**Measuring Your Impact Follow-up Questionnaire**

**Answers to Open-Ended Questions**

**January 21, 2009**

Listed below are respondents' answers to two open-ended questions on the
Measuring Your Impact Follow-up Questionnaire, collected from July 2007
to December 2008. Answers were only included from respondents who gave
permission to have their comments and stories posted publically.
References to institutions or other individuals have been removed.

**Please tell us how, since you have taken the class, you have
incorporated anything you learned in the class into practice \--
everyday or at least once.**

-   I am much more diligent in keeping correct statistics, as well as
    > garnering feedback from my users.

-   A general open-minded view of how I can be proving our value every
    > day, every week, with every user group.

-   Paid closer attention to all the surveys I answer (maybe two a week)

-   This was pretty much just integrated into all the other
    > evaluation/strategic planning process currently ongoing.

-   The class helped me in development of the database survey we
    > conducted in January 2008.

-   We are using our statistics to assess trends and address weaknesses.

-   I\'ve used the term \"assessment by walking around\" on a few
    > occasions.

-   I\'ve been thinking thoughts of ROI\'s for various activities, but I
    > haven\'t actually crunched the numbers. I also think about the
    > Logic Model and how to formulate useful measurements frequently,
    > but haven\'t actually written down the information in the Logic
    > Model form.

-   Thinking of the objectives of a project and using those to guide my
    > development and evaluation of the project

-   I did a need assessment for journal subscription and surveyed for
    > the policy of the library.

-   \"Everyday\" -added this line to all correspondence: \"Thank you for
    > using your Medical Library. Please contact me if I can be of
    > further assistance.\" -library hosted a station at hospital
    > employee competency \"fair.\" It was good outreach\--especially to
    > the evening/night staff & those who \"didn\'t know\" we have a
    > library! -Hosted library Open House for 3 long days (6 am-7 pm).
    > Solicited door prizes. We had good attendance\--many new visitors.
    > (Note-next time, it will be three days one week coming in early,
    > three days the following week staying late\--I\'m too old for 13
    > hour days!)

-   Tend to be more observant of faculty and students during peak hours:
    > mid-morning, lunch; ask for any constructive feedback regarding
    > services that we provide;

-   I\'ve come up with more succinct ways of promoting the services of
    > the library when only having a moment to speak with someone.

-   I\'ve incorporated small extra services (i.e. faxing for employees,
    > extra computer assistance).

-   I used planning grid

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-   This Fall, our library is starting a Liaison Program reaching out to
    > all the clinical units and departments of the Medical Center.
    > I\'ve begun by contacting the first group of Unit Practice Council
    > Chairs for whom I\'ll be serving as their Liaison; I\'ve met with
    > one Unit Council, and have meetings scheduled with others. At
    > these meetings I explain the program and its purpose, which is to
    > not only to extend our services to them, but also to find out
    > about new services and resources they may want and need, and to
    > gain feedback on a continuing basis concerning what we\'re
    > providing and how well. I\'m keeping a log of my interaction and
    > activities with each of my assigned Unit Councils. 2. We also keep
    > statistics on number of searches provided, number (and sources) of
    > articles provided, etc.

-   I used the logic model in a grant proposal.

-   I always encourage librarians to promote their skills and benefit to
    > the organization, especially when they talk about having budget
    > and staff cuts.

-   Needed to write in an evaluation section for a grant, the grant was
    > successful, I\'m sure the evaluation section was important to its
    > successful funding.

-   I have found myself thinking of services and resources in the
    > context of \"return on investment\"\--a concept I never previously
    > considered since I have not been involved in the business/money
    > end of library work.

***Have you found ways to demonstrate the contributions, values and
impact of you and your library to the mission and goals of your larger
organization?***

-   Yes - the library has worked directly with our CEO\'s office to
    develop a tool that will streamline operations. Our role was to help
    organize the material (catalog) and to create a searchable
    interface.

-   Library Newsletter, Faculty Assembly Meeting, Student Association\'s
    Meeting.

-   Library staff made presentations about library resources and
    services at faculty department meetings during the fall workshop. We
    have had several new faculty schedule librarians to come to their
    classes.

-   I purchased a new database on Natural Products and have already met
    with the Director of Surgical Services on ways to work with surgeons
    and the Pre surgical teaching nurses on how to use the database and
    have individuals stop taking herbals/supplements, etc at least 7
    days before surgery to avoid complications or surprises in the OR.

