UC Libraries Forum 2021: Leading with Innovation, Stronger through Collaboration

This presentation shares the work at the UC Davis Library, Research and Learning Directorate to revamp our process for collecting research consultation metrics - to give us better insight into who our users are, and how they engage with our consultation services.

We will share how we renovated our research consult metrics gathering process, including 1) identifying shortcomings of our previous processes, 2) gaining institutional buy-in to revamp the process, 3) forming a representative team and inclusive feedback process, 4) determining which metrics to gather, 5) working with IT to assemble a technological stack for data input, tiered data access and visualization, and 6) workforce training and rollout.

We will also share the results of our informal survey of how research consult metrics are collected and used across the UC Libraries - including whether UC Libraries: 1) use a centrally organized or standardized process for collecting research consult metrics 2) What software (if any) is used to collect research consult metrics 3) what survey/form instruments are used and what metrics are collected, and 4) whether UC Librarians consider their metrics to be useful for improving how they deliver services.

Finally, we will discuss our ongoing work to establish an evidence-based practice of reviewing and acting on these data regularly. We will also touch on the tensions between use of this data for service improvement vs assessment of librarian performance.