Abstract

On May 1, 2020, the Needs Assessment Committee submitted their final report of findings and recommendations to the dean of the Oral Roberts University Library, Dr. Mark Roberts. The report represented the culmination of approximately six months of a broad-based investigation of the Library, including an internal examination of the Library and an external study of Library resources, services, and staff. This Needs Assessment was unique in that a team of Library faculty and staff conducted it. Internal members of an organization rarely perform needs assessments for many reasons, including inherent bias and the potential distrust of those not on the assessment team. Further complicating matters for the Needs Assessment team was the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and ensuing shutdown of Oral Roberts University’s (ORU) physical campus at the end of March 2020 during the period of data collection. Even before the campus shutdown created new challenges, the university administration and board of trustees mandated the significant revision of faculty promotion and appointment due by the end of February 2020. This mandate also posed some difficulties for the Needs Assessment team in managing the assessment workload and stress. This paper discusses some of the rationales for performing an internal Needs Assessment and the Needs Assessment team’s process. The authors also describe how they navigated the tensions inherent in an internal assessment, the additional demands of a university mandate, and the COVID-19 pandemic impact. Finally, the authors present some of the Needs Assessment team’s recommendations that the Library has already implemented and some proposals that have been postponed due to the pandemic's effects.

摘要

2020年5月1日，需求评估委员会将研究结果和建议的最终报告提交给了罗伯特·罗伯茨大学图书馆的院长马克·罗伯茨博士。该报告是对图书馆进行广泛调查的大约六个月的高潮，其中包括对图书馆的内部检查以及对图书馆资源，服务和人员的外部研究。这种需求评估的独特之处在于，由图书馆教职员工组成的团队进行了评估。组织的内部成员出于多种原因很少执行需求评估，包括内在的偏见和对那些不在评估团队中的人的潜在不信任。需求评估小组面临的进一步复杂的问题是，COVID-19大流行的爆发以及随之而来的奥伯罗伯茨大学（ORU）物理校园在数据收集期间于2020年3月底关闭。甚至在校园停工带来新挑战之前，大学行政管理和董事会要求对2020年2月底之前的教职晋升和任命进行重大修订。该任务还给需求评估团队带来了管理评估工作量和工作上的困难。压力。本文讨论了进行内部需求评估的一些理由以及需求评估小组的流程。作者还描述了他们如何应对内部评估中固有的紧张局势，大学要求的额外要求，以及COVID-19大流行的影响。最后，作者介绍了图书馆已经实施的需求评估小组的一些建议，以及由于流感大流行而被推迟的一些建议。