-   My services were recommended by the hospital CEO. She can ferret out
    helpful information, he said. I won a research award at our campus
    Research Day for studying database search requests\--turnaround
    times and how we manage search requests.

-   Two members of the library staff were just nominated by another
    department to be on the \"Wall of Excellence\" for October 2007. The
    \"Wall of Excellence\" posts pictures of the recipient and a brief
    reason why the person was recommended for the \"Wall\". The
    recipient usually exhibits contributions or values such as
    outstanding customer service, teamwork, leadership, etc. Also the
    library staff was recently asked to take on additional duties and
    responsibilities by one of the Vice-Presidents because he knew the
    library staff had the expertise to do the job.

-   In the long-term, our Program will be using the Logic Model to
    demonstrate evidence of systematic planning to the national
    accreditation panel to which we report. For the short-term, we have
    used the model to demonstrate to the University administration that
    we have a tool for documenting our project management.

-   Making \'house calls\' to offices/labs rather than having client
    come to the library

-   Yes, I keep a file of kudos (positive feedback) from my users and
    compiled a PowerPoint presentation with them for my library steering
    committee.

-   Sharing thank-you notes with administration. For example, \"you
    saved me so much time, I appreciate your searching expertise,
    etc\....\" AND with library staff, of course.

-   I produced an annual report for the first time, and hope to do a
    better one next time for wider distribution. I have been taking the
    personal approach, talking to individuals or small groups, with a
    fair amount of success.

-   Still working on this, though I\'ve been gathering some anecdotal
    feedback/incidents to share.

-   With our numbers, we are able to show our collection development
    staff areas of real need. Instead of anecdotal assessment of
    collection needs, collection staff can view hard numbers from our
    borrowing trends.

-   There are direct points of contact with \_\_\_ strategic plan, which
    I\'ve tried to keep in view when communicating with teaching
    faculty.

-   Nothing concrete comes to mind\... I\'ve received several positive
    mentions of the library\'s value, but nothing that was directly tied
    in to the institution\'s goals.

-   We share our key resources and key collections and usage statistics
    with our new faculty as they are introduced to the library through
    our liaison program

-   I tried to talk to the employees and physicians about their idea and
    feedback of the library services.

-   Emphasize the constant need to somehow connect with CBO and local
    public health departments; began an initiative to build
    relationships with School of Public Health faculty members and
    staff: Example, Worked at \_\_\_\_ School of Public Health booth at
    APHA.

-   Reports as I had done previously

-   Results of the Liaison Program will be assessed regularly (probably
    annually). We\'re also doing a formal Needs Assessment Survey in
    October using Survey Monkey. The new Library Manager will use the
    results to help her guide the services and programs the Library will
    continue to provide and decide which new services or programs we
    should develop or become involved with here at \_\_\_. She will
    decide how best to report the results to upper management. 2. I
    created a set of Web pages focused on Infection Control for our IC
    Department. (I selected and organized the content (obtaining input
    and feedback from the Director of IC and her assistant);\_\_\_\_ put
    it on our library Web site. This will be presented to the IC
    Committee this month and then publicized in-house. I plan to do more
    of these, and the next one will be for the nurses, probably focusing
    on Evidence-Based Nursing; I meet monthly with the Nursing Research
    Roundtable, and they\'ve expressed strong interest in this. 3. I
    attend the Rounds Team meeting on the ICU and provide evidence-based
    information to support patient care in the ICU. (\_\_\_\_ and I
    alternate weeks doing this.) We plan to do a separate evaluation of
    our work with the ICU either later this year or early 2008. As
    information specialists, we\'ve also been invited to attend the
    Trauma Committee monthly meetings. Since it meets at 6 a.m., \_\_\_
    and I will alternate or otherwise back each other up on this.

-   We created a new strategic plan incorporating the institutional
    strategic plan within it.

-   Use this on grant progress reports and on annual reviews

-   I am collaborating with Allied Health faculty on a manuscript and a
    presentation for a research seminar they are hosting. Because it is
    relevant to our current project, I have included in my presentation
    a number of the studies done in medical libraries on the shift to
    online collections and change in our traditional reference services
    (articles by De Groote and others published in the Journal of the
    Medical Library Association). The College of Allied Health strongly
    encourages faculty research and I believe they are most impressed
    with the research done by medical librarians. So my presentation can
    have a twofold impact: 1) I am making faculty more aware of the
    scholarly pursuits of our profession, and 2) I am sharing some of
    the professional PubMed search techniques we use that may in turn
    facilitate research for their own projects.