I want to communicate what I believe is the single most useful message about library assessment. This is not an announcement of a new data analytic technique or some all-purpose library value calculator. Nor is it advice on the importance of aligning work and measurement with vision and strategy, recognizing the political pitfalls of evaluation, or solidifying an annual assessment plan.
All of these are secondary to one fundamental step. But this step is a giant one: Libraries must become “self-evaluating organizations.” The importance of this 
dawned on me (again) when I heard a librarian describing how her library used customer surveys to rethink their service approach. I realized it was not their survey questionnaire nor the planned service changes that mattered. It was their whole mindset that made the difference. They had a willingness to be inquisitive and exploratory, to be logical and systematic, to question comfortable assumptions, to look for unexpected answers, and to act on what they learned. [Read more...]
In January my brother and I were laying laminate flooring in his house. Each time we needed to trim a plank, we stood reverently by his table saw and incanted the familiar carpenter’s adage, “Measure twice, cut once. (Amen.)” My brother said, “It’s the damnedest thing. You can repeat and repeat a measurement, and then find out it is still wrong.” As an electrical engineer (he’s working on the 3rd edition of his 
