 Welcome to Communicating Results, Identifying Audiences and Messages, part of the Research and Assessment Cycle Toolkit offered by the Association of Research Libraries and made possible by a grant from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services. This presentation is part of a module that focuses on reflecting, communicating, and acting on the results of library assessment. It describes strategies for identifying audiences and crafting messages to communicate results of assessment projects. We hope the content is useful to library practitioners seeking to conduct assessment projects. At the close of the presentation, you will find a link to a feedback form. Please let us know what elements were useful to you. Once assessment results have been reflected upon, checked for integrity, and initial conclusions and recommendations have been considered, A next step is to identify audiences who want or need to know about the assessment results and craft messages that will resonate with those audiences. The possible audiences for the results of a library assessment project are myriad. For example, initial audiences of library assessment results are likely to include individuals and groups from within the library. Those interested in assessment results are likely the individuals involved in the library service, resource, or space being assessed, those who work with users, like the participants in the assessment study, those in reporting lines connected to the focus of the assessment, and those likely to be impacted directly or indirectly from any recommendations emanating from the results. Assessment results may also impact campus units closely tied to or co-located with the library. In asking, who will care about or be affected by these results, library assessment practitioners should cast a wide net. Outside the library, others may be interested in, affected by, or invested in assessment results. External audiences of assessment results include the individuals and groups represented by the study participants, as well as others who engage with them. Various student, faculty, administrative, or other groups might need or want to know about the results of a given assessment, will be impacted by conclusions or recommendations, or will be future or continuing partners on decisions or actions that come from the results. Of course, users, not yet users, stakeholders, and others, are among the most impacted and therefore most important audiences to reach with assessment results. Individuals and groups who use the library, individuals and groups who may use the library in the future, those who have an interest or concern related to the library, and those who are in some way responsible for or in partnership with the library, are all audiences for assessment results that may benefit, impact, or otherwise affect their experiences, work, or goal attainment. Thus, quite a few groups of people might be relevant audiences for the results of a library assessment project. Brainstorming, who needs or wants to know, may result with a lengthy list of audiences for library assessment practitioners to communicate with. Once a list of potential audience groups is identified, a bit more work is worthwhile. Segmenting audiences for communication purposes is standard practice so that communication connects effectively with each individual audience group. Audiences can be segmented based on behaviors, attitudes and interests, physical location, demographics, similar needs, or other characteristics. Once audiences are identified, library assessment practitioners can use some basic marketing knowledge to begin to design communications for maximum reach and impact. Assessment and marketing are two intertwined fields. While marketing as a term can sometimes be associated with pushing information towards audiences, it's better understood as an activity focused on working with users to develop the right offerings for their needs. Marketing has been defined as a holistic approach to examining the library's existing services, planning new services, making changes to existing services, ceasing existing services that have outlived their utility, communicating internally and externally about library services, and measuring success. With such a definition, it's easy to see crossover into assessment purposes and goals. Both marketing and assessment begin and end with user needs and are cyclical in nature. So how can knowledge of marketing practice augment communication of assessment results? One concept for marketing that is useful for adoption by library assessment professionals is that of positioning statements. Positioning statements define the image, idea, or focus of a project, service, resource, or space. They explain what's unique about the library offering, how it fills a need, and how it makes an impact. While positioning statements are an element of marketing plans, they work just as well to articulate the takeaways from a project assessing a library's service, resource, or space. Typically positioning statements run about 200 to 500 words in length. Positioning statements are internal documents and written to help assessment practitioners capture their message. Positioning statements are not usually shared directly with target audiences. Getting a message out to those audiences requires an additional step, which this presentation will cover momentarily. There are many templates available for helping library assessment practitioners craft positioning statements for the results of an assessment project. These are two simple forms that support the drafting of a positioning statement. Once a positioning statement is crafted for a given assessment project, a next step is to craft messages tailored for specific audiences identified as wanting or needing to know about assessment project results. Positioning statements can be distilled into key messages for each target audience with whom assessment practitioners want to share results. Key messages are external facing statements, often a sentence in length that focus a positioning statement into customized messages for a target audience. They carry the most important thing you want a particular target audience to know about the assessment project or results focused on a particular library service resource or space. Generally, a key message is designed especially for each target audience based on the unique needs, interests, requirements, or goals of that target audience. Because there may be many key messages distilled from a positioning statement, it may be useful to create a chart of target audiences and the key message intended for each. Once crafted, key messages can be used to focus the communication of an assessment project and results to each target audience. Having a central message customized for each audience better ensures that the messaging strategies used to convey assessment results are relevant for and useful to the intended audience. Finally, in situations in which communications around assessment are intended to spur action in the target audience or scenarios in which library assessment practitioners anticipate that their results will be surprising, confusing, or otherwise complex for their audiences, library assessment practitioners may wish to include proof points in their plans for communicating assessment results. Proof points are used to reinforce key messages and center on evidence generated by assessment. They're usually succinct, though sometimes necessary explanation can make them a little less so. The goal of using proof points is to provide information that supports or provides proof of the key messages. When positioning statements are composed, audiences for assessment results are selected, key messages are crafted, and proof points are in place. It's time to think about vehicles for sharing results. There are nearly countless vehicles for messaging. Selecting a tool depends on the intent of the communication. Is the communication seeking to elicit feedback, extension, or suggestions? Is it designed to start conversations? Maybe the goal is to provide an update on a larger assessment trajectory. Or might the communication merely be focused on reporting without an expectation of dialogue? Once the intent of communication is established, the messaging medium can be selected based on a match with that intent. Will the communication tool or strategy be effective in achieving the goal? Will it convey the message in an image as intended? Is it a good match for a particular audience? What will be involved in implementing the message? And, as with any other part of the assessment project, the messaging vehicle should be tested with representatives of the target audience before it is rolled out fully. Over time or over the course of an extended assessment process, library assessment practitioners might want to borrow from one more tool from the marketing toolbox. A messaging matrix can help assessment practitioners keep track of their communications with key audiences over time. Given that ongoing communication with users is a core tenet of assessment, finding a way to track communication over time so that sharing progress with users and other core audiences is planned and cumulative rather than episodic is essential to assessment practice, not secondary to it. Thank you for viewing this presentation on reflecting, communicating, and acting on the results of library assessment projects. Please use the link provided to complete a feedback form on the usefulness of this information for your purposes.