Outreach Assessment: A Two-Pronged Approach

“Outreach Librarian” is one of those nebulous terms that seems to encompass a universe of possibilities as it stretches the phrase “other duties as assigned” to its breaking point. One can easily find outreach librarians housed within almost every department known to libraries: in reference departments as instruction designers, in communications departments as marketing directors, in administration units as program coordinators, and in collections departments as faculty liaisons. Determining how to assess the activities of an outreach librarian is no less complex than the myriad nature of the job itself. To that end, it is probably worth noting from the start that assessing outreach varies from library to library based on the expectations and where the position is housed.