Practitioner Perspectives on the Values and Ethics of Library Assessment

<b>Project Summary</b>
</br></br>
This project asks: “How can library assessment be practiced ethically?” It includes data from a survey and a set of individual interviews. The survey targeted library assessment practitioners across North America, asking respondents to share the values that are relevant for their work. The survey data were analyzed via grounded theory to produce a set of codes that describe the values and practices of ethical library assessment. These codes were transformed into a toolkit of value cards, to aid practitioners in working with values. The interviews focused on the design and functionality of the toolkit, which produced discussion about ethical dilemmas and values-in-conflict.
</br></br>
<b>Data Collection and Description Overview</b>
</br></br>
<u>Survey</u></br>
In order to more fully understand the ethical dilemmas and ethical decision-making of library assessment practitioners, I conducted a survey of assessment practitioners that prompted ethical reflection and response.
Respondents were recruited via a number of professional email listservs in November 2020. The survey opened on November 11, 2020, and closed on December 11, 2020. The survey recorded 239 responses; of those responses, 166 were partially complete and 73 were complete. In Part 1, the survey design was based around the ALA Statement on Core Values. In Part 2, the survey focused on practitioner responses to ethical dilemmas presented in the form of six vignettes. This number was chosen as it allowed a full range of dilemmas to be represented across the vignettes; the vignettes were each crafted to reflect the main themes related to ethical dilemmas: Value and Impact, Information Technologies, Data, and Privacy, Learning Analytics and Student Success, Social Responsibility and Neutrality, Information Literacy, and Cataloging and Classification. These ethical topics areas were distributed across the vignettes, with the aim of achieving a balance of topics that could represent a variety of real-world situations. The survey design then prompted participants to produce the values that are relevant to those ethical topics.
</br></br>
<u>Interviews</u></br>
Interviewees were 12 survey respondents who expressed interest in further discussion. For the semi-structured intensive interviews, I also applied a visual elicitation method. Interviewees provided feedback on the value and exercise cards (values toolkit) created on the basis of the survey responses. The purpose of incorporating the visual elicitation at this stage of the research was to test the values toolkit, which is itself designed to elicit visual materials, as the toolkit will contain exercises that produce drawings and visual depictions.
</br></br>
<b>Selection and Organization of Shared Data</b>
</br></br>
This data deposit shares the following documentation and data collected from the project: survey documentation, survey text, summary results, codes, and analysis, interview protocol, recruitment documentation, informed consent, and the value and exercise cards used as stimuli to generate the interview data. This version of the data project does not include the full transcripts of the interviews since no explicit consent for data-sharing was obtained at the time.
</br></br>

项目摘要

本项目核心议题为：“如何以伦理规范开展图书馆评估工作？” 本项目包含一项调研的数据与一组个人访谈数据。调研面向北美地区的图书馆评估从业者，邀请受访者分享其工作中相关的价值理念。调研数据通过扎根理论（grounded theory）进行分析，生成一套用于描述伦理化图书馆评估的价值理念与实践的编码体系。该编码体系被转化为一套价值卡片工具包，以辅助从业者开展与价值相关的工作。访谈环节则聚焦于该工具包的设计与功能，期间探讨了伦理困境与价值冲突议题。

数据采集与描述概览

调研部分

为更全面地理解图书馆评估从业者所面临的伦理困境与伦理决策过程，本研究开展了一项旨在引发伦理反思与回应的调研。受访者于2020年11月通过多个专业邮件列表招募。调研于2020年11月11日启动，2020年12月11日结束，共回收239份回复，其中166份为部分完成的回复，73份为完整回复。
调研第一部分基于美国图书馆协会（ALA, American Library Association）《核心价值声明》设计；第二部分聚焦于受访者对六个情境化伦理困境的回应。之所以设置六个情境，是为了全面覆盖各类伦理困境；每个情境均围绕以下与伦理困境相关的核心主题设计：价值与影响、信息技术、数据与隐私、学习分析与学生成功、社会责任与中立性、信息素养，以及编目与分类。上述伦理主题分布于各个情境中，旨在平衡覆盖各类主题，以反映多样化的现实工作场景。调研设计还引导参与者提炼出与这些伦理主题相关的价值理念。

访谈部分

访谈对象为12名表示愿意参与进一步讨论的调研受访者。针对半结构化深度访谈，本研究采用了视觉启发法（visual elicitation method）。受访者对基于调研结果创建的价值卡片与练习卡片（即价值工具包）提供了反馈。在本研究阶段引入视觉启发法，目的在于测试该价值工具包——该工具包本身设计用于引导视觉材料创作，其中包含可生成绘图与视觉呈现的练习环节。

共享数据的选取与整理

本数据集共享本次项目收集的以下文档与数据：调研文档、调研问卷文本、结果汇总、编码体系与分析材料、访谈提纲、招募文档、知情同意书（informed consent），以及用于生成访谈数据的价值卡片与练习卡片。由于当时未获得关于共享完整访谈转录文本的明确同意，本版数据集未包含完整的访谈转录内容。