Librarians and Administrators on Academic Library Impact Research: Characteristics and Perspectives

Abstract

This study surveyed librarians, researchers, administrators, and others engaged in research on the impact of academic libraries on student success. This study, sponsored by an ACRL Impact Grant, specifically sought to expand the ACRL Academic Library Impact report, which defined strategic directions for library impact research, largely defined from the perspective of high-level administrators. This study addressed this limitation by surveying and interviewing professional librarians who are directly conducting library impact research, asking about their research experience, their attitudes about impact research, and their response to the ACRL report. Notable findings include differences in attitudes between librarians and library administrators about the helpfulness of impact research, administrators’ greater agreement with the ACRL report themes, and some pushback among librarians regarding quantitative impact research who are interested in qualitative research and findings that lead to more actionable improvement.