A Consideration of Power Structures (and the Tensions They Create) in Library Assessment Activities

Abstract

Introduction The aim of this paper is to explore some of the sites of tension in our assessment work, in particular what it means to engage in “practical” assessment and the potential challenges of an (over)emphasis on this way of approaching assessment. Our goal is not to argue for a singular view of how we should undertake assessment activities, or the kinds of assessment we should undertake: we acknowledge that the organizations, institutions, and the wider educational, social, political, and cultural landscapes in which we operate are complex. Assessment in higher education is motivated by varied purposes, stakeholders, and approaches, many of which may be outside a library’s power to influence. Our goal instead is to pose questions that we have been using to reflect more critically on our work. We are not calling for the Library Assessment Conference to be reframed in terms of impractical and unsustainable assessment: the opposite of practical is not an impractical assessment. Rather, our paper focuses on how we have been making efforts to engage in a more reflective practice, specifically in order to think about the ways in which assessment may or may not be aligned with social justice goals and how we might better connect our work with values of equity and inclusion.