Assessing impact is increasingly critical to the survival of services: managers now require comprehensive information about effectiveness, especially in relation to users. Outlining a rigorously tested approach to library evaluation and offering practical tools and highly relevant examples, this book enables LIS managers to get to grips with the slippery concept of service impact and to address their own impact questions in their planning. The 2nd edition is fully updated to include international approaches to qualitative library evaluation, new international research, and current debates on the evolving nature of evaluation, as well as reflections on the importance of involving stakeholders and of evaluation to guide advocacy.
Key topics include:



The demand for evidence
Getting to grips with impact
The research base of this work
Putting the impact into planning
Getting things clear: objectives
Success criteria and impact indicators: how you know you are making a difference
Making things happen: activities and process indicators
Thinking about evidence
Gathering and interpreting evidence
Taking stock, setting targets and development planning
Doing national or international evaluation
Where do we go from here?

Readership: Practising library and information service managers and policy makers in the field. LIS policy shapers and managers in public, education (schools, further and higher education), health and special libraries and information services working in any country or internationally and people engaged in professional education in the field such as lecturers or students.