Assessing the effectiveness of a university library's strategic initiative to foster data-informed decision making

Using a survey of UCLA Library employees, interviews of library leaders, and an assessment of planning documents and reports within UCLA Library’s Data Lake, the authors examine the extent to which the organization has adopted a culture of assessment where data-informed decision making is a norm. The study attempted to frame its findings using various maturity models to determine how the organization has met markers for instilling a culture of assessment, but found those models insufficient, particularly in light of a lack of benchmarking data. Therefore, the authors developed a set of model-influenced measurable characteristics from the data to illustrate how well the organization incorporates assessment within its culture that will be used in a future replication study. The study reveals the current attitudes and perceptions of organization members who took the survey, what interviewed library leaders think about assessment efforts and priorities, and how well those who attempted to conduct and report on assessment were able to conform to a basic rubric indicating competence