 Welcome to identifying potential data, evidence, and or input to respond to research questions, user stories, or hypotheses, 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 collecting data, evidence, input, or other information for library assessment projects. It describes strategies for identifying possible data, evidence, or other inputs needed for library assessment projects, including existing information, information found in professional literature, and new information that must be collected for a project at hand. We hope the content is useful to library practitioners seeking to conduct library 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 the needs, contexts, and goals of a library assessment project are well articulated, a next step is determining what data, evidence, or other feedback or input might help answer the information need outlined in a research question, user story, or hypothesis. In some cases, data may already be available that can be used effectively to answer the information need. That existing data may be held by the library or its overarching institution, or it may be available through connecting with practitioners in other organizations or by gleaning published literature. Other times, no existing information is available and a plan for gathering new information must be developed. Let's work through these possible scenarios. Some assessment projects do not call for gathering new information. Rather the required evidence, data, or other information is already suspected or known to be maintained in some way. Library assessment practitioners might benefit from ongoing data audits to understand what data your library already collects or has access to via the vendor or supplier community or institutional connections and partnerships. It can be quite an undertaking to determine what information the library possesses or has access to. It can also be a major undertaking to ascertain what data others on your campus can access. Sharing permissions and processes must also be understood and followed. Though the search process, even within a single library organization, can be daunting, locating information that exists to answer an information or assessment need is often more straightforward than gathering new data. If a formal or informal data audit is undertaken, some process for categorizing and understanding the data available within a library or institution is likely necessary to maximize the access and utility of that information. Any number of organizational strategies might be applied. This list provides some possible considerations. Is the information focused on inputs, outputs, or outcomes? Is the information about librarian time, effort, or processes? Or is it about user engagement, satisfaction, or efficacy? Is the information tied to individuals or perhaps to groups? What else might need to be considered in the use and handling of the information under consideration? In addition to considering available information in these ways, the relevance of existing information must also be evaluated. Is the data element meaningful for users or stakeholders and within the context of your assessment project? Does it respond to, at least in part, your information need? Is the information formatted in a way that you can use it, in a way that you can report it and communicate it? Does it answer questions or help make decisions? Is it directly related to the focus of the assessment, or is it possibly a red herring? Did it appear to be relevant, but actually not be, or actively take you in another direction that is not intended or useful? Given the complexity of organizations, it's possible that information necessary for responding to a library assessment need might exist, but not be accessible. Therefore, it's necessary to think through the availability of any information you may need. Is it currently available? And if not now, will it become available during a reasonable timeframe for your project? Where is it held? In systems directly accessible by the library? In vendor or supplier information systems? In systems owned by the institution? Or perhaps in consortia-based, state or national systems, or in data maintained by professional associations? Wherever the information may exist, there is likely a process in place to request access to or use of data, one that may be straightforward or anything but. In some cases, IRB processes may be expected, or other permissions or access structures may be in place. Gaining access to data elements that are relevant for an assessment project may be complex, given the ethics, technology, personnel, and procedures that may not be initially familiar, or doors may open more easily than you expect. In any case, learning how to access relevant data is worthwhile, given that the gathering of new data has its own processes and challenges. If access to existing data is possible, library assessment practitioners should also think through possible dissemination of the information during or at the close of a project. What requirements or restrictions apply to the use of that information? What may be permissible to share in internal reports and meetings may not be acceptable to share externally? It's important to consider in advance what information can be incorporated within planning documents, for example, or a presentation. This might include contextual information, clear statements around acceptable use, processes to ensure no personally identifiable information is disclosed, etc. While library assessment practitioners might often access existing information sources from within their libraries and institutions to answer assessment questions, they might also explore the literature to connect with information already gathered and shared by similar libraries or professional colleagues seeking to respond to similar needs. Existing data sources that may be relevant or informing of a particular assessment project can come from a variety of places. Published literature, including journals and books, repositories where authors have placed their research data for dissemination, professional presentations, white papers, the potential sources are many. Once key authors in a particular area are identified, they too might be willing to share their data provided that it's ethical and allowable in accordance with good data practices. One approach that can be helpful in thinking through where, beyond one's own community, data may be available to address an assessment need is to consider who else cares about the type of data that you seek or the kind of question you're attempting to answer. Library colleagues at similar institutions are likely to care about similar issues, as are assessment practitioners in units throughout higher education who may not have a library focus to their work but could still have relevant information or advice to share. Researchers, funders, and other associations and agencies who care about questions like the ones driving your assessment might also be strong leads. Locating and contacting authorities in the area of your work, considering terms that they might use, which may differ from those used by librarians, and exploring databases or other dissemination points for related work are also key to the search to identify others who care about the questions you're answering and potentially locating useful information for your own assessment endeavor. In searching for relevant literature to inform assessment projects, expert librarian skills can be put to good use. Library assessment practitioners who have considered relevant terms from within libraries, as well as how non-librarians may describe issues of interest to a particular assessment project. Explore databases that are relevant to the topic, again moving beyond library-focused information containers. Most promising sources as leads for identifying experts, citation training, and the like are likely to be successful in locating information to support and prepare library assessment projects. Having said that, existing data research and other kinds of information may not be helpful in all library assessment project situations. In some cases, the information found through this process may not be strong enough to be reapplied in a new assessment activity. For example, some library research reported in publications is not generalizable, might be limited in various ways, episodic rather than cumulative, or showing a tendency to over-rely on limited approaches. In other cases, the work might not be representative, and when that limitation or others are not made clear, the earlier work may not only not be helpful, it could also be harmful in perpetuating incorrect beliefs about the topic at hand. One lesson that is essential to keep in mind when considering reuse of existing information in a new project is that one must be a critical consumer, so to speak, and think through the consequences of using existing information. In some situations, doing so makes perfectly good sense, and others, that is not at all the case. And so oftentimes, library assessment practitioners need to gather new information to answer their assessment questions and information needs. Doing so is exciting, but not without a complexity of its own. In beginning to think about the need and process for gathering new assessment data, there are a number of questions to consider. They include, what are the concepts, problem areas, or variables that you need to gather data about? This can initially seem straightforward, but thinking through the possibilities and nuances up front saves time and potentially prevents failed assessments down the road. Does the data naturally arise out of the situation being studied? If so, how can you gather it? If not, how can you design a way to generate the data as well as collect it? Do you need just one method of gathering data, or are other, or are maybe additional methods ideal? What might you lose if you use only one approach? Are there special processes, technology, knowledge, or skills necessary to gather the information you seek? If so, do you have access to those things, or a means for gaining access? You also need to think carefully about potential participants in your work. Do you have sufficient access to participants to ensure a meaningful representative sample? What work do you need to put in to connect with participants and co-create the project so that everyone benefits? What costs do you need to consider, both for the project and also for the participants? How certain are you that the resulting data will accurately reflect what you plan to study? Are the data you plan to collect directly related to what you want to understand? How can you ensure that the results of this project and data collection will be actionable? How can you ensure that the project will benefit the participant community? These questions and more must be considered once the decision is made to collect data to increase the likelihood that the final assessment results will be valid, useful, and helpful for subsequent decision making. Thank you for viewing this presentation on collecting data, evidence, input, or other information for library assessment projects. Please use the link provided to complete a feedback form on the usefulness of this information for your purposes.