Evaluators need to be clear on what can be done with the results of their evaluation. There was a general sense that the very traditional metrics of recall and precision were not sufficient given the nature of networked resources. Trustworthiness seemed important to several speakers given the nature of information available on the web. A user s willingness to use a resource was also presented as a relevant metric in an environment where people have a wide variety of resources to choose among. Interviews, usability tests, transaction logs, policy analyses, questionnaires, etc. were all discussed.
Policy issues are important components of evaluation.
The policy structure surrounding networked resources is rapidly changing and evaluators must be cognizant of how those policies and their change impact their evaluation efforts. Perhaps more importantly, decision makers also need to be educated to understand how to incorporate the results of evaluation in decision making. This conference made great strides in bringing together a cadre of interested and informed individuals with a stake in networked resource evaluation. Additionally, we need to keep each other informed on what doesn t work so that individuals do not recreate the wheel with each evaluation. A review article or bibliography of sources might be useful.