Creating Sustainable Research Consultation Assessment Using Multiple Methods

Abstract

Texas A&M Subject Librarians use a research consultation setting to teach engineering student teams information literacy related to the team’s professional project. The purpose of this study is to determine the best method for librarians to use on an ongoing basis to assess the effectiveness of the research consultations with the teams. In order to determine which assessment technique would be sustainable in the long-term, we used four different data collection methods over two semesters. This poster presents our findings in the form of lessons learned and best practices for each of the four assessment methods: one-minute papers, focus groups, interviews, and questionnaires. The significance of this study is the comparison between multiple data collection methods to determine the best method for continued assessment of the research consultations. Sustainable assessment requires an understanding of one’s institutional context. Our findings can assist other libraries in balancing time and resources to collect data for long-term research consultation assessment.