 Welcome to Reflecting on Results, 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 projects. It describes practices for reflecting on and making meaning from project results. 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 an assessment method has been undertaken and the resulting data and evidence has been collected, organized, and analyzed, the next step is to reflect on the results of the process thus far. Reflections should begin with initial quality checks both on the results themselves and on the treatments that deliver the results. In an initial quality check, library assessment practitioners should examine the results thoroughly. Do the results appear reasonable? Are there gaps in the results or flaws that are revealed? Does anything indicate that mistakes have been made in the overall design of the project, application of the method selected, analysis techniques, or visualization strategies? Stepping back from the results and viewing them afresh from the perspective of the initial assessment intent is warranted before going further with the initial results. One way to conduct an initial quality check is to examine the results to determine whether they align with the initial research question, user story, or hypothesis that frame the assessment project. Do the variables, categories, and groupings in the results reflect the actual study design? Do they appear to be sufficiently valid and reliable? This is a good time to articulate why the study design was used and how decisions made with regard to the study design may impact the results. This is also the stage at which library assessment practitioners will want to reflect upon the ways in which data analysis was conducted and determine whether the right decisions were made. If a library assessment practitioner finds a gap in logic or reason in selecting treatments for, creating visualizations of, or making inferences about the data, that might indicate the presence of flaws in the results, and it is certainly a reason to pause and reflect on the decisions made up to this point. It also makes sense at this stage to consult with expert sources and personnel if the intricacies of some part of the process to acquire results is beyond the assessment practitioner's scope of knowledge. Once the results have been quality checked, it's time to take a first pass at making meaning from the results. Typically, that will entail an examination seeking to find stories present in the data, so to speak, as well as reflection upon what stories might be missing from the data. As initial interpretations of the results are made, it's important to pay special attention to documenting the limitations of the data. These limitations should be clearly stated in all reporting of results to head off misinterpretations and misconceptions that may lead to poor decision making later on. At the point at which initial consideration of results begins to solidify into conclusions derived from a project, another set of guiding questions can be used to reflect on results. For example, do the tentative conclusions actually answer the questions or respond to the problems or issues that were the focus of the assessment project from the start? Do the conclusions you've drafted clearly connect to the results? Are those connections made plain? Sometimes gaps emerge between what the results actually say and the conclusions that are made or opinions sneak in masquerading as conclusions. Such flaws in interpretation or reasoning need to be addressed and corrected immediately. Are you sure that all your conclusions and recommendations are clearly linked to results? Are any conclusions generalizable? Are the results that are not generalizable clearly marked as such? Finally, a check for common mistakes at this stage is also advised. Examine results, conclusions, and any recommendations for broad sweeping statements unsupported by the evidence, vague statements that lack precision, weak organization arrangement or description, or gaps in the flow from question to design to results to application. Thorough reflection and examination of results at this stage is essential to head off the possibility of communicating faulty results and enacting decisions that are not truly supported by assessment evidence. 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.