this afternoon I heard from Katy Rawdon, Courtney Smerz and Melanie Wisner about their experiences with metrics and assessment.
Katy underscored the importance of understanding the differences between metrics and assessment. Metrics measure inputs, processes and outputs. Assessment looks at the how of what we’re doing and begins to provide meaning.
One of the big take-aways from these speakers was the importance of integrating metrics and assessment into our practice, rather than treating it as an add on to what we do. This requires buy in, above and below, as well as looking for tools to help us as we do this work.
While some believe existing tools may not give us the functionality we, as archivists need, I’d be interested to hear from you what library or other cultural heritage tools you use or are aware of to track metrics and develop assessment practices.