Evaluation

Evaluation is the process of determining whether something meets specified criteria. The concept of evaluation is an interdisciplinary concept with roots in, among other fields, social scientific research.

Within Library and Information Science (LIS) is this concept applied in many different connections. Most directly in collection management & evaluation, in database evaluation and in information retrieval (see information retrieval evaluation).

The content of the library, the documents, are evaluated in, for example, reviews (see book review). Girden (2001) is an example of a textbook on how to evaluate a specific research paper. Also knowledge production (or trends in knowledge production) may be evaluated in different ways from bibliometric methods to ideological analyses.

As with any other concept is the concept of evaluation understood and practiced differently by different traditions and epistemologies. The more positivist approaches to evaluation tend to base this on empirical investigations of "representative" samples of users, while, for example, more hermeneutical approaches tend to base evaluations from cultural perspectives. A library, for example may be evaluated by user studies (positivist approach) or by considering the dominant tendencies and "bias" in the collection (hermeneutical approach).

(See evaluation in knowledge organization about the connection between theories of knowledge organization and views on evaluation).

Literature:

Albæk, E.  (1988). Fra sandhed til information. Evalueringsforskning i USA - før og nu. København: Akademisk Forlag.

Girden, E. R. (2001). Evaluating Research Articles from Start to Finish. 2nd edition. SAGE Publications
 

Hansson, F. (1993). Evalueringsforskning og sociologisk teori. Handelshøjskolens bibliotek. Arbejdspapirer nr. 1.

Zetterlund, A. (1997) Utvärdering och folkbibliotek : en studie av utvärderingens teori och praktik med exempel från folkbibliotekens förändrings- och utvecklingsprojekt. Göteborg /Borås: Göteborgs Univ / VALFRID. - (Skrifter från VALFRID; 14)
 

Zetterlund, A. (1997) Utvärdering av offentlig verksamhet: begrepp, kontext, motiv, strategier, användning och aktörer. Borås: Högskolan i Borås.  (Magisteruppsatser vid Bibliotekshögskolan; 1997: 33)
 

Zetterlund, A. (2004) Att utvärdera i praktiken. En retrospektiv fallstudie av tre program för lokal folkbiblioteksutveckling. Borås/Göteborg. Valfrid. (Dissertation).
 

Periodical: Evaluation Studies Review Annual. Beverly Hills: Sage, 1976- .

See also: Evaluation in Knowledge Organization

Birger Hjørland

Last edited: 25-05-2006

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