ABSTRACT
How do we know if an information service is meeting the needs of its users? Do the services and collections match those needs? Do our users find what they are looking for in our collections? How do we know if they are not? These are fundamental questions for collecting institutions as they seek to maximise their funding to ensure that the services they provide and the materials in their collections align with their users’ needs. In order to answer these questions, institutions need to carry out systematic and sustainable assessment and evaluation activities that will deliver quality data to inform decision-making. This chapter introduces assessment and provides a brief history of how it has advanced in the information sector. Assessment and evaluation can be considered in a variety of ways, such as the type of data collected, measures and timing. An overview of these different types of thinking about assessment and evaluation is presented to illustrate the many factors that contribute to planning an assessment activity. Changes to information practice that influence assessment are outlined, as well as the importance of institutional and social environments in which information professionals work. These influencing factors and the many different approaches to assessment means that a plan is critical and the primary considerations in an assessment plan are presented. The chapter concludes with a brief description of the chapters that follow and how these diverse and varied approaches contribute to assessment as an information practice.
