Assessment and evaluation is not a gut feeling: integrating assessment and evaluation into library operations.

The authors love assessment and evaluation, and we believe it should be integrated into all aspects of library programming. There. It's been said. Reaching this point in our relationship with assessment and evaluation has definitely had its ups and downs, and we still struggle with it. So why speak out about this now? The current economic environment makes it more important than ever for libraries to showcase their contributions to their institutions. Several hospital libraries have been closed in the National Network of Libraries of Medicine, MidConti-nental Region (NN/LM MCR), in the last few years. The Veterans Administration Hospitals, anticipating boomer librarians' retirements are looking at large numbers of vacancies with the possibility of no replacements. While academic health sciences librarians are not anticipating their libraries being closed, they are fighting for replacements for departing and retiring librarians and for budgets to offer services to support more complex needs such as data management and curation, systematic reviews, and provision of clinical information at the point of care. Health care reform is requiring more accountability. When assessment and evaluation are pervasive, librarians have the evidence to effectively communicate how each part of the library contributes to the success of the institution. The authors believe in the value of librarians and libraries and that they contribute to the mission of the hospitals, health centers, universities , and organizations they serve. Librarians have stories to tell, but the data currently collected tend to focus on isolated factors that do not tell the whole story. Librarians are doing ourselves a disservice by not providing data that show how we support meaningful use and demonstrate how library resources and services contribute to the institutional mission. Health sciences librarians must ask: What do librarians really contribute to our institutions? Are patients receiving better care because of what librarians are do-ing? Which activities best support our users? How does our training enhance lifelong learning skills? How do librarians contribute to the research process? What infrastructure is needed for these activities? Once these questions have been asked, librarians must decide what metrics will help us address them. Several terms related to this discussion require definition. Assessment and evaluation are often used interchangeably but they are, in fact, different activities. By assessment, the authors mean the process of continually reviewing work in progress. By evaluation, we mean review done at a point in time allowing the evaluator to make …