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Introduction
See also Information literacy, Library workshop evaluation and Research for librarians - portal 
Academic librarians enjoy a long tradition of assessment of their work especially in collection development, delivery of reference services and other bibliographic activities. However, assessment in one library is not always applicable i.e. generalizable to other contexts. Changes to academic libraries, in recent years, coupled with new ways to benchmark and systematically review evidence (evidence-based librarianship) have forced major change in libraries. Assessment (especially bona fide programs such as StatsQUAL® and LibQUAL+®) provides new ways for academic librarians to pose questions that arise in the provision of services.
Assessment of information literacy
Generally, the goal of library teaching programs is to impart or teach the skills of information literacy (IL). Literacy is related to information technologies and web-related trends such as web 2.0 and may be defined as "the intellectual framework for understanding, finding, evaluating, and using information". The types of instruction employed by academic librarians include lectures and presentations, hands-on workshops, and discussion-based activities around finding and evaluating information. Instruction may include group instruction in e-classrooms and web tutorials. From its inception, IL has been a part of assessment of library programs (Bober et al, 1995) and most survey instruments have been created to assess their impact and value. The early instruments yielded results of dubious reliability and efforts to address their shortcomings led to the development of several assessment tools such as Project Standardized Assessment of Information Literacy (SAILS), iSkills, James Madison University’s (JMU) Information Literacy Test and the South Dakota Regental Information Literacy Exam (SDILES). Those data gathering and analysis tools are based on the ACRL Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education (ACRL, 2000).
Assessment activities are related to some of the broader research and scholarly work of academic librarians.
Canadian context 
The CACUL Task Force on Standards for Libraries in Higher Education has developed a toolbox in order to assist academic librarians in locating standards that can be used in assessment. Also, WASSAIL a project out of the University of Alberta, recently was awarded the ACRL Innovation Award for their work on Information Literacy Assessment. http://www.library.ualberta.ca/augustana/infolit/assessment/
Assessment-related blogs & websites
References
- Academic Library Research: Perspectives and Current Trends. Edited by Marie L. Radford and Pamela Snelson. Chicago, IL: ACRL, 2008.
- Association of Research Libraries. Statistics and Measurement Program. LibQUAL+® http://www.libqual.org/home
- Association of Research Libraries. StatsQUAL®. MINES for Libraries, Measuring the Impact of Networked Electronic Services; 2010..
- Bober C, Poulin S, Vileno L. Evaluating library instruction in academic libraries: a critical review of the literature, 1980-1993. Reference Librarian. 1995;51/52:53-71.
- Caffarella RS. Planning programs for adult learners: a practical guide for educators, trainers and staff developers. 2nd edition. Jossey-Bass: San Francisco, CA; 2002.
- Connor E. Evidence-based librarianship: case studies and active learning exercises. Oxford, UK: Chandos; 2007.
- Gerlich BK. Testing the viability of the READ Scale: qualitative statistics for academic reference services. College and Research Libraries. 2010;71:116-137.
- Harker E. Evaluation of teaching and training sessions for maximum impact. Health Information & Libraries Journal. 2009;26(3):252-4.
- Hiller S, Kyrillidou K. Assessment in North American research libraries: a preliminary report card. Performance Measurement & Metrics. 2007;7(2):100-106.
- Hiller S, Kyrillidou M. When the evidence is not enough: organizational factors that influence effective and successful library assessment. Performance Measurement & Metrics. 2008;9(3):22330.
- Kyrillidou M. The evolution of measurement and evaluation of libraries: a perspective from the Association of Research Libraries. Library Trends. 2008;56(4):888–909.
- Kyrillidou M. Item sampling in service quality assessment surveys to improve response rates and reduce respondent burden: LibQUAL+® Lite Randomized Control Trial (RCT). PhD dissertation. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2009.
- Logan FF. A brief history of reference assessment: no easy solutions. Reference Librarian. 2009;50(3):225-33.
- Mays R, Tenopir C, Kaufman P. Lib-value: measuring value and return on investment of academic libraries. Research Library Issues. 2010:38-42.
- Medical Library Association. Role of expert searching in health sciences libraries. J Med Libr Assoc. 2005;93(1):42–4.
- Lakos A, Phipps S. Creating a Culture of Assessment: A Catalyst for Organizational Change. portal: Libraries and the Academy. 2004;4(3):347.
- Nelson WN, Fernekes RW. Standards and assessment for academic libraries: a workbook. Association of College and Research Libraries, 2002.
- Marjanovic S, Hanney S, Wooding S. A historical reflection on research evaluation studies their recurrent themes and challenges. 2009 RAND Corporation.
- Oakleaf M. Writing information literacy assessment plans: a guide to best practice. Communications in Information Literacy. 2010;3:80-90.
- Thompson B, Cook C, Kyrillidou M. Concurrent validity of LibQUAL+™ scores: what do LibQUAL+™ scores measure? J Acad Librarianship. 2005;31:517-522.
- Thompson B, Cook C, Kyrillidou M. Stability of library service quality benchmarking norms across time and cohorts: a LibQUAL+TM study. Asia-Pacific Conference, Singapore; 2006
- Walsh A. Information literacy assessment: where do we start? J Librarianship & Information Science. 2009;41;(1):19-28.
- Woodward J. Creating the customer-driven academic library. Chicago: American Library Association, 2009.
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