The Evolution of Measurement and Evaluation of Libraries: A Perspective from the Association of Research Libraries

This paper reviews the evolution of measurement and evaluation in libraries from the perspectives of three important figures who have shaped the history of library assessment activities: James Gerould, F. Wilfrid Lancaster, and Duane Webster. Although Lancaster is about a decade older than Webster and almost half a century removed from Gerould, the contributions of the three individuals knit a common fabric in the development of assessment in libraries in the past century. In investigating the interconnections of the three individuals, not only can we gain an understanding of how we got to today’s world of evaluation in libraries, but also we can gain a glimpse into future developments in the field. James Gerould was a library administrator, Lancaster was a library educator, and Webster was a library association executive. Each brought unique perspectives into the evaluation and measurement of library services. In this article we attempt to offer a tribute to Lancaster’s accomplishments within the context of the work done in the Association of Research Libraries as it was shaped over the years between Gerould and Webster, from the beginning toward the end of the twentieth century. Introduction Lancaster’s pioneering work in the field of measurement and evaluation of libraries may only be fully appreciated when viewed in the context of what preceded and what followed it. An appreciation of this trajectory can assist understanding as developments in library measurement and evaluation unfold in future years. In the following essay we approach the antecedents of the measurement and assessment program conducted by the The Evolution of Measurement and Evaluation of Libraries: A Perspective from the Association of Research Libraries Martha Kyrillidou and Colleen Cook LIBRARY TRENDS, Vol. 56, No. 4, Spring 2008 (“The Evaluation and Transformation of Information Systems: Essays Honoring the Legacy of F. W. Lancaster,” edited by Lorraine J. Haricombe and Keith Russell), pp. 888–909 (c) 2008 The Board of Trustees, University of Illinois 889 kyrillidou & cook / evolution of measurement Association of Research Libraries (ARL) over the last decade, particularly focusing upon Lancaster’s role in the evolution of library evaluation and measurement. As is fitting for a Festschrift, we will season our narrative with personal views. The year 2008 is a milestone for the field of library measurement and evaluation, as the profession celebrates the contributions of key contributors, both as individuals and members of associations. From the one hundredth anniversary of the Gerould Statistics to Duane Webster’s retirement as the Association of Research Libraries’ executive director, ARL celebrates a century of library evaluation activities. Lancaster’s Festschrift is a most fitting volume to be published in the same year. From their respective positions Gerould, Lancaster, and Webster each brought different, unique, and complimentary perspectives into the evaluation and measurement of library services. Recognizing Lancaster’s monumental influence in the field as an educator whose work on evaluation and measurement summarizes in a succinct way hundreds of library evaluation studies, we also acknowledge the importance of two key figures within the ARL evaluation culture: a practicing administrator like Gerould who used data to demonstrate the value of libraries and an unfailing advocate like Webster who promotes libraries through advocacy and outreach. Lancaster within Our Context Lancaster’s career and research interests span the entire field of library science from areas such as organization of knowledge, indexing, and abstracting services, to evaluation and measurement of library services. Lancaster is truly a library renaissance man who had an impact on everything he did. He is undoubtedly one of the most prolific authors in the library field, highly cited and continuously publishing. When Martha Kyrillidou was a student of his, she once asked him what motivated him to publish in such a prolific fashion, and he responded that knowledge became obsolete so quickly that you had to endeavor constantly to stay up with developments and to write up results. Above all, Professor Lancaster was an educator whose thoughtful teaching inspired creative thinking and sparked research ideas in all those surrounding him. He bridged his roles of educator and researcher by authoring landmark textbooks that reported the results of his research and served as pedagogical tools in communicating results. Lancaster indelibly stamped the field of library evaluation and measurement with his two major landmark textbooks published in two editions each (Lancaster 1977, 1988, 1993; Baker & Lancaster, 1991). His synthesis of measurement and evaluation reflects his work and interests in systems analysis applied to the management of libraries in the 1970s. While James Gerould pioneered the collection of input data as represented in the Gerould Statistics, Lancaster’s contributions to assessment and evaluation reflect contemporary thinking when 890 library trends/spring 2008 libraries increasingly saw themselves as parts of larger systems that needed to be described not only in terms of inputs but also in terms of outputs, processes, outcomes, and impacts. Overlapping in time and influenced by the systems approach promulgated by Lancaster, Webster, then a program officer for ARL’s Office of Management Studies, emphasized the human management processes operating in research libraries as systems in his organizational development work. While Lancaster’s contributions to library measurement and evaluation may be viewed as the synthesis of an increasing corpus of applied research on evidence-based methods from the perspective of a library educator and researcher, Webster’s parallel contribution comes from the perspective of implementing organizational changes using the kinds of studies synthesized by Lancaster. From his perspective from the ARL Office of Management, Webster believed that creating valued experiences and leadership awareness within each library organization was a key element for effectively implementing change. Webster saw an important role for library assessment and was a strong supporter for evidence-based methods and practices (Webster, 2007). Ultimately, both of these perspectives, the descriptive-analytical one and the human relations–behavioral one, contributed to an increased awareness of libraries as symbolic entities manifesting elements of effect of service, information control, and library as place that generate perceptions and expectations as library users come into contact with these entities. This kind of awareness has shaped the current authors’ perspectives regarding library evaluation and measurement in the more recent years, notably with the development of LibQUAL. It is particularly fitting within a Festschrift rubric to provide a word about our personal perspectives on library measurement and evaluation as they have been shaped over the years. Martha Kyrillidou entered the field wanting to improve library services—primarily in Greece at that time (Kyrillidou, 1990). Realizing that the best way to effect positive changes to library services was by strengthening libraries’ assessment capacity, she studied evaluation and measurement at Kent State and then moved to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) to have the opportunity to study under Lancaster and work at the Library Research Center. She was hired by ARL in 1994, tutored by library educators such as Lancaster and Linda Smith at the UIUC, while having the opportunity to work with Robert Molyneux and Kendon Stubbs on projects like the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) Statistics. Coming to ARL presented the opportunity of working closely with Webster and other library leaders who had a strong interest in library assessment activities from organizational and leadership development perspectives and who wanted to develop “new measures” (Kyrillidou & Crowe, 1998; Kyrillidou,