ABSTRACT
Assessment of services and collections has many forms, but four important themes are evident in the literature and the chapters of this book: that assessment should be planned, iterative, systematic and use multiple methods. These characteristics are explored further to emphasise their significance in effective assessment and evaluation for information services and collections. They are explored for different workplaces and a variety of purposes to enable readers to transfer the concepts into practice. In the second part of the chapter, a topic that has been touched on in previous chapters but not explored in detail is discussed. This is impact assessment. Impact assessment plays a key role in information practice today as organisations acknowledge that it is not only what they ‘do’ do well or not so well, but what difference they make to the individuals, communities and environment they ‘do’ for.
