Assessment Update – Spring 2018

The Pius/Medical Center Libraries Assessment Committee has agreed to complete two projects during this 2017-2018 academic year. First up is assessing the awareness and perceptions that SLU faculty, staff, and students have regarding the university museums. Museums covered are the Museum of Contemporary Religious Art (MOCRA), Saint Louis University Museum of Art (SLUMA), and Cupples House. Dean of Libraries, David Cassens, is also the administrator for the museums, so he requested that the committee investigate overall awareness of the museums before the end of December. Fr. Terry Dempsey and David Brinker from MOCRA and Petruta Lipan from SLUMA and Cupples House have been very cooperative about showing the committee members around their museum spaces and explaining their missions and vision. The committee plans to develop a survey for the greater SLU community followed by focus groups and/or interviews for a targeted group of patrons who have visited the museums in the past.
The Assessment Committee’s second semester project is assessing how the libraries influence undergraduate student learning outcomes. The university-wide student learning outcomes were unanimously endorsed by all interested university entities in December 2012. Of the four outcomes, the first two apply to libraries: “Graduates will understand how knowledge is created and shared across forms and contexts,” and “Graduates will understand inquiry as sustained engagement with increasingly complex questions”. The committee will determine what relationships exist between these outcomes and the library and figure out how to assess and measure library contributions to student learning.

Patricia L. Gregory
Assistant Dean for Library Assessment