Academic libraries – measuring up: assessment and collaboration for student success

Abstract

PurposeThis paper aims to describe how the Florida State University Libraries used assessment data with other campus partners to gain funding and resources for new initiatives. When general funding sources were threatened, alternative funding sources from these campus partners were used to jump‐start new initiatives designed to enhance student success.Design/methodology/approachThis paper is a case study of how assessment data fueled the creation of a new late‐night peer‐tutoring program at the Florida State University Libraries. The three main data conduits that inspired a new tutoring program were: an ethnographic study of undergraduate students, undergraduate courses with high failure/high enrolment/high drop rates, and an environmental scan of existing campus tutoring.FindingsSharing assessment data with key partners can leverage funding and resources for new initiatives.Social implicationsIn hard budgetary times, opportunities for funding and resources may arise when shared values between campus constituencies are met with assessment data. Libraries need to take a leadership role in gathering and sharing those data with other campus constituents in order to place libraries in a strategic position to receive alternative funding for shared initiatives.Originality/valueOther libraries may use this case as a model, sharing their assessment results with the campus community, especially with those campus constituencies where there is a relationship already in place, to garner further support for piloting innovative services.