EVALUATION AND ASSESSMENT
ILS 503 Foundations of Librarianship – Based on an assessment of
current services and the needs of the significant Spanish-speaking population
of two rural Washington State counties, I proposed a new
mobile service that combines delivery of materials with technology instruction
and access.
ILS 511 Materials and Services for Children – Evaluation, whether formal
or informal, is a part of all program design.
A written plan for this step was included in the
Dewey Decimal Search Program designed in this class.
ILS 519 Acquisition and Development of Library and
Information Services – For one project in this course we were to consider ourselves a media
specialist newly in charge of a high school collection. What was required was a
comprehensive collection evaluation plan.
ILS 519 – also included a weeding project
based on a small part of a real public library collection. Ancillary learning in this project
gave me new insight in several areas, and caused me to reverse a firmly held position concerning
the interfiling of juvenile and adult nonfiction. A second document includes this
additional commentary.
ILS
604 Advanced Reference Materials and Services – A group project in this
class required an assessment of current online services of a particular library
as preparation for the creation of a new service. That assessment is part of an online presentation of the project
at http://www.604groupproject.
freecyberzone.com/.
ILS 680 and Research Design - It would be possible
to note evaluative aspects of most work done in the MLS program and in library
work. Each reference question requires
an evaluation of sources, and an analysis of the information found in the ones
chosen. Each project begins with a
search of the professional literature to evaluate the previous work and thought
in a given area, and an assessment of the existing situation. My Capstone Research
Project focuses on an actual
problem in library service, and as the most comprehensive work done in the MLS
program, serves as the best single example of a full range of skills including
evaluation and assessment.