically analyzed reliability validity using cohens kappa participant comment sheets also examined reveal potential hurdles effective rubric usex0d x0d results statistical analysis revealed subset participants included study able achieve substantially valid results hand librarian participants included study unable achieve expert level validity nonexpert participants alluded roadblocks interfered ability provide quality data using rubrics x0d x0d conclusions participant feedback categorized six barriers may explain participants could attain expert status 1 difficulty understanding outcomesbased approach 2 tension analytic holistic rubric structures 3 failure comprehend rubric terms 4 disagreement rubric assumptions 5 difficulties data artifacts 6 difficulties understanding local library context culture barriers addressed training topics maximize usefulness rubric approach ebdm suggested