Library Outreach Toolkit: Assessing Outreach

Approaching outreach assessment can be overwhelming and daunting, sometimes with seemingly endless possibilities on methods and tools. The first step you should take with any assessment project is identifying why you're doing the assessment and what you hope to get out of it. Assessing and collecting data for the sake of assessing and collecting data can lead you down a rabbit hole from which it is difficult to return without giving up. When you identify your goals (or outcomes), how you measure those outcomes becomes more clear; as does the value added, the resources needed to achieve the goals, and the activities you'll undertake during the process. 

Logic models can be very useful to help determine your goals/outcomes, outputs/indicators, impact/value, activities , and resources. Logic models can be used for projects, positions, and more.