Evaluation of Library Workbooks in a Community College Setting

A review of recent literature on evaluation of bibliographic instruction shows two complementary trends. One is a strong interest in promoting evaluation and in describing proper techniques of evaluation, such as sampling, test validation, survey construction, and statistical methodology. ¹ A second trend is the reporting of evaluation of specific bibliographic instruction tools and techniques used in individual libraries. ² These trends are complementary because as practicing librarians become aware of the benefits of evaluation, they are more likely to apply evaluation techniques to their own instruction procedures and products. The more these applications (both the successful and unsuccessful) are reported, the more help will be available to librarians structuring their own evaluations. And even though it is difficult to determine whether the evaluation of a specific local instruction tool would hold true for the general case, the cumulative effect of similar, well-designed studies is such that one begins to assume the results may be generalized.