Hutchins Library

The material accessed via this page is a result of a five-year evaluative study of the Bibliographic Instruction Program at Berea College. The study was also the subject of a break-out session at ALA's 114th Annual Conference in Chicago (June 25, 1995). Please address questions, inquiries and comments to the co-presenters/authors listed below.

Susan Henthorn
Reference/Instruction Librarian
Berea College
Berea, Kentucky 40404
(859-985-3268)
susan_henthorn@berea.edu

Molly Royse
Humanities Coordinator
University of Tennessee
Knoxville, TN 37996-1000
(865 - 974 - 3652)
mroyse@utk.edu

Assessment and accountability have long been in demand for library bibliographic instruction programs. Both were major goals in the evaluation of Berea College's bibliographic instruction program from 1989 to 1993. This report describes the five-year evaluative study of Berea's program and the methodologies employed: a pre-test and post-test, a faculty survey, focus group interviews, and bibliography evaluations. Challenges and problems encountered during the study, changes implemented in Berea's instruction program as a result of the study, and implications for future research are discussed.

• Executive Summary of the Evaluation Process - Process and Procurement, Data Procured, Changes and Challenges

• Purpose, Goals & Objectives, Criteria - Purpose and Criteria for the Evaluation, Goals & Objectives for the Bibliographic Instruction Program at Berea

• Pre-test / Post-test - Process, Summary and Analysis
  
  • Student Information Form (used only with the Pre-test to gather demographic data)
  • Hutchins Library Inventory (nine attitudinal questions and survey of basic library knowledge)

• Faculty Survey - Process, Results, Challenges

• Focus Group Interviews - Process, Results, Challenges

• Senior Papers - Bibliography Evaluations - Process, Results and Analysis, Conclusions

• Timeline

• ALA Presentation Documents
  • ALA Session Overview - Nine page summary

  • ALA Session Bibliography - Short two page bibliography. For complete bibliography, contact authors.

• Student Information Form - Appendix A.1

• Pre-test/Post-test Document - Appendix B.1

• Faculty Survey Document - Appendix C.1

• Focus Group Interviews Script - Appendix D.1

• Bibliography Evaluation Checklist - Appendix E.2

• Statistics for General Information Form - Appendix A.2 (used with Pre-test to gather demographic data)

• Results for Completion Questions - Appendix B.3 (last section of Pre-test/Post-test)

• Summary of Focus Group Questions - Appendix D.4

• Bibliography Evaluation Checklist - Criteria for Characteristics - Appendix E.1

Not all Appendices have been included here. In particular, those which make heavy use of graphics have been excluded. The following Appendices are available in print version from the authors upon request.

• Appendix B.2 - Pre-test/Post-test - Statistics
• Appendix B.4 - Pre-test/Post-test - Summary Statistics
• Appendix C.2 - Faculty Survey - Comments
• Appendix C.3 - Faculty Survey - Factor Scales
• Appendix C.4 - Faculty Survey - Library Educational Attitude Scale Summary Statistics
• Appendix D.2 - Focus Groups - Sample of Correspondence sent to Participants
• Appendix D.3 - Focus Groups - Procedures and Notes for Student Interviewers
• Appendix D.5 - Focus Groups - Spreadsheet of Student by Student, Question by Question Responses
• Appendix D.6 - Focus Groups - Library Use Questionnaire and Results
• Appendix D.7 - Focus Groups - Timeline for Sessions
• Appendix E.3 - Bibliography Evaluation - Statistics, Correlation Coefficient Analysis (bar charts and scattergrams)