Prospective Students and the Search For Meaningful Library Data | From the Bell Tower

When students and their parents consider their college options they consider many variables, from tuition to aid to amenities. To what extent can access to information about the library have an impact on the decision?

Last month I read an announcement that applauded my own university’s inclusion in Princeton Review’s The Best 380 Colleges for 2016. That’s certainly good news, made even better when I learned that the review of our university included the statement that students “believe the library is excellent.” By coincidence, a copy of Best 380 Colleges showed up in my mail a few days later. Of course I immediately wanted to see what the students had to say about our library. The truth is, not much. Despite my detailed reading of the two-page entry for my university, I found not a single mention of the library. Wait a minute. I notice a grayed-out box with some “survey results.” Sure enough, there are two salient words, “great library”. That’s it, I thought? What does it mean?

Apparently not much. As I perused the other entries I saw that dozens and dozens of them, in that same box, had the two-word phrase “great library.” So just about all the students surveyed, at 250 or 300 of the 380 colleges, said pretty much the same thing. I guess all of our libraries are just great. How much would that help a prospective student who wants to know something about the library? Again, not much. For this book to say the institution has a “great library” is as meaningful as saying the buildings have “great signage.” Pretty meaningless.

Searching for Meaningful Metrics

When it comes to these rankings books and other publications targeted to prospective students, academic librarians want to see meaningful metrics about our libraries. What would we want those students to know about the library for incorporation into their decision process? Unique digital collections? Student-to-library staff ratios? Librarian-student contact hours? We’re not exactly sure. The Association of Research Libraries Assessment Discussion List recently engaged with this topic because we want our libraries to have a positive impact on a prospective student’s college choice and enrollment decisions. When Petersen’s, a major purveyor of college guides, is still chronicling the availability of an OPAC, the number of microfilm machines, and other outdated factoids you know there’s a problem.

The discussion sought suggestions for contemporary data that would most benefit prospective students. You can browse some of the ideas being shared on this document. No doubt we’d like these students to know more about the number of hours we are open, the many instruction sessions we offer, and how much hi-tech learning space we offer. Or would they? My cynical side tells me that it will matter little because prospective students and their parents are rarely deciding which college to choose because the library has smartboards in its study rooms.

Another Opportunity?

I applaud our colleagues who are willing to work with Petersen’s and its competitors to improve the information about academic libraries. It may help and it’s not likely to hurt. A new development in higher education that received much media coverage this past week may offer a better opportunity for where we want to expose our most meaningful library metrics. For two years the Obama administration described a new college ranking system it would create. Whether or not the overwhelming negative response from nearly every corner of higher education was the reason, the administration finally gave it up and decided to offer instead a website that offers information to help prospective students get data about colleges, compare them, and make decisions. There were several good analyses of this new data source and many more critical pieces that picked apart the accuracy or usefulness of the data.

My own experimentation was mostly pleasing. It was easy to use, had good design, and gave useful information—despite some questions about the accuracy or timeliness of the data. I found one thing bothersome: no data about academic libraries. Add that to the list of what the College Scorecard data website needs. While College Scorecard is unlikely to replace U.S. News & World Report rankings in the minds and hearts of prospective students and their parents, I’m optimistic that the site and what it offers will improve and grow in value. So, as a community of academic librarians, if we want to put our energy into getting good library data in front of prospective student and parent eyeballs, why not throw in our lot with College Scorecard?

It Does Matter

What action can the academic library community take to get the most bang for its buck in getting more timely, relevant, and meaningful library data into both the traditional college ranking and information guides as well as the sure-to-be-popular College Scorecard? Is it even worth the effort? If publishers like Petersen’s or Princeton Review are still sharing irrelevant data then they need to clean up their act and update the content, even if we have to push them to do it. But even with the most up-to-date data and meaningful metrics available—whatever those are—would it still make a difference in the college decision-making process? At one time I would have said no, it does not matter.

Then I came across a report, published a few years ago but likely still relevant, that changed my thinking about the role of the library in that decision. The Impact of Facilities on Recruitment and Retention of Students tells us that the library building is second only to “facility for major” in its importance to the selection decision process. That really opened up my eyes to how important it could be to make sure the library part of the campus tour goes well and accurately reflects what the librarians offer students and our impact on student success. I’m not sure how successful our colleagues will be in their effort to get more meaningful metrics into the resources that prospective students and their parents read, but I hope they will pull it off and perhaps even find a way to get library data into the College Scorecard. The right time to get our students thinking about the library is before they arrive. Anything we can do to facilitate their ability to visualize themselves using the building and our resources to achieve academic success is a step in the right direction.